Netflix Snaps Up Horror Novel Adaptation ‘The Ritual’

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Adam Nevill’s award winning horror novel The Ritual was always crying out for adaptation. It’s the tale of a group of hapless ex-student friends who go on a weekend hiking trip in Sweden only to find themselves lost, having absolutely nothing in common with each other and, perhaps most pressingly, being pursued by an ancient evil. Darkly comic, occasionally philosophical and with a cast of strong, if eminently unlikeable characters, it’s the stuff that good indie horror is made of.

David Bruckner’s adaptation made a big splash at the Toronto International Film Festival, attracting offers from Lionsgate and IFC, among many others. It was Netflix that won the day though, snapping it up for a handsome $4.75 million, making it one of the biggest deals in the Toronto market.

The film stars some stellar British talent in Rafe Spall, Robert James-Collier, and Sam Troughton, and is produced by Andy Serkis’ production company: The Imaginarium. It will hit the cinemas on October 13th 2017.


The Plot:

Nevill’s story centres on four friends from college who head off into the Scandinavian wild in an effort to get away from it all and reconnect with each other. But what begins as a trip of bonding and friendship turns into a nightmare when they take a shortcut and end up lost. Some of them are injured, and they seem stranded with nothing but forest in every direction.

While trying to find their way back to civilisation, they come across what seems to be an abandoned cottage. Inside they discover ancient artefacts on the wall and bones scattered on the floor in a sacrificial manner. They soon discover that something is stalking them and is intent on keeping them from leaving the woods.

 


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