O Ritual Sinistro

This is camp horror at its finest. Great writing, acting, and you can tell a lot of effort went into its production. It's also a musical, which makes it that much better, in my opinion.

All the actors have great chemistry and timing, and you could tell they were having fun.

The story really plays with tricky family dynamics, and sibling rivalry, as well as the lengths people are willing to go for their family.

All in all, I definitely enjoyed watching this movie with my friends. It was just the right amount of horror, wit, and music.

Highly recommend for those who enjoy the horror/comedy genre.

Right, well I didn't know that this was a musical, and had I known, I would most likely not have opted to watch it. Musicals is not really my cup of tea, aside from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Grease". But coming to learn that it was a zombie musical, I must admit that I buckled in and opted to check it out.

But writer Ryan Smith utterly failed to conjure up a script that entertained me. And I have to say that I am very perplexed that his 2023 musical titled "Eldritch USA" has managed to snag an 8.2 rating here on IMDb, as of this very moment while I am reviewing it.

I managed to suffer through a staggering 42 minutes of absolute boredom and pointlessness before tossing the towel in the right. It was painfully obvious by then that the contents of the musical would not improve for the better. And in those 42 minutes there wasn't anything even remotely zombiesque to be found anywhere.

Needless to say that I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in "Eldritch USA", but I was not particularly impressed. Sure, the performances were adequate, but it was nothing memorable or outstanding.

This is not something that I would recommend anyone to waste 99 minutes on watching. And it most certainly is not something I will return to attempt finish watching.

My rating of directors Ryan Smith and Tyler Foreman's 2023 musical "Eldritch USA" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

The story, sans, musicals, COULD be decent. The problem is it's exceptionally slow to progress because every 5 to 7 minutes there's another way-too-long musical interlude.

They've basically created their own distractions by adding musical to break up any tension, comedy, suspense, etc.

The audio, to me, all sounds like it's a looped 100%. As if there is little no actual live filmed audio and it was all added in post. That would make sense for the musicals (even though I disliked them) but even when characters are merely speaking to each other, it sounds looped.

Meh.. I lost interest QUICKLY due to the musical interludes. Ended up fast forwarding through most of it after roughly 30 minutes and the 4th musical number.

Acting was passable, not bad. And singing was good however misguided the idea was.

But ultimately..... ------- PASS ------

It occurred to me while suffering through this that maybe the people who made it thought they were making the next Rocky Horror Picture Show, something that would become a cult hit. Well imagine if Rocky Horror had been created by loads of people with no talent and you'd have this film. There are so many things wrong here, I'll start with the one positive, it was shot well, as in the photography was razor sharp. It also seemed as if the entire film were shot and then every ounce of dialogue was dubbed later, the sound was just unnatural. The songs are mercifully short and none are good. If this has a soundtrack CD you won't be buying it. While there is one actress who is actually appealing and can carry a tune, the cast here is bottom of the barrel. The entire film has all the appeal of a really badly written, poorly put together dinner theatre production. At 1 hour 40 minutes it felt much longer. Lots of boring talk trying to be witty and I didn't chuckle once. While at first I was hoping it might get better, eventually it became annoying and then I just wanted it to end already. There just is no talent here at all. I have no idea how some of these actors got their roles, but honestly the dialogue and songs are so bad it didn't even matter. At best this is worth watching as some sort of oddity, but I doubt you will do what I did, make it through to the end.

Trying to improve his lot in life, a down-on-his-luck guy and perfectionist brother working at a news station who cover the story of a cult able to bring people back from the dead, and after an accident requires their help to bring him back which soon turns into an unforeseen apocalyptic scenario.

This was a fairly fun if somewhat problematic genre musical. One of the better features of this one comes from the fine setup that allows for a great context of the relationships involved so everything comes across with the proper context. Going in-depth on their relationship with the brother, getting everything handed to him without even trying, being respected and loved at work, and taking everything he wants including what is his more reserved and quiet brother also includes times where it seems to happen just for the sheer thrill of taking something his brother wants. This allows for a great starting point depicting how their lives are played out gives the accidental death and need for resurrection to give him back his shot at a normal life which is enhanced quite nicely with the hilarious songs that come in offering more of a clue into their psyche explaining what's going on. That offers the perfect counterpoint for the interactions that take place once the resurrection occurs and their relationship starts to change. With everything here coming across nicely with the central accident and the ensuing resurrection ceremony taking place in the middle of nowhere to make sure it goes off rather nicely, there's a strong start for the series of interactions that take place here introducing him back into humanity following the process with the station workers, the family members, or those who are in his immediate vicinity that delivers some hilarious confrontations trying to keep the zombie side from getting more prominent in his personality. It all leads into a strong finale offering the full extent of their plans in fine form. Realizing that their undead nature makes for a strong conflict with the more civilized means the rest of the world is trying to impose on them, the two set out to right the wrongs offered against them by the resurrection attempt that sets them off on a different path holding the cult hostage and bringing the friend group back together to stop them. This more mystical-based finale with the spell-casting, occult rituals, and use of cursed objects brings about some intriguing action. However, it does depart from traditional zombie fare that's somewhat expected here. It's more of an expectation issue than anything. Still, beyond that, it's really the main issue here beyond the tolerance for the musical bits interjected here that helps to bring about the comedic tone as well.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.