The Ritual is the long awaited sequel to Head case, if you never seen the first film I highly recommend doing so now. The Ritual picks up where the first film ends, Andrea is caught by police and Wayne is on the run, a fugitive for the first time. As The Ritual opens Wayne is having an open conversation with his son, a serial killer himself. They are discussing what went wrong, why and where Wayne would go from here. This is a great opening because it gets us caught up to prior events and gives us a clue as to what is in store. Now on the run Wayne decides he needs to find a new partner in crime and someone he can groom into taking over and carrying on the his evil ways after he too finally gets caught by police. Jared is a young teen he picks as his protégé, the problem is the young teen seems willing and ready to learn at first only to get second thoughts later. One of the biggest problems with sequels to any film is staying true to the original while having their own identity as well and The Ritual does just that. The film gives us a look back at the first one, getting us caught up and finding us in with more details from the past as well but it also goes beyond the first introducing new characters and events keeping it fresh and original. What made Head Case so good was the fact that the film put you inside the mind of the twisted couple and The Ritual continues that that while adding so much more to the story. The copy I received is a rough cut of the film so I am sure there is going to be some changes for various reasons such as pacing but as it is now this is very well done as far as detail to story goes giving us a lot of information to fill in the original story. The Ritual is in a lot a ways a superior film to the original that provides the same disturbing violent images but it takes us deeper into the disturbing life of Wayne which gives us a better feel of just how sick and twisted this man really is. The Ritual has a surprise ending as well that I never saw coming and this is a fitting and brilliant finish to the story of these two sick individuals, certainly a twisted yet memorable film that you will not soon forget. Director Anthony Spadaccini shows us once again that he has a great eye for the camera and that he is one of the most promising young film makers to come along in some time. Released by Fleet Street Films. ***** Out Of *****