The Ritual Killer is a thriller movie directed by George Gallo starring Morgan Freeman and Cole Hauser.
One of those movies that make us appreciate other good murder thrillers: simplistic, incoherent and only made to bring in money.
Movie Review
A movie written from clichés and which hopes that those clichés, all stuck together, work. They have worked a thousand and one times, and in addition, we have a starring actor who specializes in thrillers. But, no – it doesn’t work and it doesn’t work in the slightest, with its telefilm photography and its unimaginative scenes, and a script which is quite simply incoherent and created from chunks grabbed from other, more intelligent, offerings in the genre.
We love Morgan Freeman and celebrate each of his performances, but the films he appears in have not always been the best and nor have they flattered his brilliant resumé either. This is certainly not one of the best and there is nothing in it that can be salvaged at all – except for him, who is there wearing his trademark expressions and doesn’t exactly have to put much effort into it, just adding yet another film to his very long (and brilliant) career.
It’s disappointing with its intended discourse about psychological motivations that makes you want to deal with the scriptwriters in a ritualistic way, it disappoints in terms of narrative conception (that’s if anyone involved actually even contemplated such a thing) and specifically falls short in the treatment of the scenes, which are especially sloppy.
Once it got to the editing room, there wasn’t much of a way to fix the incoherencies, nor the gobbledygook voodoo along the way.
It would have been necessary to do voodoo – and highly potent voodoo at that – to repair the idea, one which is weighed down from the beginning by it’s intention of making another easy killer thriller that, by making it so facile, fails from the outset.
The Cast
 Morgan Freeman / Dr. Mackles |  Cole Hauser / Detective Lucas Boyd |
 Vernon Davis / Randoku |  Peter Stormare / Captain Marchand |
 Giuseppe Zeno / Inspector Mario Lavazzi |  Murielle Hilaire / Detective Kersch |
 Luke Stratte-McClure |  Julie Lott / Doctor Mannheim |
Virginia Dru Bramblett / Jesse Boyd
Brian Kurlander / Shelby Farner
