Movies
Lionsgate Buys A Horror Film, As Is Their ‘Ritual’
Lionsgate has picked up the indie Ritual for US distribution. The film was written and directed by Mickey Keating and stars Derek Phillips (“Friday Night Lights”). In the film, “which begins after receiving a distressed phone call, a man arrives at a seedy highway motel and learns that his estranged wife has killed a stranger who is connected to a dangerous cult.” Lisa Summerscales and Dean Cates also star. Eric B. Fleischman and Chelsea Peters (director of the upcoming The Night Stalkers) produce.
Per Deadline, After Dark Films will handle a few markets as well. The remaining territories of Canada, Germany, Japan and Spain go on the auction block next month at Cannes.
Head inside for the long synopsis.
“The radio blares a 24-hour Halloween Weekend Fright Fest as Tom Moses drives deeper and deeper into the desert. He arrives at a sleazy motel, where his wife, Lovely, informs him through the locked door that something terrible has happened. He persuades her to let him inside and discovers a man slumped against the wall on the other side of the room, stabbed to death.
Though Lovely tries to convince Tom that she only came here for a drink, he knows the real story – this isn’t the first time she’s run off with strange men in the middle of the night. Lovely begs Tom not to call the police and, against his better judgment, he finally agrees to help. Maybe he’s a fool in love, maybe he’s just a plain fool, but his decision to stay is certainly the worst he’ll ever make in his entire life. It is not long before Tom discovers a video camera in the trunk of the man’s car and plugs it into the television. He and Lovely watch as a horrifying image crackles to life: a group of individuals, shrouded in robes and disguised in skull masks, ritualistically sacrifice a helpless girl.
The situation becomes clear and Tom and Lovely realize that they need to get out while they still can. But the night has only just begun and the strangers in skull masks soon arrive with a plan of their own…”
After pulling in $28 million at the worldwide box office this month, director (and star) Dev Patel’s critically acclaimed action-thriller Monkey Man is now available to watch at home.
You can rent Monkey Man for $19.99 or digitally purchase the film for $24.99!
Monkey Man is currently 88% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with Bloody Disgusting’s head critic Meagan Navarro awarding the film 4.5/5 stars in her review out of SXSW back in March.
Meagan raves, “While the violence onscreen is palpable and painful, it’s not just the exquisite fight choreography and thrilling action set pieces that set Monkey Man apart but also its political consciousness, unique narrative structure, and myth-making scale.”
“While Monkey Man pays tribute to all of the action genre’s greats, from the Indonesian action classics to Korean revenge cinema and even a John Wick joke or two, Dev Patel’s cultural spin and unique narrative structure leave behind all influences in the dust for new terrain,” Meagan’s review continues.
She adds, “Monkey Man presents Dev Patel as a new action hero, a tenacious underdog with a penetrating stare who bites, bludgeons, and stabs his way through bodies to gloriously bloody excess. More excitingly, the film introduces Patel as a strong visionary right out of the gate.”
Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.
Monkey Man is produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions.
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