“I’ll be the light when you can’t see , I’ll be the wood when you need heat.

I’ll be the generator, turn me on when you need electricity”

-Justin Timberlake “Supplies”

I like Justin Timberlake. I think he’s made some solid pop music. He’s been a decent Saturday Night Live host. He’s funny, talented, and seems like a pretty good dude. But that new album of his is kind of embarrassing, right? I’m not the first one to say this. The album has been getting pretty harsh reviews, and there seems to be a bit of a backlash against him since it’s release. I’m not talking about the quality of music btw– although that’s not very good either judging by the reviews–I’m talking purely about the image projected on the album cover.

Titled “Man of the Woods”, the album cover features Timberlake deep in the southern woods, half of him dressed in a blazer and white t-shirt, and the other half of him dressed in flannel and ripped jeans. You know, like a real “Man of the Woods”. The album even features a song called “Flannel” in addition to tracks entitled “Breeze off the Pond”, and “Living off the Land”. I’m not going to savage this album any more than it has been, you can go to Pitchfork or something for that, but there is an obvious artificial quality to the entire exercise that seems to be turning some people off. Also, writing a song about flannel is weird as hell, and this is coming from someone who really likes flannel. Essentially, nobody is buying Timberlake as some sort of rugged, mountain man. He’s JT, not Jeremiah Johnson.

I bring this up, because it describes the main characters in the THE RITUAL as well. THE RITUAL (Directed by THE SIGNAL’S David Bruckner) follows a group of millenial men, somewhere around their mid-ish thirties, as they embark on a hiking trip through the Swedish woods. They are also affable, smart, and seem like good dudes, just like Justin Timberlake. I’m not sure how talented they are and I probably wouldn’t want to see any of them host SNL. The men embark on the trip through the woods as a way to remember a friend, Rob,  who was killed six months earlier during a confrontation inside of a liquor store. The trip is a way to honor Rob’s wish of hiking through the woods as a bonding experience that will serve as an alternative to their normal drunken stroll through the pubs. Rob wants to do this as a way to prove something, whether it be courage, or masculinity. The problem is none of the men in THE RITUAL are particularly well-equipped to survive this sort of expedition. They are Justin Timberlake during “FutureSex/LoveSounds”, and not “Man of the Woods”.

The only things I had seen from Director David Bruckner before watching THE RITUAL were his two segments from the horror anthology movies, THE SIGNAL, and V/H/S. I remember appreciating THE SIGNAL more than liking it at the time, but I do remember thinking the initial segment of the film which was directed by Bruckner was the best of the three segments that comprised the film. I wasn’t blown away or anything by “Amateur Night”, his short segment for V/H/S, but I remember liking it well enough. It’s one of those segments in a horror anthology that doesn’t stick with you for any particular reason, but you don’t feel compelled to skip past it on a rewatch either.

THE RITUAL isn’t his feature length debut, he directed THE SIREN, which I have not seen, but THE RITUAL is an impressive leap into feature length filmmaking for Bruckner. I’ve seen people refer to the film as a “slow-burn”, and sure, maybe. That term has lost all meaning to me at this point, but I will say that I never felt restless or bored during its runtime, and it builds to a 3rd act that delivers for the most part.

While watching THE RITUAL, the first movie that sprang to mind was THE DESCENT, as the group of friends testing themselves physically in an unknown and dangerous situation is a plot shared by the two movies. They are  also two movies called THE ___. So they are similar in that way too. But the movie that wouldn’t leave my mind during most of THE RITUAL, was DELIVERANCE.

Much like DELIVERANCE, the characters in THE RITUAL set out to complete their excursion in an effort to prove something. In DELIVERANCE it was a group of individuals attempting to prove their “manhood” by deciding to canoe down a river in the wilderness of Georgia–a male “ritual” in its own right. The characters in THE RITUAL seem to be motivated much in the same way. In his introduction, Robert, seems genuinely concerned with proving himself on a masculine level. Belonging to a generation referred to as ‘soft”, or lacking in the ability to perform “masculine” tasks such as changing a tire or fixing a dripping sink, Robert seems to want to prove that he is “manlier” than what he is. The trip through the woods isn’t something many in his group of friends seem enthused to be embarking on, as they seem to be more interested in going out on another bender together (which probably would have worked out better, honestly), but when Robert dies–in a situation where he and his friend, Dom are confronted with real world violence and Dom cowers in the face of it–they decide to honor his wishes.

There is an honorable aspect to the trip the men in THE RITUAL, and DELIVERANCE take. The idea of pushing yourself to the limit in an attempt to figure out how much of a coward you are, or aren’t, is at the heart of both films. DELIVERANCE does this by exploring the qualities of each of the men involved. They live or die based on the characteristics each of them bring to the table. THE RITUAL kind of does that, but ends up focusing mainly on the character of Dom, and without spoiling too much of THE RITUAL, the journey of confronting one’s courage, or lack of,  revolves around him. By the end of the film, the character hasn’t necessarily conquered fear, or the existential threat of nature, but in a lot of ways he has learned that he can’t cower in fear of it either. Another thing it has in common with DELIVERANCE.

Much like DELIVERANCE, THE RITUAL explores the idea of nature testing humanity, and its perceived place in the world. In DELIVERANCE it’s a roaring river in Georgia, and the sadistic mountain men that inhabit the wilderness surrounding it. THE RITUAL goes places that I would rather not completely spoil, but much of it deals with an evil that is inhuman, ancient, and beyond what these men thought was possible.  Both films question how the men in them react when the comforts of the civilization they know are stripped way, and they are confronted with something primitive and violent. By the end of THE RITUAL that question is answered by at least one of the men, and that answer is found by not submitting to the monsters looking to control you. Also, don’t write a song about flannel.