Well, this is a new one.
An Egypt cult.
Huh.
It’s crazy to think that movies about cults aren’t taken with more salt than they are but we live in a time when cultish behavior has become almost the norm. Sure, many of us (I really wanted to say most but, well, yeah…) don’t fall under the sway of a cult but cults have changed. They’ve evolved. They are harder to see at first glance bu they’re still out there. Still creeping up the world.
I can’t say I have seen an Egyptian cult in a minute though, so hey, welcome back, old friend: Hail Anubis and such.
CEREMONY focuses on a documentary filmmaker who is interviewing past members of a cult obsessed with Egyptology. The filmmaker is interested in learning more about this group, though we don’t quite find out why until he gets a mysterious invitation from the groups new leader, inviting him to the compound. The filmmaker, we discover, was interested in the cult because someone he had known and cared about had become involved with them and their new leader, the same one that sent him the invitation. Needing to know what became of this person from his past, he heads to the compound to see what is going on there. What he finds though only opens the door to more questions and a deep sense of danger.
CEREMONY definitely has two different vibes to it. First is the documentary vibe, which works really well, and is presented in a style we are familiar with from true-crime docs. Talking heads giving their accounts of what they experienced while in the cult. We get a picture of a modern-day hippie commune led by a charismatic leader. When a new arrival to the group begins to become the focus of the guru the cult changes and so too does the vibe.
As the film transitions to a more traditional found-footage vibe the film becomes about the documentarian as he searches for his past lover under the guise of making his movie. The tone of the film shifts and the documentary feel is gone and the danger of the situation becomes apparent.
The idea of the film is really interesting, and the acting is good, but once I saw the Egyptian motifs it was hard not to cringe a little. Not at the filmmakers so much as the whole aesthetic of these White nouveau hippies embracing Egyptology and their religious practices. My big problem with the film is that the cult is only surface deep. As far as we see/hear they never got into the anything other than the “woo-hoo” of it all, which feels like a missed opportunity. Instead of a movie revealing terrible secrets we get silly reveals that don’t say anything. The guru doesn’t feel menacing so much as just like a modern cringey influencer.
The whole film feels like a lot of missed opportunities and as things close I was left feeling like they forgot the tone of the piece and simply fell in love with one character’s performance. As things ramped up into the climax there was no horror, just confusion that never clears up. I was left missing the vibe of the film THE PYRAMID, a movie I didn’t like.
The movie is well made. It follows the imaginary rules FF movies have, and it’s clear they were giving the film their all. This doesn’t feel like a lazy cash-in or attempt to co-opt a popular sub-genre. That doesn’t mean the film worked for me, unfortunately.
It has a really interesting premise but needed more teeth and a better understanding of Egyptian mythology to give the film depth and a sense of horror.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22042436/
2 out of 5
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 