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.

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 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.

If I see one more lousy horror movie in 2022, I am going to move to New Zealand and raise potatoes. What an original plot! A group of morons go to a haunted house and perform a moronic ritual. The other 1000 films of this genre are also pretty horrific, but not in a good way. For every good horror movie, there are at least 100 that are pure crap. This is one of the crappy majority. Every line of dialogue and every scene is predictable. The only original thing in the film is the location of the bathroom, which I am sure was wll-utilized by the cast after severe drinking bouts. I saw this turkey for free, but you can't. So save your money.

Not any good at all? If I really have to think of something positive to say then I would like to point to the photography, which wasnt bad. Not great, but not bad either. So some kind of attention for detail went into making this movie, BUT...

The bad: these actors are incredibly terrible. They are so terrible at trying to come across scared or dangerous that it is really, honeslty laughable. While it is definitely not intended to be a comedy, but it has got that effect on me.

The story is gibbledigook nonsense. Well, a lot of stories in the movie business dont make sense, but there is a level of silliness that I do not like tot watch and this "movie" is guilty of just such a silliness.

What a waste of time and money.

Recommended to be avoided...