The Red Book Ritual

This is something along the lines of V/H/S putting a story around why you're watching s bunch of short films. Only this one's story doesn't even bother half the time to explain WHY a short story just started playing.

The shorts themselves are pretty weak, mostly with no ending to them and no tie in to anything else. The story plot of 3 teens playing a spooky game is nothing memorable at all either.

There's nothing redeeming to be seen here, bad editing all over the place and short stories with no pay off's or endings. The entire thing is not worth watching.

Avoid it. You'll thank me for it.

Not any good at all? If I really have to think of something positive to say then I would like to point to the photography, which wasnt bad. Not great, but not bad either. So some kind of attention for detail went into making this movie, BUT...

The bad: these actors are incredibly terrible. They are so terrible at trying to come across scared or dangerous that it is really, honeslty laughable. While it is definitely not intended to be a comedy, but it has got that effect on me.

The story is gibbledigook nonsense. Well, a lot of stories in the movie business dont make sense, but there is a level of silliness that I do not like tot watch and this "movie" is guilty of just such a silliness.

What a waste of time and money.

Recommended to be avoided...

The appealing artwork on this makes it a bit of a letdown. To cut to the chase, this cannot be compared in the same class as some of the good or great anthology offerings. (It's no V/H/S, Creepshow, Tales of Halloween, Tales from the Darkside, Trick R Treat, or Cat's Eye- just to name a few). It's a random collection of amateur-acted horror shorts to walk through if you seek these out (horror film festival grade). That doesn't mean all the content is bad- a couple or few of the shorts are pretty decent, but most of them have no closure (and lack adequate cohesion to be a "short story"). One happens to be dubbed quite poorly over Korean actors (especially the young girl.. oof!). The synth track overlaying the last short caught my attention several times in a good way; it was probably the best entry (imo). Prepare for some daring nudity in the first short. My rating may be generous, but I'm a seeker.

I'm shocked at how badly this movie is rated. Like most anthologies I've seen, the framing narrative is the weakest part. The individual stories are great looking and genuinely tense. The production value is higher than most low budget horror we watch.

Bea is apparently newish in town and has made a couple of friends who tell her a creepy story about her new house and suggest playing "the red book game". It's a kind of divination game and I'll admit we are totally going to try it because it looks fun. The book directs them to read it, resulting in several short stories that are completely unrelated to each other. Some are stronger than others as you might expect. The framing narrative is a let down but I rarely see an anthology where it isn't.

Side rant, the guy is supposedly 27, looks 40 and shouldn't be hanging out with teenaged girls anyway. I wasn't rooting for him to survive.

We watch a lot of bad horror movies, it's our hobby, so maybe our bar is really low for what makes a decent movie? This one isn't bad by any means and we really liked a couple of the shorts. It's not fast paced, it is aesthetically nice, it had some moments that made us squirm.

It mad no sense didn't explain how the witch came about and was alot little stories in one movie thrown together with no sense of reason. Watch of time watching and trying to understand it... ugh many thumbs down. It wasn't as scary as i thought it would be. Leaves you with alot unanswered questions and some stories left me saying "Wth" I'm lost or just didn't get it. Wasted my precious mind watching this.... you want torture somebody make them watch this piece of crap confusing movie. I like movies that explain why she became witch and why she so evil and came about. I need background information to be happy and I WAS FAR FROM FREAKING HAPPY!