Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Horror, Netflix, Review, Film and TV
Michael Slavin
Slowly but surely, Netflix has become a must-stop destination for horror fans.
While the platform used to be outdone by smaller streamers such as Shudder, Netflix have slowly but surely built their horror catalogue.
Whether it be by buying outstanding scary flicks from other studios, such as The Conjuring or It Follows, or creating their own originals such as Fall of the House of Usher or Gerald’s Game, they now have a brilliant group of films to watch from behind the couch.
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Well, horror sickos everywhere, there’s yet another incredible horror film on the list that fans are loving and it has everything.
Creepy twist ending? Tick.
Gets you hooked from minute one of the film? Tick.
Set in a Scandinavian forest so you get beautiful vistas alongside the tense bone chilling moments? Perhaps a very personal desire there, but another tick. Check out the trailer and see what you think:
The film is called The Ritual, and it’s another of Netflix’s burgeoning group of original horrors.
It follows four friends travelling into the Swedish wilderness to try and reform the bonds between each other, as it has strained over the years.
Upon entering the forest though, they find a terrifying creature.
The film received a score of 74 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and is on several lists of Netflix’s best horror films.
Katie Walsh, reviewing the film for the Los Angeles Times, said: “Efficient and highly effective in its style, relying on sound, creepy production design, and the men's own fear and misjudgment to create the sense of pervasive doom”.
Meanwhile Adam Nayman, writing for The Ringer, said in their review: “This steely British import examines the cost of male-bonding rituals...it's nice to see a horror movie really go for it in the home stretch.”
Horror fans on Reddit are similarly loving the film, with one thread on the subreddit r/horror saying: “So at first I thought this movie was going to be a generic horror movie that you turn off after the first 30 minutes.
"But it's much more. Beautifully shot, great acting, and intriguing from start to finish. I was very impressed by this movie, I hope to see more like it. What did you guys think?”
Fans across the subreddit concurred, with one commenting: “It was a great creature feature, and gave way more than I expected.”
Another commented: “The coolest creature design I’ve seen in a long time”.
One 9/10 review on IMDb said: “Awesome horror movie, truly creepy”.
“Yeah it's not perfect, but it is WAY better than The Blair Witch project. As a horror fan I give this a 9/10. Not because it is a perfect movie, but because I found it so unsettling, weird, and well, scary.”
A 10/10 review of the film deemed the movie a ‘must watch for those who want nightmares’.
The Ritual is available on Netflix now.