Rites of Spring
Director: Padraig Reynolds
Writer: Padraig Reynolds
Cast: Anessa Ramsey, Sonny Marinelli, Marco St. John, AJ Bowen, Shanna Forrestall, Skylar Burke, Katherine Randolph
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

Plot:
A man (Marco St. John) kidnaps two women, Rachel (Anessa Ramsey) and Alyssa (Hannah Bryan). But what exactly is he planning with them? At the same time Ben (AJ Bowen) is planning the kidnapping of his former boss’s daughter with a few accomplices. As things are getting bigger and weirder than they could have anticipated, the paths of Rachel and Ben cross.

I saw many movies during the /slash, at least 3 a day usually, altogether almost 40 films in 10 days. But I can remember all of them quite clearly (I’m still happy I took notes after every film). All of them, that is, but Rites of Spring. It was just so inconsequential that it didn’t stick.

Rites of Spring falls between the cracks. It’s not a good film, not by a long shot, but neither is it so bad that the badness alone would make you remember it (or maybe even enjoy it). Instead the movie washes over you, bores you, jolts you once or twice and when it’s over there is no necessity to ever think about it again. (Unless you’re a film critic because then you’ll have to think long and hard about what to say about it.)

The problems are manifold, but the first big problem is that there is just no tension anymore after The Stranger kidnaps the two women. That part, admittedly, was very well done.

The second big problem were the characters. I just didn’t care about any of them, nor did I want to know what would happen to them. Life, death, torture, … whatever. Those are never good prerequisites for a movie’s success.

I did fall asleep for a bit in the middle (the screening started at 3am and I was bored, don’t judge) but from what I gather I only missed protagonists behaving stupidly. I can live with that. And for the ending that wasn’t really an ending and was illogical, I was awake again. Though I could’ve lived without that as well.

Summarising: just leave it.