A Lot Of Very Careful Hatred: Rituals

By Less Lee Moore

Rituals is a “lost classic,” one of those films that every horror fan (or film fan) should see, but probably hasn’t. It’s a Canadian production from 1977, starring Hal Holbrook, Larry Dane, Robin Gammell, Ken James, and Gary Reineke. Although it definitely contains elements of the slasher film genre, one of the things that sets Rituals apart from the pack (besides the fact that it came out before Halloween) is the middle-aged, all-male ensemble cast.

The cast of Rituals
Image from Brutal As Hell

At a recent panel on the film presented by Rue Morgue at Toronto’s Fan Expo, members of the cast and crew gathered to discuss the film and their memories of the experience. According to screenwriter Ian Sutherland, the casting of Hal Holbrook as Harry meant they had to recast the other four members of the main cast as older guys, since Holbrook was in his early forties at the time. This change turned out to be a happy accident, as it transforms Rituals into something more profound than just a group of hypersexed teenagers getting into trouble. As Harry notes when the first truly grotesque event takes place, “It’d almost be childish if it weren’t so horrible.”

The plot of Rituals seems to have inspired later horror films set in the woods or wilderness, such as Just Before Dawn, Friday the 13th, The Burning, and The Descent. The film follows a group of doctor friends who meet once a year for some sort of outdoor adventure, in this case a six-day camping trip out in the middle of nowhere: the Batchawana Bay area in Northern Ontario, Canada. But unlike some of the similarly themed films that came later on, we do not see the catalyst for the horror that eventually unfolds in the film.

Thus, the viewer almost becomes a sixth member of the group, being exposed to the various shocking events in the film along with them. Reveals are subtle, portrayed through camera work that may or may not be voyeuristic, and which utilizes POV shots of an as-yet-unseen character. Even when we see things the characters don’t, we still aren’t totally sure what’s going on. The music also reflects this ambiguity, veering from an almost comical theme to a more sinister one; often these two overlap so that we feel not so much frightened as uneasy.

Unlike a lot of copycat slasher films, Rituals is a perfect example of how to develop exposition through dialogue. When the friends meet up at a restaurant before taking a helicopter to their destination, the various conflicts between them are established immediately. We grasp the group dynamics: Marty “cracked up” and now drinks too much; his brother DJ likes to razz him; Mitzi is a loudmouth; Abel is a goofball; and Harry is the outcast, more interested in doing good work than making a lot of money.

All of this becomes vital to the events of the film as they take place; as Sutherland stated, “what would friends do to each other in order to survive?” In Rituals, it’s what these friends do for each other as well as what they do to each other.

Hal Holbrook as Harry
Image from Brutal As Hell

In some cases, the men’s frailties—selfishness, insecurity, paranoia, mistrust—dictate their fates. Yet even though, as Larry declares, “it’s possible we’re all paying for something,” it’s not clear who is responsible until much later in the film. There are even events which may or may not be done on purpose; these may just be functions of the unpredictable nature of the wilderness itself.

This is another factor that makes Rituals more than your average slasher film. It’s not just that someone or something may be stalking these men; it’s that nature itself has turned against them, utilizing their lack of communion with it as a handicap. After all, these five men are highly educated and trained, just not in the ways that will help them survive their current situation. In an ironic twist, Harry has more in common with the group’s unseen predator than is at first apparent; in fact, it’s this shared trait that is not only the impetus for the action in the film, but also the one that enables Harry to become the de facto leader of group.

As revealed in the Rue Morgue panel, a lot of care went into the making of this film, from shooting it in sequence and on location, to doing background research on what exactly would cause the villain to become one in the first place. Producer and actor Larry Dane (who played Mitzi) insisted that this kind of “veracity” is vital to a good horror film, and Rituals in particular. Unlike a lot of modern horror, he claimed, where the “onus is put on horror” itself, Rituals was more character-driven, full of “real guys” who were “not there for effect.”

In a somewhat bitter turn of events, the film that almost didn’t get finished in the first place because of funding troubles (Rituals was made during the Canadian film industry’s “tax shelter years”), is not available on DVD and any VHS copies or even film prints suffer from not only a damaged negative but also ill-advised edits and bad transfers. Larry Dane mentioned that the DVD delays have been caused by “everyone laying claim to ownership rights.”

Although Rue Morgue announced in December 2009 that a restored, uncut DVD would be forthcoming from Code Red, this has yet to take place, and not because Rue Morgue didn’t want it to happen. At the risk of this getting taken down as soon as this article gets published, I will mention that some kind soul has put all of Rituals up on YouTube. As a testament to the greatness of this film, it’s still fantastic, even in eight-minute increments. Canadian residents can also look for it on the Scream channel or any local channels that play Canadian movies on a semi-regular basis (which is how I saw it in the first place). [Ed.—Rituals has since been released on DVD from Code Red.]

Many thanks to the members of the Rituals panel: Rue Morgue editor-in-chief Dave Alexander; actors Larry Dane and Gary Reineke; screenwriter Ian Sutherland; and production designer Susan Bromley.