The Ritual House 2025 (Boonie Publishing & Productions / Unchaseable) Review
The Ritual House gets a lot right on paper. Our main lead, Donna Winters (played by Donna Spangler) inherits her father’s home after his passing. Only problem is, she also has a lot of debt to pay off. So, her best friend Ling (played by the director of the film Huang herself) gives her the idea to Airbnb her newly acquired home to get some income. Only problem is, this house be haunted. It’s a simple set up that provides opportunities. The Ritual House has all the right ingredients at it’s disposal, but it’s final mix comes across off.
This house is some nice new digs. Check out all that fancy art.
The Ritual House’s is Crystal J. Huang’s second outing, and she has chosen to involved as one of the main players again here. The problem is Crystal gets in her own way of her film. Her delivery comes across as very wooden, and her inactions with Donna Spangler just give off this strange vibe. Donna Spangler struggles a bit with her range to so when the two are onscreen they do not give off BBF chemistry. Instead you have these instances of awkward exposition interchanges as these two actresses escalate their weakness whenever they have a scene that just involves them. I hope for Crystal’s next film, she either focuses on directing or takes some time to work on her acting craft, because here the film suffers from it. The supporting cast all do a pretty solid job once they come into the story. Courtney (Lauren Francesca) is clearly having a fun time playing a social media influncer who loves the color pink. Bob (Curt Clendenin) is entertaining as a jaded ex of Ling.
The house itself does make for a cool setting, there are some really interesting shots with mirrors and shadows in this movie. There is a bathroom tub scene which had a fairly solid execution and a cool look to it. The make-up and practical effects themselves look great. In terms of the CGI visual effects, well they come off less convincing and definitely up the camp factor into Sci-Fi channel territory.
“Did we see something spooky?” “Nah, just our mind playing tricks on us!”
One thing I appreciate is that the hauntings almost begin right away, instead of some films where they save everything towards the end. However, it almost works against the film in some ways as there isn’t much time given to setting up Donna Winters and the tone of the film. Also, a lot of the good creepy sequences happen in the first act of the film. When the renters enter the story halfway through the film, things start slow again and have to build again. A general rule for horror films, is you want your hauntings to start small and build as the movie progresses. The Ritual House struggles with this a bit with its momentum and pacing.
The Jump cut and speed editing style that appears for some of the creepy moments also kind of makes things messier than they need to be. There’s also only so many times you can have a creepy moment end with the character waking up in bed before the effect wares off. But there are some creative and fun kills here. The way the video editor Butch is taken out was really neat.
Ling toasts to her new idea of making big bank by renting out the empty rooms.
As the film reaches its climax, it leans more towards a comedy instead of a horror flick due to the execution. In typical horror movie fashion, the movie also ends with a twist, which isn’t to surprising. The Ritual House checks off all the trademarks of a haunted house film, but it’s end result is a campy horror flick that can be entertaining for a few laughs and goofy spooks. There is also a very strange visual effect when Courtney goes to take a selfie wtih Ling, it has to be seen to be believed. I’ll be curious to see what direction Crystal J. Huang takes next, and hope she can improve on her craft for the next outing.
