The Ritual (David Bruckner, 2017)

You know the set-up: four friends take a wrong turn on a hike into a deep, dark forest and end up in serious trouble. The only difference here is that it's in northern Sweden (albeit really Romania for financial reasons) instead of the Appalachians and that the protagonists are English. In any case, the group dynamics are familiar: the constantly complaining speccy one, the no-nonsense leader type, the one who quickly goes nuts and the lead, who is a sort of moderated amalgam of all three and therefore naturally likely to be the last one standing. This means that Rafe Spall gets to play action hero for once, and he must have relished the prospect. The rest is just a hotch-potch of disembowelling monster stuff and creepy cultish locals. After a fairly promising, atmospheric opening, once the curtains are drawn back and the full scope of the menace is revealed it turns into the usual parade of running and screaming.

4/10