Rites of Spring

A ransom scheme turns into a nightmare for a group of kidnappers who become victims of a horrifying secret that must be paid every spring.

Horror fans will instantly recognize AJ Bowen, the current independent horror go-to actor. Beyond that, many faces appear on screen that we may never see again. There is particularly terrible acting from the father character, which might take some viewers out of the movie.

This might appeal to some people, but it never seems to quite capture what it was going for. While it starts as a kidnapping film, it turns into something like a poor man's "Jeepers Creepers". And even then, there is an undercurrent that is not far removed from "It". At no point does anything seem quite original enough to merit respect.

Not terrible, actually the 35-40 minutes are pretty interesting and fairly creepy during the horror portions and tense during the crime portions. I have to take serious mark down for having a weak ending (that I think was really meant to imitate Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and some logic issues about how the scenes with the kidnapper in the barn plays out. (Everyone is that close to him, he's assaulting a friend, but no one tries to kick/shove him off? Then he goes down and a dude twice his size doesn't take the opportunity to beat his ass? C'mon now.) That said, it's as fairly solid effort with good atmosphere and is well shot. Worth a view on Netflix or whatnot.

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!

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.

This incredibly low budget horror movie has no clue what it wants to be. It is a home invasion movie, then a kidnap movie, then a serial killer movie, then a killer hillbilly movie, and the worst part is that it does all of these equally bad. The acting is terrible across the board, the story is laughable, the direction is all over the place, like it was filmed by a 10 year old that was using all the new features on his camera phone, which it was probably shot on. I understand that this was a bad movie and it knows it, but that does not change the fact the it is awful on every level, well, except maybe for the poster, which was interesting enough to catch my eye and got me to watch this waste of time movie. 1.5 Beards Out Of 5