Rites of Spring

Two girls are kidnapped in the parking lot of a bar by unknown assailants. They are taken to a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere and strung up as sacrifice to a local deity that comes out in the spring. One escapes, stumbling onto a group of kidnappers right in the middle of a ransom plot gone wrong, and about to be made worse when a large, ugly beast out of a Party City costume log comes after them.

"Rites of Spring" is your definitive mediocre, boring slasher trying to be an homage to classic seventies horror. It's not bad, and those that say it is bad clearly haven't ever seen the films this is trying to remake. No horror slasher is good. Some are simply more exciting than others. This is not one of those films.

Our heroes are nonplussed actors who are not very good at what they do. But they represent the film in that they are not bad. Perhaps it is because the script has about as much life as a decorative plastic rock made to cover up blemishes in one's lawn. It's not ever particularly interesting. But it's not bad.

"Rites of Spring" is not a bad film. But it's not a good one.

The movie starts off with two ladies leaving a bar at night, then get kidnapped by a man who we never really get to know, nor his intentions.

Then all of a sudden the story makes a split and we follow the kidnapping of a rich man's daughter for ransom. It adds little to the main story, but oh well.

After the 'ritual cleansin' (for lack of a better word) of one of the ladies and some sort of ritual sacrifice bordering on torture p0rn, some anthropomorphic creature awakens from it's slumber (no idea who or what it is or what it wants) and goes on a killing spree against the ladies and the kidnappers who seem to botched their job and ended up in the same place.

A stalk and slash scenario ensues, where the 'villian appearing in the background' is repeated ad nauseum. The ending is total letdown.

I won't waste any more words on this. Maybe if you're *really* into slasher movies this might be a good appetizer, if not stay away.

This film reminded me of "From Dusk Til Dawn" in that it had two different stories - one a crime drama and the other a supernatural horror. However, it failed to reach an interesting level in either category. Simply put, it was weakly executed.

Either story would have been OK on its own as a TV movie, and a decent film if pulled off correctly - but, alas, they both left much to be desired. The crime drama had a weak plot, not too believable or well thought out, and the horror was not horrifying nor was it gory. Nothing about this movie will keep you up at night, unless you're a film producer wondering how these people were approved and given a budget of more than $5. The monster is laughable, and the ending was rushed and truly half-cheek.

Low budget slasher, that copies most of it's ideas from Jeepers creepers 1 & 2.

It takes at least 20 minutes to even get going (and by that I mean for something.. hell anything interesting to happen!) I watched this film because of the reviews on IMDb which said said the gore was cool.. Where? when? Two badly done fake blood splatters and one comical rubber finger slice later any hope I had Rites of Spring being any better than a bad student film project left.

Better films (..as in the plot, acting or effects) in this genre are..

Husk [2011] Triangle [2009] Summers Blood [2009] The Collector [2009] Amusement [2008} Kill Theory [2009].. If you haven't seen one those films I suggest you do over Rites of Spring.

Even the ending sucked big time.

Avoid!

I'm not sure what the worst thing is about this low budget horror yarn, the script or the directing. The script, I think, although the direction is pretty poor and uninteresting. The problem with RITES OF SPRING is that it's all so predictable, and it has less going on than even the likes of a WRONG TURN sequel.

The story tells of a kidnapping gone wrong, as a group of kidnappers attempt to take a rich man's daughter in return for a big ransom. A second storyline sees a couple of young women kidnapped by a creepy old farmer, where they are to become lunch for something terrible living in the basement. Eventually the two plot strands combine in the most predictable way imaginable.

There's very little going on here and nothing we haven't seen before. The shocks and twists are very well telegraphed and of the type we've seen countless times. The characters are thinly drawn and the performances completely forgettable. All this has going for it is some half-decent make-up and some okay gore effects, but that's hardly a reason to keep you going; this is barely watchable.