The Red Book Ritual

I have to admit that I was initially lured into watching the 2022 horror movie "The Red Book Ritual" given the movie's cover and its title. Sure, I hadn't even heard about this movie from writers Ariel Luque and Daniel J. Phillips prior to sitting down to watch it.

However, I must say that "The Red Book Ritual" fell short of entertaining movie. The storyline was just too much of a scrambled and incoherent mess. So it was difficult to get submerged into the movie here. And even more so since the storyline was all over the place, and never felt like anything that was brought out on the screen ever got to be completed or brought full circle.

The acting performances in "The Red Book Ritual" were adequate. It was just a shame that the actors and actresses had so little to work with in terms of a properly written script and storyline. I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in this movie, and that is usually something I enjoy when watching movies, but given the subpar script here, then I just found little enjoyment as the movie trotted on.

Visually then "The Red Book Ritual" was an adequate movie. However, the special effects just could do only so much to lift up an otherwise poorly written storyline.

If you enjoy horror movies, like I do obviously, then do yourself a favor and stay clear of directors Chris Beyrooty, Dean Law and Ariel Luque's 2022 horror movie.

My rating of "The Red Book Ritual" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

The appealing artwork on this makes it a bit of a letdown. To cut to the chase, this cannot be compared in the same class as some of the good or great anthology offerings. (It's no V/H/S, Creepshow, Tales of Halloween, Tales from the Darkside, Trick R Treat, or Cat's Eye- just to name a few). It's a random collection of amateur-acted horror shorts to walk through if you seek these out (horror film festival grade). That doesn't mean all the content is bad- a couple or few of the shorts are pretty decent, but most of them have no closure (and lack adequate cohesion to be a "short story"). One happens to be dubbed quite poorly over Korean actors (especially the young girl.. oof!). The synth track overlaying the last short caught my attention several times in a good way; it was probably the best entry (imo). Prepare for some daring nudity in the first short. My rating may be generous, but I'm a seeker.

This is something along the lines of V/H/S putting a story around why you're watching s bunch of short films. Only this one's story doesn't even bother half the time to explain WHY a short story just started playing.

The shorts themselves are pretty weak, mostly with no ending to them and no tie in to anything else. The story plot of 3 teens playing a spooky game is nothing memorable at all either.

There's nothing redeeming to be seen here, bad editing all over the place and short stories with no pay off's or endings. The entire thing is not worth watching.

Avoid it. You'll thank me for it.

The Red Book Ritual promises an ominous occult game but delivers a grab-bag of shorts glued together with little care. Each segment feels ripped from better films-K-horror possession, desert-highway demon, witch-house clichés-yet none is given the space or logic to land. Performances range from wooden to outright comical, making it impossible to fear for, or even hate, the paper-thin teens at its center. Stylish lighting and a neat synth cue can't paper over cheap effects, sloppy dubbing, and lack of payoff. Even anthology devotees will struggle to stay awake through its cliffhanger endings. Skip the ritual; read a better book instead.

This movie at first reminded me of another with the same premise but way better than this movie. The stories presented in this one weren't related in anyway. Heck they didn't make sense unless I'm missing something. Only story I liked was the nurse one and that's about it. There's some nudity in the first story but nothing "sexy" at all. I feel like I wasted my time watching this movie. I was not impressed with this movie at all. Cheap, no point, ending was terrible. Plus it was just painful to sit through this pathetic attempt at horror. To top it off it was another bad anthology with poor story lines.