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Ritual (2002 film)

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Ritual
Poster art
Directed byAvi Nesher
Screenplay byRob Cohen
Avi Nasher
Story byInez Wallace
Produced byRichard Donner
David Giler
Walter Hill
Ted Hartley
StarringJennifer Grey
Craig Sheffer
Daniel Lapaine
Kristen Wilson
Gabriel Casseus
Tim Curry
CinematographyDavid A. Armstrong
Douglas Milsome
Edited byRobert A. Ferretti
Michael Schweitzer
Music byShirley Walker
Production
companies
Distributed byRKO Pictures
Release dates
  • September 18, 2002 (2002-09-18) (Philippines)
  • May 2, 2006 (2006-05-02) (United States)
Running time
99 minutes
106 minutes (DVD/Blu-ray)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Ritual is a 2002 American horror film directed by Avi Nesher. A remake of the 1943 film I Walked With a Zombie, it stars Tim Curry, Jennifer Grey, and Craig Sheffer. It was released in select countries in 2002, the Philippines in 2003, and released direct-to-DVD in the US in 2006. Subsequent home video releases added a newly filmed intro featuring the Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt, though it was not produced as a Tales from the Crypt film.[1]

The film is set in Jamaica. In the film, a Jamaican girl has been excluded from her family' inheritance, and seeks revenge against her brother. She attempts to turn the brother's nurse into a zombie by use of voodoo, but the plan backfires when the nurse resists.

Plot

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Crypt Keeper intro

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The Crypt Keeper is in Jamaica wearing his hair in "deadlocks". He states that one of his favorite things about Jamaica are the "eye-popping honeys", as it shows different bikini-clad women that are nearby. He then talks about how he just finished wrapping up his new movie in Jamaica. He introduces the movie and tells them "Don't worry, the beast is yet to come".

Story

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Dr. Alice Dodgson is fired from a hospital due to her involvement in the death of a patient. With few options, she decides to take a job as a doctor in Jamaica caring for Wesley Claybourne, a young man apparently suffering from encephalitis. Alice falls in love with Wesley, but she fears that she and Wesley are the targets of a voodoo cult.

She befriends Caro, a local girl. Caro advises Alice that any recrimination from the Voodoo community will only come as a result of her interference with their practices. Tension mounts as Alice suffers additional unexplained phenomena.

Caro is revealed as the cause of the strange goings-on; she is seeking revenge against Wesley because their father Paul killed Caro's mother and rejected Caro as his daughter, denying her an inheritance. Caro attempts to paralyze Alice and turn her into a zombie, but Alice is only partially paralyzed. Alice causes Caro's plan to backfire, and Caro is turned into a zombie instead.

Alice and Wesley abandon Jamaica and move back to the United States. The local Police Chief takes Caro into his home and puts her in his bed.

In a post-credit scene, bloopers from the Crypt Keeper's intro are shown.

Cast

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Production

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In January 1998, it was reported that RKO Pictures and Miramax had entered into a co-financing and distribution deal to remake 12 films from RKO's library with one of the titles identified being 1943's I Walked with a Zombie. According to then RKO CEO Ted Hartley, there was a limited amount of time left on the copyright of several of these films which spurred the rush to remake them. In April of that year, Miramax's genre label Dimension Films had struck a deal with Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, and Robert Zemeckis to become the theatrical distributor for a new iteration of Tales from the Crypt films. An early draft of I Walked with a Zombie was written by Howard McCain. In October of that year, Rob Cohen was hired as writer and director and described his take on the film as "Fatal Attraction with black magic". Dimension eventually re-titled the film Ritual and opted to release it with the Tales from the Crypt branding with Cohen having since departed the film and now directed and re-written by Avi Nesher.[2] [3][4][5][6][7]

Release

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Ritual was originally released for foreign countries in 2002. The film saw release in the Philippines on September 18, 2002, and was also released in Japan on January 25, 2006. It was not released in the United States until May 2, 2006, on DVD. It was later released on Blu-ray in the United States on December 4, 2012.

References

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  1. ^ "Tales from the Crypt - Ritual". Avrev.com. May 2, 2006. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  2. ^ "I Walked with a Zombie (1943)". AFI. Retrieved July 16, 2025.
  3. ^ "Dimension, RKO share 'Suspicion'". Variety. Archived from the original on October 28, 2021. Retrieved July 16, 2025.
  4. ^ "Cohen captures 'Zombie'; Rhames ankles grid". Variety. Archived from the original on January 24, 2023. Retrieved July 16, 2025.
  5. ^ "Now at Sony, Woo, Chang reap 'Spoils'". Variety. Archived from the original on July 17, 2025. Retrieved July 16, 2025.
  6. ^ "'Crypt' to rise with added Dimension". Variety. Archived from the original on July 17, 2025. Retrieved July 16, 2025.
  7. ^ "RKO, Miramax hit remake row". Variety. Archived from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved July 16, 2025.
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