The WTF Happened to This Adaptation series looks at the 2017 horror film The Ritual, based on a novel by Adam Nevill
Apart from trying to avoid back-to-back Stephen King, trust me, he will be coming back this year as its kind of inevitable, I also like looking at modern horror adaptations. This is two-fold as the internet has done the 80s and 90s to death but also because there are some genuinely original and fantastic IPs that have yet to get the spotlight they deserve. The most recent example of this is The Ruins which is a horror one hit wonder from Scott Smith, yeah, he did other things but that was his only horror novel, and that’s a cool and original piece. The Ritual wasn’t one of those immediate releases where the book was churned into a movie before the book had time to cook and it is the only adaptation from a very U.K author’s works. While the movie did extremely well on Netflix and the book is seen as a modern classic, how well did the motion picture follow the book? Keep track of your friends while camping as we find out what happened to this adaptation.
The Movie
The Ritual, simple name and all, came out at TIFF or the Toronto International Film Festival in September of 2017 before being released in the U.K. the following month. While it only made 1.6 million in its theatrical release, it was a huge hit on Netflix which was one of its distributors. The movie was written by Joe Barton based on the novel by Adam Nevill and directed by David Bruckner. Barton has stayed mostly in the realm of TV writing and has multiple projects coming out later. These are almost all U.K. shows, and he had a hand in the creation of many of them as well as the screenplays for some of the episodes. You will notice that this is a very U.K. production over all with much of the in front of and behind the scenes talent hailing from there and Europe.
The director David Bruckner, one of the few Americans on the project, is firmly one of our guys. He started off with directing the 2007 horror movie The Signal and has stayed in our favorite genre since then. He has written, produced, and directed several segments throughout the VHS series and was part of the underrated anthology movie Southbound. From there he would go on to do a couple episodes of the Creepshow revival, namely segments in episodes 3 and 4 from the first season as well as The Night House. In 2022 he was the director who finally brought to life the long dormant and delayed Hellraiser remake/reboot and that was certainly no small task as that movie had so many expectations behind it. Currently he has a remake of The Blob lined up, along with an A24 horror thriller called Mice.
The actors in The Ritual are Raphe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James Collier, Sam Troughton, and Paul Reid in the main roles. Spall is the focal point for a couple reasons in the movie and probably the most recognizable out of the main cast. I first noticed him in Edgar Wright’s Cornetto trilogy in various roles and even though I don’t remember seeing him, he also shows up in the fantastic Grindhouse trailer Wright made called Don’t. He has also appeared in Prometheus, an episode of Black Mirror, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom amongst many others. Ali has been around for a while, and you’ve probably seen him in the many TV series he has appeared in over the years.
Troughton had the privilege to be killed off in Alien vs. Predator but has also been in super high-profile things like Chernobyl and Mank. Robert James Collier brings with him that Downton Abby prestige and has also worked in tons of other TV shows and finally Paul Reid follows suit with many TV series but not much else I recognize. It works as if they are all good actors and come across as friends naturally.
When it was bought by Netflix for 4.75 million there were articles talking about it, but it didn’t have as much hype behind it until it started streaming on the platform. It was received well by both critics and fans with an above average rating from both sides of the coin.
The Book
When The Ritual was released in 2011 it was the author Adam Nevill’s 3rd book following 2004’s Banquet for the Dead and 2010’s The Apartment. This would be his biggest hit and get global attention but not his last to be made into a film. Nevill started his professional career as an editor before deciding to become a writer full time. In addition to his 12 novels, including one from this year called All the Fiends of Hell, he has also contributed to 5 collections and 20 short stories. While Ritual came out in 2011 in the U.K and 2012 in the U.S, it didn’t get its movie adaptation for over 5 years. That would be only 1 of 2 books to make it to the big screen with the other being No One Gets Out Alive which is a much looser adaptation of the source material. Other works that have had their rights purchased but haven’t made the leap yet include his 2012 book Last Days and his 2010 novel The Apartment.
While he started out using a publishing company, he has since switched to self-publishing for financial reasons but also the freedom that comes with being able to put out whatever content you want. Reviews for the novel of The Ritual were mostly positive with critics calling Nevill an effortless writer in the best kind of way and that he can tell a great horror story with believable characters. The Ritual, as well as many of his other works, actually won awards such as the August Derleth award for best horror novel. It’s a nice note that his publishing company is named Ritual Limited, presumably named after his most famous and beloved work.
What is the Same?
The story of The Ritual is remarkably close. It involves 4 friends taking a hiking/camping trip into the Swedish mountains. The 4 friends are named Dom, Phil, Luke, and Hutch and they all went to school, or University for those of you who refer to it that way, together. One of them injures their knee and so the group decides to head through the forests rather than continue the terrain of the mountains. They encounter a brutally desecrated animal and get kind of lost in the woods before finding some shelter. The group has bad dreams while staying in the shelter and Hutch is the first to be taken away by an unseen force or creature.
The group searches for him but is unable to find him at first before being horrified in the discovery of his hung and disemboweled corpse on a tree. Phil is next to disappear and it seems as though the group is being hunted by someone or something. Dom and Luke are captured by a woodland cult and Dom is killed next with only Luke remaining. The entire time Luke is the odd man out and the group in the village that captured him decides to save him for last to be sacrificed. Luke learns that the creature hunting him and killing his friends is called Moder or Mother and a village woman is set on sacrificing him for her own gain.
Luke escapes and puts an end to the cult, but not quite the monster, by killing everyone he can and damaging “Mother” while escaping back out into the forest. He makes it out and is thrilled to be alive even if he has been driven crazy slightly by the death of his friends and the rest of the ordeal.
What is Different?
Nuance, Nuance, NUANCE. The meat and potatoes of the story are the same and even the characters’ names and ending all end up being what you get whether you read the book or watch the movie. The difference is how they get there and what the motivations are. In the book, the characters are almost there as a favor to Luke or in spite of. Kind of like an intervention almost. He hasn’t done anything with his life and the rest of them are all married and settled down. Even though two of the men are on the road to divorce, they still made a go of it and did something with their lives. The trek through the forest is different as well. In the movie they find a cabin with an effigy of what they will encounter later while the crew in the book find an actual church and remains of both humans and animals.
The other big change, and one that works really well, is why some of the group is mad at Luke. In the book they just need him to grow up and as I said the trip is kind of a last-ditch effort for an intervention. The movie opens with an entirely different preamble where the same group of friends are drinking in a pub and discussing their upcoming trip when Luke and Rob, who is not in the book, go to a liquor store to get more booze. A robbery happens and while Luke hides in fear, Rob is messed with and eventually killed. This is what the friends are upset at more in the movie, and they blame Luke for the death of their friend as he could have done more to help or prevent the killing. The creature in the film creates a bunch of nightmare scenarios that force Luke to relive portions of that night and confront his feelings and the ghost of Rob that lives in his mind. The last change is the cult and the number of followers as well as how important they are to the story. The novel goes into more detail with things like putting them in a band and having more personalities and interactions. They are also kind of the villains of the book along with mother.
Legacy
The legacy of the book and its author are set in stone. The author’s work will continue to be made into movies or TV shows and Nevill will continue to write on his self-created publishing house named after today’s work. The book and movie both tell a similar story with different details. Do you prefer guilt motivations in your characters? The movie has you covered. Is your thing more related to laziness and arrested development of a character than the book has it in spades. I do think the imagery presented in the book along with the further developed lore of the cult make it more compelling, but the movie is a really good watch and more importantly a non-sequel or remake which is always refreshing in our favorite genre. While I give the edge to the book, I say check both of them out when you need a good ritualistic pairing.
A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Adaptation? can be seen below. To see the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!