The Ritual Killer

I was hoping for another Se7en like movie, my favorite genre, but man was I wrong... What has come over these three actors to make this crap? Cole Hauser, Morgan Freeman and Peter Stormare? Are they helping out the director or something? Did they enter this out of pity?

7 minutes in and I was thinking "oh boy, this is going to be bad"... It's the vibe it sends from the beginning. The first actors were so bad, but so bad (bedroom scene) I got irritated from the start.

Awful color grading, dull lighting, terrible pace and really bad acting from all of the cast. This director was able to turn good actors into something cringe to watch.

I hate being mean, but this doesn't deserve any better. I don't know if I'll be watching the whole movie, unless I'm multi-tasking. Like I'm doing now.

Right from the start, I realized this film would be a flop due to the frustratingly amateur-hour directing by George Gallo. The constant back and forth location transitions from Europe to America were poorly executed and edited, and almost every scene screamed inexperienced directing. Gallo also failed miserably to direct his cast effectively, that is seemed like this was Cole Hauser's first ever acting job. His entire tone, demeanor and dialogue was too monotonic. Sure, part blame goes to the actor, but it's the directors job to know when an actor needs to act better or in a certain way. Only seasoned actors like Freeman rarely need cast direction, as he was the only one that was somewhat convincing in his character. Everyone else seemed inconvenienced to be on set.

The next huge disappointment was how three writers couldn't get a fairly decent premise, executed properly. Aside from the writing being cliched and having elements from pretty much every film in this genre with little to no originality, it was the ridiculous ending that the three writers, Bob Bowersox, Francesco Cinquemani and Luca Giliberto gave their viewers. It was by far the laziest, asinine, and idiotic ending I've ever seen. A fifth grade drama class could've done better.

Almost every element of this film - except the score, which was surprisingly fitting, should be examined in film schools on what not to do. It's a generous 3/10 from me, mostly as pity that Freeman has to live with this mess on his resume.

Poor storyline, poor execution. I'm very suprised that Freeman accepted this role. Nothing makes sense, script very badly written, no swat called, no observation, no communication between officers, bad searches and forensic evidence, nothing makes sense. Whole movie looks fake and it is just a waste of time badly directed and acted. Could be so much better if there was more suspension, real police work etc they didn't even bother to watch police activity on YouTube to see how to walk with a gun or watch some real good movies to at least try to make it more professional and concentrate on the quality of the outcome.

It's definitely a B movie. Like full B. Not sure why Morgan chose to be in this, but he works in his part. This full-fledged B movie has medium to lower side production quality, many plot and editing issues and a flimsy plot with violence.

In all honesty it's not that bad, but it's just not very good. The overall plot is actually a little interesting, ritual murders to gain power by killing innocent people. I think with a bigger budget, more takes (no scene has more than 2-3 most likely) and better, more thought out direction this could have been much better.

I won't be writing any spoilers here, but watch til the end. Overall, it's a basic murder plot and you know Vernon Davis (ex 49er hall of fame tight end) is the bad guy from the start. He's a actually not bad. Go Niners!

If you like B movies with many flaws but watchable this is for you. 5.4/10.

After the apparent loss of his daughter in a drowning accident, tough cop Boyd (Cole Hauser) pursues a man torturing and killing adults and children in accordance with a South African tribal ritual, Muti. Boyd seeks out the help of South African anthropologist Morgan Freeman to stop the killer.

Dull, cliched thriller with Boyd a seemingly useless mess of a cop who can't hit the side of a barn with his gun and the great Morgan Freeman, expressionless throughout. The chase sequences are just about ok but with every cop being dodged or evicerated by the killer, you just can't believe how useless everyone is. The plot is pretty minimal and the loss of the daughter element, so derivative, plus it doesn't really convince. Remarkably silly final scene. Not good.