Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 13, 2017 16:53:44 GMT
"We're Not in Cottage Country Anymore...Harry!"
What was supposed to be a nice and calm vacation, far away from the stressful and boring everyday life of the big city, turns instead into a desperate fight for survival, when a group of doctors find themself being stalked through the Canadian wilderness by an gruesome and highly determined enemy.
The Creeper or Rituals, is one those rare, but really, really great "accidents" that I ended up seeing without any kind of expectations, thanks to one of my far too often terrible impulse buys, and my rather poor experience with Mill Creek and their 50 movie pack sets.
Anyway, I caved in the moment I spotted this awesome picture of one of their 50 movie Drive in "Classics" DVD box sets, along with Christopher Lee and some fine looking scream queens on the front cover.
Of course, I knew early on that I was in for quite a test of patience, as Mill Creek has mostly been one disappointment after another, and they did not let me down this time either as it seemed.
I started out with the pure torture of having gone through 10-15 of their so-called "cult-classics", and I was very tempted to throw in the towel and call it a day, but then somehow, among all of this raw sewage, someone had decided to hand out a little bit of hope, by including this chilling and incredible well acted thriller/horror movie, that made me almost forget and forgive Mill Creek for putting up with the other terrible films, and instead I began wondering what other hidden gems might show up later on.
Since my Mill Creek box set was damaged, I had little or no information to go after, and by looking at the internet, what came up first was a DVD/VHS picture of a gigantic poster, showing a burning corpse hanging from a rope. I guess someone had tried their very best to promote or sell the film, as just another "wood-slasher".
In the end The Creeper or Rituals (not a big fan of either of the titles) ended up as one a hell of a movie experience.
It does not happen that often, but when you go in and having just seen through 10-15 (1/10 movies) which could easily (been 0/10) it is a fantastic feeling to say afterwards:
"Now that was a great movie!".
In some parts, the film really do remind me of fantastic survival of the fittest titles such as Aguirre, The Wrath of God or Predator, where you have these beautiful and almost untouched scenery, but behind it all, you know that something or someone is there all along.
Always one step ahead, watching your every movement.
And instead of having some local, horny rednecks terrorizing everybody, you find yourself being the witness of a cruel and sadistic manhunt, with a seemingly invisible hunter, who uses the enviroments to the lure its prey into all kind of evil traps, to make sure nobody comes out of this nightmare alive.
The Creeper or Rituals is not just some trashy pre wood-slasher b-movie, instead it is an incredible well acted and well made survival thriller, that comes with a chilling atmsophere along with a good combination of adventure, thrills and drama, and were Hal Holbrook steals the show as the unofficial leader of the gang, Harry.
None of the trailers seem to do the film any justice, so I decided to post this clip:
