A tragic waste of time
The original title of 'Tragic Ceremony' is 'Estratto dagli archivi segreti della polizia di una capitale europea', which roughly translates to 'Extract from the secret archives of the police of a European capital', a nonsensical title that is oddly fitting for this strange mess of a movie.
Riccardo Freda had a long and spotty career, but managed to direct a few decent horror and giallo films, including 'I Vampiri' (with Bava), 'The Ghost' and 'The Iguana with a Tongue of Fire'. Despite having a decent cast, including Luigi Pistilli, 'Tragic Ceremony' is sorely missing a compelling character or solid plot, and instead relies on horror gags and schlocky special effects to keep you watching.
The story follows four hippies who go camping, where we find out they're harbouring a dark secret. They run out of petrol and seek refuge from a storm at...you guessed it...a creepy old mansion where satanic rituals are taking place. There are some interesting and eerie moments along the way, if you can stay interested through the incredibly boring bits.
The script is just abysmal and characters are so poorly drawn, the actors seemingly don't know how to act half the time-or maybe they just don't know how to act. No character arcs, no back stories, in fact, it's hard to even know why we should care what happens to them. There are several moments where something incredibly shocking happens, yet the characters don't bother discussing it, not a word, just move on and talk about mundane things, as if it never happened. There are massive plot holes, catastrophic logic failures and unnecessarily detailed explanations of paranormal events.
There is one scene that's almost worth watching the entire film for, but they manage to ruin even that by repeating it over and over via unnecessary flashbacks.
If you're a hardcore Italian horror fan, 'Tragic Ceremony' might be worth a watch out of curiosity, but most people will find it tedious and a tragic waste of time.
Riccardo Freda had a long and spotty career, but managed to direct a few decent horror and giallo films, including 'I Vampiri' (with Bava), 'The Ghost' and 'The Iguana with a Tongue of Fire'. Despite having a decent cast, including Luigi Pistilli, 'Tragic Ceremony' is sorely missing a compelling character or solid plot, and instead relies on horror gags and schlocky special effects to keep you watching.
The story follows four hippies who go camping, where we find out they're harbouring a dark secret. They run out of petrol and seek refuge from a storm at...you guessed it...a creepy old mansion where satanic rituals are taking place. There are some interesting and eerie moments along the way, if you can stay interested through the incredibly boring bits.
The script is just abysmal and characters are so poorly drawn, the actors seemingly don't know how to act half the time-or maybe they just don't know how to act. No character arcs, no back stories, in fact, it's hard to even know why we should care what happens to them. There are several moments where something incredibly shocking happens, yet the characters don't bother discussing it, not a word, just move on and talk about mundane things, as if it never happened. There are massive plot holes, catastrophic logic failures and unnecessarily detailed explanations of paranormal events.
There is one scene that's almost worth watching the entire film for, but they manage to ruin even that by repeating it over and over via unnecessary flashbacks.
If you're a hardcore Italian horror fan, 'Tragic Ceremony' might be worth a watch out of curiosity, but most people will find it tedious and a tragic waste of time.
- mikeburdick
- Feb 1, 2025