Ritual

"Tales from the Crypt" was a product that was very successful on radio and as a television series, but never found the formula for success in cinema. The first two releases, still in the 70s, remained faithful to the original product, with a succession of short stories, some better than others. The third film was much more audacious: "Demon Knight" really tried to give us a feature film, and to a certain extent it managed to respond well to that challenge. Then it all came crashing down with "Bordello of Blood", which was a real fiasco and shattered the producers' ambitions. Maybe that's why this movie never really adopted the franchise, and only in the physical versions do we see the opening, with a rigid, cheap and inelegant version of the Cryptkeeper introducing the movie.

Let's face it, this one is not within the parameters of what we could consider a good movie for the cinema. Even so, we are pleased to see that the production has learned something from past mistakes and that the film is committed to a solid story, a consistent and relatively well-structured narrative. It's not a good movie, but it's better than its predecessors and, honestly, it manages to be an average movie, within the quality standard of made-for-TV and DVD movies.

The script begins with Alice Dodgson's medical license being suspended after a medical error in which she was at fault. In order to support herself during the suspension period, she takes a job as a private caregiver in Jamaica to care for Wesley Claybourne, who has encephalitis but believes he is being targeted by voodoo magic. At the same time, she befriends Caro, an attractive, sexually intense young Jamaican woman, and begins to discover that Wesley's delusions may, after all, have some raison d'être.

The film has a very solid cast and some well-known names, but the material given to the actors was relatively weak, several characters were sexualized to the maximum and the director Avi Nesher proved incapable of guiding the actors and getting results. Jennifer Grey, the protagonist, is not an inexperienced actress, but we've seen her do better in "Dirty Dancing" or "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". The material received harmed her, in addition to the fact that the personage was quite sexualized, taking advantage of the physical attributes of the actress. Daniel Lapaine did an average job, committed, but histrionic and lacking in direction. Tim Curry has been underused and only appears once in a while. Craig Sheffer is as supportive as possible, but he's not a good villain. Lastly, Kristen Wilson appears to have been chosen solely on the basis of her svelte and sculpted body, almost entirely visible in the film, where she appears nude several times.

Technically, the film is much more modest and poor than we could have expected, considering the list of actors present in the cast. Thought and produced as a film for TV and DVD, it lacks a cinematic notion, and budget or team to carry it out. Without the staff and money to make a film with a cinematic dimension, the production's options were limited in aspects such as costume design, visual and special effects, digital resources and the choice of filming locations. That's why the voodoo scenes are so few and concentrated. What's good here? We have good set construction (a good medical lab, the magic props, with crosses and herbs and strange objects mixed with candles etc.), we also have a good cinematography (for a TV movie) and, finally, an effective soundtrack.

Jennifer Grey stars as a troubled doctor who's just had her license revoked for accidentally killing a child patient she was trying to save with an experimental procedure. Desperate for work, she takes a job in Jamaica looking after a rich man who believes he's a zombie. From the minute she arrives, it's obvious that someone doesn't want her there and will do anything to stop her from saving her newest patient.

Ritual comes in stops and starts. Some scenes are exciting and some will bore you senseless. It's way too long at 106 minutes, when a 90 minute runtime would have easily done the job better, but there are some decent performances and even a few wild sequences of gore (the opening death scene is memorably gruesome). There's a bit too much reliance on spooky dream sequences as well.

I was most surprised that Jamaica seems so cold. At least that's what Jennifer Grey's nipples seemed to be telling us throughout most of the movie. Someone, get that poor woman a bra and turn on some heat. She looks like she's freezing.

i rarely give a 9 but at a B film, this film ROCKS! by straight to DVD standards this is a must see. i did not see some things that happened coming at all. Jennifer Grey is a vision in this film. TIm curry was underutilized but with the exception of his last scene his acting was GREAT. i was very surprised by this film. it is not a typical tales of the crypt film, but don't hold that against it. i thought the locale was great. the cinematography was top notch. not everyone gave a stellar performance but overall most of the actors were believable in their roles. no one seemed to be sleepwalking through their act. i recommend this for fans of horror and thrillers.

Suspended from practicing medicine, a doctor takes a position giving care for a man's brother who lives in Jamaica where she finds that he's suffering from the effects of a powerful voodoo curse that turns them into zombies forcing her to put an end to the evil forces once and for all.

This one here is a rather fun and enjoyable voodoo film. One of the best parts of this one is that it builds up an incredible atmosphere in here through the effective use of it's supernatural overtones. This is one of the few films that manages to really use the mystery and magic of voodoo and does this spectacularly, making it appear to be quite dangerous and something to be feared. Due to this, the first half is incredibly suspenseful with the mysterious actions around them which are done through a series of rather freaky ideas. The set of hallucinations that occur here are marvelous, with the jungle coming alive and attempt to destroy the car the two are traveling alongside being one of them, and a later scene where a hallucination of the collapsing roof falling onto them, despite being the only one to see it, is a fantastic scene as well. As these grow in stature throughout the film, there's plenty to like here with the way these cause an enhancement of the supernatural threat that constantly runs in the film. That starts with the opening, with the wedding ceremony giving way to the confrontation in the lab which is a nice way of getting this going, the increasingly strong supernatural attacks that are used to build a strong mystery in the meantime and the freak-outs done by the possessed victim are just plain fun. The ending confrontation in the fields during the voodoo ceremony is really good as well, using more voodoo charms, a tense buried alive sequence and a suspenseful standoff that is pretty intense. The last big part of the film is the gore, which here works quite well for the film. These here are all that work for the film as this one didn't have many flaws, and there really is only one which does affect the film somewhat. This is that the film is slightly overlong and somewhat dull at times. This one really shouldn't have been that much over an hour and a half at all, and really should've been trimmed in certain areas as there's several scenes which go on for much longer than they should. The middle section of this is the most apparent, featuring several scenes that aren't that important. The trip to the beach to frolic in the surf and the family visits to the shack for no reason being the main exceptions, and the exposition in the beginning to get the story involved could've been done a little quicker, as it really could've had the same impact it does now with a little time removed. Since there's no titular connection to the series, including the Crypt Keeper wraparounds are unnecessary as well, and since there's hardly any dark comedy or humor to come from it, it's just pointless. All of these make the film feel longer than it should, and give the film it's one true flaw.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and a mild sex scene.

This turned out all right and looks interesting. However, as it goes on the attempts at creating emotions between the characters is so inept that it really turns the horror off and is an insult to serious viewers. The story this is based on "I walked with a zombie" is probably much better although unfortunately I haven't seen it yet. "Ritual" looks so exciting and could have been a great movie about zombies and voodoo but in reality it has turned out very poorly which is a shame. It's hard to say what is wrong with it. I guess there are just too many inept scenes and it is hard to believe, for example, in the lovestory between Alice (who is called Alice Dodgson like the girl who supposedly inspired Lewis Carrol to call his heroine Alice) and the younger brother. Absolutely nothing has been built up between them and then in the end they get married. Anyway, this looks great, and it was worth a look - but the movie is just so poorly performed. 3/10.