TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Paul Magne Haakonsen "Modus Anomali" (aka "Ritual") was nothing like I had hoped for, given the DVD cover which looked rather interesting. I had expected that I would be in for a tour de force or for an impressive horror movie, but I was disappointed on both accounts.To be honest, then I must admit that my interest in the movie dwindled quite quickly and found myself with my attention to the phone instead of the movie. And for me, that is a sign of a very uninteresting movie, because I have a tendency of sticking with most movies to the end. As such, I made it roughly halfway through "Modus Anomali" before I just gave up out of sheer boredom and turned off the movie.The storyline in "Modus Anomali" was boring and lacking things to keep the audience nailed to their seats. Basically the storyline was just a guy running around in a forest, trying to elude some unseen antagonist, but failing horribly at doing just that.I think that the people involved in the movie did have a blast in filming and making it, but director Joko Anwar failed to put together an impressive movie.Having given up on the movie, I can honestly say that I will never make a second attempt at finishing it. It just simply isn't worth the time or effort.I am sure there is an audience out there somewhere for a movie such as "Modus Anomali". I just wasn't part of that audience - possibly even as far away from that target audience as I could possibly be.

specialuse117 CONTAINS SPOILER Think Vanishing meets Memento by way of Groundhog Day. Every minute of this film is important. The last third wraps it up so well. What you think was a stupid action during the film really makes sense at the end. Such as (((SPOILER))) why the kids respond to the cry of their father instead of sneaking up on him, why the killer could not follow him when he had the light on in the forest most of the time. I was pleased that there was not much gore, it would have been a distraction. This is not a redneck slasher film in any way. Micky Spillane said the greatest mystery novel would be solved with the very last word on the last page. This movie is very close to that concept.

J. Davis This tale begins with a man waking up in a shallow grave with amnesia. Not knowing exactly what to do, he begins to wander aimlessly through this remote Indonesian forest, eventually finding a cabin with a car parked outside. Inside he's horrified to find the cabin empty except for the bloody corpse of what he believes to be his wife as he discovers a wedding ring on his finger. Then, after watching a video of a faceless attacker killing her, he ventures back into the forest, scared & confused, with only a lantern to guide his way. The atmosphere in the first thirty minutes was creepy & unpredictable as the viewer watches and waits to get a handle on what exactly is going on in the film. As more information is introduced, the level of suspense does come down a little and at times I found myself scratching my head a bit. Certain things happen that seem at the time a bit absurd, but if you stay patient and continue into the final act, there is a nice twist on things that IMO made it a very original worthwhile watch. Some camera work was a bit shaky, but for the budget the production value was just fine for the duration of the film. The acting wasn't a problem, there wasn't a whole lot of dialogue for it even to become an issue. It is an English speaking film despite it's locality & ethnicity of the cast. In all, it wasn't a highly suspenseful thriller or a gory horror flick, although it did contain some elements of each. If horror fans are looking for something different than the same old clichéd plot line than I do recommend taking a look, it's originality & clever end make for a solid 6/10.

bakerstreet-862-612840 Well, i've gotta say that i was interested to watch it because of its catchy title and the idea about an English spoken film made by Indonesians (i reckon it's the 1st Indonesian film which used English as the main language in it).The 1st 50 minutes, the film seems to be so dull with the shallow explanations, barely interactions from one character to another (unlike other previous Anwar's films), how kid characters ruin it with the way they converse in the forest poorly shows lack of thrilled & anxious expression, seemingly to be a shallow no-background story plot, and unsynchronized & unexplained details(necessarily prepared for the ending). All can lead the audience to a boredom and sleepiness.Endure it, then the film will show you the worth of Joko Anwar as a writer-director and Rio Dewanto as an actor.Anwar prepared an unexpected suspense plot mixed with some thrilling horror ingredients blending them all in the perfectly fit location, and served it to the audience with some quite decent cinematography. Dewanto as the leading actor made convincing enough expression and acting (great pukes as well) so that his performance made "John Evans" becoming a more interesting character.After watching it, some questions may show up in mind regarding the background story that causes things that happen in "Modus Anomali" and how the story goes after the film ends. Generally it's a recommended nice flick to spend the evening with.7/10