Ritual

"Tales from the Crypt" was a product that was very successful on radio and as a television series, but never found the formula for success in cinema. The first two releases, still in the 70s, remained faithful to the original product, with a succession of short stories, some better than others. The third film was much more audacious: "Demon Knight" really tried to give us a feature film, and to a certain extent it managed to respond well to that challenge. Then it all came crashing down with "Bordello of Blood", which was a real fiasco and shattered the producers' ambitions. Maybe that's why this movie never really adopted the franchise, and only in the physical versions do we see the opening, with a rigid, cheap and inelegant version of the Cryptkeeper introducing the movie.

Let's face it, this one is not within the parameters of what we could consider a good movie for the cinema. Even so, we are pleased to see that the production has learned something from past mistakes and that the film is committed to a solid story, a consistent and relatively well-structured narrative. It's not a good movie, but it's better than its predecessors and, honestly, it manages to be an average movie, within the quality standard of made-for-TV and DVD movies.

The script begins with Alice Dodgson's medical license being suspended after a medical error in which she was at fault. In order to support herself during the suspension period, she takes a job as a private caregiver in Jamaica to care for Wesley Claybourne, who has encephalitis but believes he is being targeted by voodoo magic. At the same time, she befriends Caro, an attractive, sexually intense young Jamaican woman, and begins to discover that Wesley's delusions may, after all, have some raison d'être.

The film has a very solid cast and some well-known names, but the material given to the actors was relatively weak, several characters were sexualized to the maximum and the director Avi Nesher proved incapable of guiding the actors and getting results. Jennifer Grey, the protagonist, is not an inexperienced actress, but we've seen her do better in "Dirty Dancing" or "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". The material received harmed her, in addition to the fact that the personage was quite sexualized, taking advantage of the physical attributes of the actress. Daniel Lapaine did an average job, committed, but histrionic and lacking in direction. Tim Curry has been underused and only appears once in a while. Craig Sheffer is as supportive as possible, but he's not a good villain. Lastly, Kristen Wilson appears to have been chosen solely on the basis of her svelte and sculpted body, almost entirely visible in the film, where she appears nude several times.

Technically, the film is much more modest and poor than we could have expected, considering the list of actors present in the cast. Thought and produced as a film for TV and DVD, it lacks a cinematic notion, and budget or team to carry it out. Without the staff and money to make a film with a cinematic dimension, the production's options were limited in aspects such as costume design, visual and special effects, digital resources and the choice of filming locations. That's why the voodoo scenes are so few and concentrated. What's good here? We have good set construction (a good medical lab, the magic props, with crosses and herbs and strange objects mixed with candles etc.), we also have a good cinematography (for a TV movie) and, finally, an effective soundtrack.

First it's a Tales From the Crypt film, then it's not. Then it is, then it's not. Finally this film was given a decent release and they used the Cryptkeeper to try and sell it. Sadly, this will be the only thing under the Tales From the Crypt banner that I will never own. Ritual just wasn't up to Crypt standards. Demon Knight was one of the best horror films on the 90's and Bordello of Blood was a laugh riot. Ritual is neither of these things. It's basically a retelling of I Walked With a Zombie. It has no surprises and it's rather straight-forward in it's direction. I'm also not big on voodoo movies. There's just something about them, and they all tell pretty much the same story. So not much stands out and the film is a bit boring. The pace could have been tightened up a bit. It's a shame too because the acting is quite good. Jennifer Gray leads the cast and is up to the task. The new nose must be working out for her because she looks to be in the best shape of her life. Daniel Lapaine and Kristen Wilson, both of whom I'm not familiar with, also are admirable. And Tim Curry and Craig "I need to fire my agent" Sheffer show up to lend their credentials. Seriously, Sheffer is a way better actor than his filmography would have you believe. Another plus is the effects. What little gore there is is done expertly. Gotta love the doctor getting microwaved.

Can't remember where I got this movie from, but it suddenly appeared off my DVD shelf, as it had been there for months and I always skipped over playing it. Anyway, moved by the hand of huge laziness, I decided to give it a chance and feed my tray with what I thought was a slice of pure digitalized boredom. The result was a nice surprise. Obviously, this is not the flick of the century, but the plot line is consistent enough to keep you in for the whole runtime long. Atmosphere is particularly dense and thrilling (3 phone calls during the viewing didn't manage to kick me off it !), highlighted by a really efficient soundtrack. The cast is just right as it should be, and the breathtaking beauty of Caro (Kristen Wilson) will do anything but spoil it. The machete/drums/ceremonial scheme, usually utterly heavy in this kind of film, is always kept on a due balance, which, I figure out, must be quite a challenge for the editors. I gave it a 6/10 which means, in my opinion, frames this movie as (at least) advisable/worth watching.

Dr. Alice Dodgson (Jennifer Grey) gets her medical license revoked after the death of one patient. She's facing the possibility of not get any job when she accepts to be the nurse for one young man who suffers of encephalitis called Wesley Claybourne (Daniel Lapaine).

The story is that those involved removed references to "Tales From the Crypt" after their second movie bombed. This was probably a wise idea, although the same sensibility and tone is obvious in this picture.

I loved seeing Jennifer Grey in a leading role, and appreciated that they tried to update "I Walked With a Zombie". Not sure they actually succeeded, though. Despite a good cast and some decent scares and kills, I just did not find myself all that interested in this one.

Suspended from practicing medicine, a doctor takes a position giving care for a man's brother who lives in Jamaica where she finds that he's suffering from the effects of a powerful voodoo curse that turns them into zombies forcing her to put an end to the evil forces once and for all.

This one here is a rather fun and enjoyable voodoo film. One of the best parts of this one is that it builds up an incredible atmosphere in here through the effective use of it's supernatural overtones. This is one of the few films that manages to really use the mystery and magic of voodoo and does this spectacularly, making it appear to be quite dangerous and something to be feared. Due to this, the first half is incredibly suspenseful with the mysterious actions around them which are done through a series of rather freaky ideas. The set of hallucinations that occur here are marvelous, with the jungle coming alive and attempt to destroy the car the two are traveling alongside being one of them, and a later scene where a hallucination of the collapsing roof falling onto them, despite being the only one to see it, is a fantastic scene as well. As these grow in stature throughout the film, there's plenty to like here with the way these cause an enhancement of the supernatural threat that constantly runs in the film. That starts with the opening, with the wedding ceremony giving way to the confrontation in the lab which is a nice way of getting this going, the increasingly strong supernatural attacks that are used to build a strong mystery in the meantime and the freak-outs done by the possessed victim are just plain fun. The ending confrontation in the fields during the voodoo ceremony is really good as well, using more voodoo charms, a tense buried alive sequence and a suspenseful standoff that is pretty intense. The last big part of the film is the gore, which here works quite well for the film. These here are all that work for the film as this one didn't have many flaws, and there really is only one which does affect the film somewhat. This is that the film is slightly overlong and somewhat dull at times. This one really shouldn't have been that much over an hour and a half at all, and really should've been trimmed in certain areas as there's several scenes which go on for much longer than they should. The middle section of this is the most apparent, featuring several scenes that aren't that important. The trip to the beach to frolic in the surf and the family visits to the shack for no reason being the main exceptions, and the exposition in the beginning to get the story involved could've been done a little quicker, as it really could've had the same impact it does now with a little time removed. Since there's no titular connection to the series, including the Crypt Keeper wraparounds are unnecessary as well, and since there's hardly any dark comedy or humor to come from it, it's just pointless. All of these make the film feel longer than it should, and give the film it's one true flaw.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and a mild sex scene.