Monday, July 31, 2017

The Ritual of Death, Virginal Sacrifices Brazilian Style

We have all partaken in community theater in our towns. Perhaps we've seen presentations of "Oklahoma" or "The King and I." Maybe we've acted in "Peter and the Wolf" or "Kismet." Affordable, fun, and frivolous, community theater is a great way for us all to bond with our neighbors in the spirit of glee and wonderment. Community theater in Brazil is completely different, at least according to 1990's "The Ritual of Death." In Brazil, this amateur theater is more of an endeavor influenced by H.P Lovecraft than the spirit of neighborhood.
Brad approaches Carol
A community theater troop in Brazil has decided on their next presentation! "Peter Pan"? Hardly. Nope, what better way to give hard working Brazilians a nice diversion than to act out an ancient, sacred book of Egyptian sacrificial rites? Step one: steal Brazil's version of the Necronomicon from the library. The two stars, Brad (Olair Coan) and Carol (Karina Palatnik) join Mickey (Tiao Hoover) on this mission. Rehearsals start.  Brad will play an Egyptian priest sacrificing Egyptian babe-virgins to some demonic deity.  But wait...this is Brazil, not Egypt!  Just go with it, in this film, the two cultures are merged...don't ask. Uh oh. A weird man in black (Sergio Hingst) looms at the theater. He oozes green slime and his presence also conjures up ancient Indians who perform sacrifices in the theater's basement.
An unfortunate actor
Double uh oh, Brad is possessed and he goes on a killing spree. Virgins are a rare commodity in Brazilian drama (...no disrespect to Paola Oliveira, who's virtue is unquestioned) so he settles for the beautiful actresses on his set. The demise of the beauties will be incredibly gory. For example, Mary (Leticia Vota) will have her intestines ripped out with a hammer and Lea (Josie Bernardes) will have a knife shoved into the back of her head. As Brad also starts oozing puss, and he pulls his face off, more promiscuous actresses are ripped apart and Carol, the female lead, is put in more peril. Don't worry, these actresses will show up later in the plot, not as pretty and in many pieces. The man in black continues to possess actors and actresses, if they aren't already dead, and Carol teams up with a librarian familiar with the black arts to attempt to stop the carnage.
The unfortunate Mary and Lea
Will Carol save the production of this Brazilian drama?  Will Paola Oliveira star in a modern day remake of "The Ritual of Death"? Is this film a fore-telling of the political career of Dilma Rousseff? Bloody and disgusting, fans of icky drive-in type horror will love this gem from the land of the Amazon. Directed by Fauzi Mansur, "The Ritual of Death" will have the weak of stomach covering their eyes.

6 comments:

  1. This sounds like just another day on a set in La La Land. Of course, I was in community theater & oddly enough that pesky Necronomicon never made an appearance. Damn! I wanted to sacrifice virgins & slay Deadites while singing, "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miz. Fun review, Christopher!

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  2. Great review Christopher, I just revisited over weekend for the first time in several years & had a blast with it, it comes across like a weird combo of The Evil Dead & Stagefright. Wooden acting, atrocious dubbing, skeptical cops- it's all there & emerges as a silly but fun flick that doesn't fully make a whole lotta sense but where there's rarely a dull moment. Glad you liked it mate & very nice review again. :)

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  3. As if am-dram could get any more evil 😈

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  4. Corpus Vile makes a good point comparing this film to a strange combo of Evil Dead and Stage Fright. Haven't seen this in years but I own it, I might dig it out today.

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  5. ive seen this one. its pretty good a twist of evil enjoyable. your review splended as usual.

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  6. ive seen this one. its pretty good a twist of evil enjoyable. your review splended as usual.

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