The Ritual (2017)

The Ritual has a simple and effective premise and then layers on some psychological complexity and a bunch of far-out folk horror tropes from the northlands. It's a pretty good ride. A group of college buddies are on a hiking vacation in northern Sweden. The men are in their 30s and old friends but inevitably there are weird frictions among them, set in motion or revealed months earlier when one of them is killed by random violence in an armed robbery. Another of them is in the liquor store with him during the holdup, but so paralyzed by fear that he does nothing but watch as his friend is murdered. Now he feels guilty and the incident is one of the sources of unease among the group. Once they are well along the hiking trail one of them twists a knee and is barely able to continue. They are far from help and decide, rather than continuing the loop trail they are on, to take a more direct route back through unmarked woods. Obviously these guys are behind on their folk horror studies and don't know how dangerous it is to hike through woods like that in northern Sweden. They don't particularly know where they are but use a compass to attempt going in a straight line in the direction that will get them back. They find strange markings on trees, apparently abandoned cabins, and scary figures constructed of tree branches, antlers, and who knows what. They find a recently slaughtered elk, the blood still dripping off it, impaled on branches far above the forest floor. Dark catches them and they decide to spend a night in one of the cabins, which they have to break into. They all have bad dreams that night, and worse. There also seems to be some kind of creature roaming these woods, roaring and breaking things. It's hard to make it out. From that point, in many ways The Ritual takes on the structure of a slasher picture, as the hikers are picked off one by one (in grotesque but generally creative ways) until finally there is only one "Final Girl" left—not a girl, these are all guys in their 30s, but you get my point. It sounds like predictable fare and IMDb viewers rank it at only an aggregated 6.3 (I gave it an 8.0). In fairness, it more or less is predictable, at least in broad strokes. But screenwriter Joe Barton and director David Bruckner have wound this story up pretty tight, with a nice transition from the urban horrors of armed robbery and its aftermath to the ancient forces at work in the dark woods, and they keep springing surprises. The monster, the backstory, a backwoods clan who worship the thing and perform sacrifices for it—all this unfolds naturally in escalating scenes of tension that make it harder and harder to watch this in any kind of free and easy way. It's definitely one worth going back for if you missed it and like gnawing anxiety. For faint of heart details, see the DoestheDogDie report.