The South African paper Independent Online praised the work as 'intense and creepy' and commented that it would work well as a horror film. Upon a rocky plain, Luke descends into a delirium and decides that, despite the many downsides of his life in London, the only thing that matters is being alive.Ĭritical reception for The Ritual has been mostly positive. Luke staggers, naked, through and out of the forest, stalked by Moder's 'white children'. Moder tears apart the truck to get to Luke, but Luke stabs her in the throat, driving her off.

Luke drives the truck through the woods and finally confronts Moder, a giant goat-like beast with human arms. Outside, he hears the enraged Moder killing Surtr and coming for him. Luke goes to the attic and kills the ancient ones, putting an end to Moder's cult. He shoots her and sees that she, too, has goat legs. Luke realises she was using him to get rid of the teenagers for her and that he is still a sacrifice. While searching for the keys to their truck, Luke hears the old woman singing in Swedish, summoning the creature which she calls 'Moder', the word for 'Mother'. Acquiring the teenagers' rifle, Luke kills Loki and Fenris, and Surtr flees into the woods. Luke wakes up back in his room, untied, and is given back his Swiss army knife by the old woman. As he screams defiant taunts, Blood Frenzy demands that the old woman summon the god, but she silently refuses. Luke is bathed and prepared for sacrifice by the old woman and tied to an upside-down cross before a pyre. Luke mocks Blood Frenzy as disturbed delinquents until they take him to the attic to see the 'ancient ones': centuries-old humans with goats' legs, tended to by the old woman. Loki claims that they are Vikings and tells Luke that he will be sacrificed to Odin. When they take him outside to see Dom's body gutted in the trees, he attempts and fails to escape. Luke hopes his hosts will call help but realises that they are complicit with the entity that killed his friends. There is also an old woman who supervises the children, and Luke hears faint scuttling from the attic overhead. They are moonshiners and a black metal band named Blood Frenzy. He is attended by three masked and painted teenagers who call themselves Loki, Fenris, and Surtr. Luke passes out and wakes up in bed in an old room. Despite sleeping in shifts, and Luke managing to hurt the creature with a rock, Dom disappears as well. Phil vanishes next, and Luke and Dom later pass his body, treated in the same fashion.

Hutch convinces Luke to leave them and press ahead for help, but before Luke can leave, Hutch is taken by an unseen entity, and the others find him naked and gutted in the branches. Further rows reveal that Dom and Phil are about to get divorced. Luke is the 'odd one out', the only one who didn't get a career and settle down. The four are disturbed each night with dreams - mostly nightmares - and visions.

Hutch falls through the floor of the church as he and Luke explore it, and find a massive amount of human remains, belonging to adults and children, and animals. They also find an abandoned church, desecrated and repurposed for pagan practices. They come across an ancient shack filled with bones and artifacts. However, the shortcut ends up causing the group to become lost and scared, especially after they discover a disembowelled animal corpse hanging from the trees. The group is forced to take a shortcut through the woods when Phil develops blisters on his feet and Dom injures his knee. The trip was chosen for its frugality due to the fact that Luke is unable to afford much else. Old university friends Dom, Phil, Luke, and Hutch have decided to reunite on a hiking trip through the Swedish mountains. A film adaptation directed by David Bruckner and starring Rafe Spall and Robert James-Collier was released in cinemas on 13 October 2017. įilm rights to The Ritual were optioned by Stillking Films, before being passed to Imaginarium. The Ritual is the winner of the 2012 August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel. It is Nevill's third published novel and was followed by his 2012 work Last Days. The book was first released in the United Kingdom on 7 October 2011 through Pan Macmillan and was released in the United States on 14 February 2012 through Macmillan imprint St. The Ritual is a 2011 British horror novel by Adam Nevill. August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel

The ritual maquette