The Ritual Killer

This could have been an amazing movie but they didn't have the budget or the script. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to waste their money 💰 damn. It made no sense and SVU had more intense dialogue and character building. Come on this could have been excellent but the script failed them! The ending was also weird and what was the point of the rome scenes? You never tied them into the movie at all!

Whoever wrote this should be ashamed and poor actors.... They did their best but every scene fell short. It is so sad to see 🙈

I felt embarrassed for the cast and staff.... Director and writers be ashamed be very ashamed!

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.

Morgan Freeman has made millions of dollars over the course of his acting career. When you have this much money and clout in Hollywood you can pick and choose projects dear to your heart. Is the man bankrupt now or does he have a horrible agent or maybe he owes a "favor" to the Italian mafia? Why would he involve himself in this shamefully bad movie?

3 storylines are introduced at the same time. An African witch doctor is on the loose in some Italian city while being chased by Inspector Lavazza. In America, an African studies college professor Mackles (Morgan Freeman) challenges a student to find an absurd social theory so they can discuss in the next class. An unstable detective Boyd (Cole Hauser) executes a pedophile in some hotel room.

All 3 will be connected to the African witch doctor Randoku who is super human that sells his ritual powers to the rich and powerful. This witch doctor is commissioned by some rich dude to gain power so let the mutilations begin!

The plot is not at all intriguing as many variations of it has been done for decades. The only difference is an A-list Hollywood star willing to work in this B movie. Cole Hauser is not a leading man he can barely read lines and work with any emotion without being awkward to watch. There was one scene towards the end when he hugs a woman doctor multiple times for no reason and then gives her a deep sniff that reminded me of a certain US president.

The list of rhetorical questions is long and this is a reminder that if you choose to watch this don't ask any. I really don't know why Morgan Freeman chose to work in this role. If he is hard up for money then start a GFM page and save people the hours lost watching this soul crushing nonsense.

Where to begin? The dialog sounds like it was written by someone who is trying to figure out how humans speak. The physical actions - the hand gestures, facial expressions, the movements in general are off - real people don't move, gesture, look, behave like this.

It's almost like writers and director were trying to recreate Bill Shatner's stilted speaking style - overly long pregnant pauses leading into still-born "revelations" (and I use that word loosely). Or maybe they were just trying to pad a 45 minute concept out to an 80 minute movie. The cinematography is weak. Sequences are poorly framed.

There may have been a nugget of a story at the heart of this mess, but this movie doesn't know how to tell that story in an interesting manner.

It's leaden, overly long and boring. I bailed after about 35 minutes and the only reason I didn't bail sooner was that I was making my lunch.

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.