Suspended from practicing medicine, a doctor takes a position giving care for a man's brother who lives in Jamaica where she finds that he's suffering from the effects of a powerful voodoo curse that turns them into zombies forcing her to put an end to the evil forces once and for all.

This one here is a rather fun and enjoyable voodoo film. One of the best parts of this one is that it builds up an incredible atmosphere in here through the effective use of it's supernatural overtones. This is one of the few films that manages to really use the mystery and magic of voodoo and does this spectacularly, making it appear to be quite dangerous and something to be feared. Due to this, the first half is incredibly suspenseful with the mysterious actions around them which are done through a series of rather freaky ideas. The set of hallucinations that occur here are marvelous, with the jungle coming alive and attempt to destroy the car the two are traveling alongside being one of them, and a later scene where a hallucination of the collapsing roof falling onto them, despite being the only one to see it, is a fantastic scene as well. As these grow in stature throughout the film, there's plenty to like here with the way these cause an enhancement of the supernatural threat that constantly runs in the film. That starts with the opening, with the wedding ceremony giving way to the confrontation in the lab which is a nice way of getting this going, the increasingly strong supernatural attacks that are used to build a strong mystery in the meantime and the freak-outs done by the possessed victim are just plain fun. The ending confrontation in the fields during the voodoo ceremony is really good as well, using more voodoo charms, a tense buried alive sequence and a suspenseful standoff that is pretty intense. The last big part of the film is the gore, which here works quite well for the film. These here are all that work for the film as this one didn't have many flaws, and there really is only one which does affect the film somewhat. This is that the film is slightly overlong and somewhat dull at times. This one really shouldn't have been that much over an hour and a half at all, and really should've been trimmed in certain areas as there's several scenes which go on for much longer than they should. The middle section of this is the most apparent, featuring several scenes that aren't that important. The trip to the beach to frolic in the surf and the family visits to the shack for no reason being the main exceptions, and the exposition in the beginning to get the story involved could've been done a little quicker, as it really could've had the same impact it does now with a little time removed. Since there's no titular connection to the series, including the Crypt Keeper wraparounds are unnecessary as well, and since there's hardly any dark comedy or humor to come from it, it's just pointless. All of these make the film feel longer than it should, and give the film it's one true flaw.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and a mild sex scene.

New York City Dr.Alice Dodgson (Jennifer Gray) finds herself a job after losing her patient and her medical license for two years. She travels to Jamaica, where her doctor license isn't needed. She's hired by a wealthy American (Craig Sheffer) to check on his younger brother (Daniel Lapaine),who's thinks he's a zombie. Alice quickly realized, there's an virus spreading in Jamaica and she also finds herself in the exotic rhythm of this foreign place. But since there's mysterious murders are happening in the middle, Alice has to uncover the truth and save her patient before it's too late.

Directed by Avi Nesher (Doppelganger:The Evil Within) made an enjoyable horror film has some suspense, humour and an unexpected plot twist at the end. This third and probably last feature from the HBO Series "Tales from the Crypt". Which executive producers:Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver and Oscar-Winner:Robert Zemeckis were involved in this movie. Like they did on the HBO Series and two previous features from Universal. This was made for theaters but it got shelved for five years... finally released to DVD!

DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer and an good Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD has no special features. This movie is actually an remake from the RKO Radio Pictures titled "I Walked With A Zombie". It's also the first film that "The Crypt Keeper" doesn't appear near the closing credits. Grey and especially Kristen Wilson looks great in it. "Ritual" is a modest horror film and it is the most coherent of the three "Tales from the Crypt" movies. Horror fans will certainly enjoy it. Nesher co-wrote the screenplay along with Rob Cohen (The Mummy:Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Dragon:The Bruce Lee Story, The Fast & The Furious). (*** 1/2 out of *****).

Right, well I was lured in to watch this 2002 movie for two things; first and foremost because it was a Tales from the Crypt movie, and secondly, it had Tim Curry in it.

Okay, well as for it being a Tales from the Crypt movie, well that might very well be so, but don't expect too much from the movie itself, because it feels nothing like the series, and there is absolutely nothing to tie it to the franchise, aside from a short appearance of The Cryptkeeper. Yeah, that was about it.

The storyline in "Ritual" was adequate, but it was just something that had been done and seen before. I mean, voodoo rituals are hardly something new and innovative. But the storyline just felt too rigid and mundane actually, which lead to "Ritual" being a less than mediocre movie to sit through. The pacing of the storytelling was just so horribly slow. And it didn't help that nothing worthwhile happened most of the time as the story trotted on and on.

The acting in the movie was adequate, but it was restricted given the fact that the storyline was so slow and mundane. The character gallery, however, had so much potential, but I just feel that the majority of the characters in the storyline just weren't utilized for what they could have. It was nice, though, to see the likes of Craig Sheffer and Tim Curry in the movie, but they just weren't given enough time on the screen, and they could otherwise have brought the movie so much more worth.

All in all, "Ritual" was by no means a grand piece of cinematic history, and it seemed that I hadn't been missing out on anything grand here from director Avi Nesher. My rating of "Ritual", once the Obeah dust settles, is a mere three out of ten stars. There are far better voodoo-based movies out there.