‘The Red Book Ritual’ Review
Stars: Valeria San Martin, Agustin Olcese, Marlene Pedersen Chauviere, Bruno Giacobbe, Agustin Bogliano, Marcos Bogliano, Martín Canalicchio, Ines Corengia, Pablo Vilela | Written by Ariel Luque, Daniel J. Phillips Directed by Chris Beyrooty, Dean Law, Ariel Luque, Jiwon Moon, Daniel J. Phillips, Dean Puckett, Nicolás Onetti
I seem like I say it quite regularly but I do really enjoy horror anthologies. There are obviously plenty of poor ones out there but generally if the runtime of each segment is kept short, then there’s always a good short or two in each anthology. And if you’re not enjoying one, then it’s never much of a wait until that one is over and another new story will start.
The wrap-around segment of The Red Book Ritual shows three friends playing the red book ‘game’. Kind of like a Ouija board but what they don’t know is that in the house is an evil waiting to be released. A long time ago a witch died as part of a satanic ritual there and with each question and each story she gets closer and closer to them.
‘Stray’ is the first segment, directed by Dean W. Law. It centres on a (maybe possessed) cat and is a great start to the film. It grabs you from the first moment and keeps you there for its entirety. There’s blood and gore, with great practical effects, in fact the whole short looks great and doesn’t really let up for a second. I really liked the style and setting here and the small cast were great too.
Next up is ‘Little One’ directed by Logan Fields & Chris Beyrooty. Feeling very different from the first segment but equally as impressive. As a couple struggling with a recent event, end up in the middle of something dramatic and mysterious involving a child. This one has a great atmosphere, brilliantly creating that sense of dread throughout and with strong performances from the cast.
The third short is ‘Nose Nose Nose Eyes!’ which goes down the J-horror route. But more Audition than Ring. In fact, the Audition comparison is both the most obvious but truthful. As we see a woman keeping her husband hostage until their young daughter discovers what is going on. It’s another solid entry but the expectation of that one big moment doesn’t materialise.
Our fourth segment is ‘Release’, which is a story about someone on life support in a hospital. Trying to bring emotion to the terror works surprisingly well and there’s something about horror set in a hospital. Haunted, abandoned or just eerily quiet hospitals seem to be a perfect setting to get the heart going and this is no different. ‘Release’ is genuinely scary at times.
Lastly, ‘The Sermon’ covers a religious ‘cult’ and their views on same sex relationships. Perfecting that folky cult style imagery, this segment builds and builds to its shocking conclusion. An ending that really does deliver. A short that I’d happily watch a longer version of but also works excellently as is.
The wrap-around segment actually features a lot more than most in this type of anthology movie. The acting is a bit cheesy during these parts but it does create some decent scares at times.
The Red Book Ritual is a really strong horror anthology that honestly doesn’t have a single bad segment, at the worst this ranges from decent to very good. And that’s not something you say too often with this type of movie.
