Rites of Spring (2011)

A ransom scheme turns into a nightmare for a group of kidnappers who become victims of a horrifying secret that must be paid every spring.

Director:

Padraig Reynolds

Writer:

Padraig Reynolds

Stars:

AJ Bowen, Anessa Ramsey, Sonny Marinelli

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
AJ Bowen	...	Ben Geringer
Anessa Ramsey	...	Rachel Adams
Sonny Marinelli	...	Paul Nolan
Katherine Randolph	...	Amy
James Bartz	...	Ryan Hayden
Shanna Forrestall	...	Gillian Hayden
Andrew Breland	...	Tommy Geringer
Hannah Bryan	...	Alyssa Miller
Sarah Pachelli	...	Jessica
Skylar Burke	...	Kelly Hayden (as Skylar Page Burke)
Marco St. John	...	The Stranger
Jocelyn Amos	...	Newscaster
Grady Champion	...	Bartender
Edward Saint Pe'	...	Weatherman
Victoria Massey	...	Store Clerk

Storyline

This movie is about Rachel and her friend who are taken by someone while in a car park while changing a tire. They wake up in a strange barn tied up and frightened. They know that things are going to get worse. The reason why they are abducted becomes clear as there is a horrible secret in the town where girls have gone missing each Spring for many years, and this year is no different. Meanwhile a group of kidnappers are plotting to take the child of a prominent business man and his wife. They take the child and go to a farm where they wait to get their ransom. The two groups collide when Rachel escapes but is chased by a stranger wearing a mask of some sort. She runs to the farm where the kidnappers are and all hell breaks loose.

---

Plot Keywords:

murder of a nude woman | nudity | female nudity | child gagged | backwood slasher | 

---

Taglines:

Fear has a season

---

Genres:

Horror | Thriller

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Screamworks Records [Sweden]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 October 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Os Ritos da Primavera

Filming Locations:

Jackson, Mississippi, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ghostrider Entertainment, Vigilante Ent, White Rock Lake Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

At around 1:02 when the characters are running around the woods, the scene very obviously goes from midnight, to early dawn, back to midnight between shots.

---

Crazy Credits

There's a scene after the end credits.

User Reviews

Definitive Mediocrity

Two girls are kidnapped in the parking lot of a bar by unknown assailants. They are taken to a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere and strung up as sacrifice to a local deity that comes out in the spring. One escapes, stumbling onto a group of kidnappers right in the middle of a ransom plot gone wrong, and about to be made worse when a large, ugly beast out of a Party City costume log comes after them.

"Rites of Spring" is your definitive mediocre, boring slasher trying to be an homage to classic seventies horror. It's not bad, and those that say it is bad clearly haven't ever seen the films this is trying to remake. No horror slasher is good. Some are simply more exciting than others. This is not one of those films.

Our heroes are nonplussed actors who are not very good at what they do. But they represent the film in that they are not bad. Perhaps it is because the script has about as much life as a decorative plastic rock made to cover up blemishes in one's lawn. It's not ever particularly interesting. But it's not bad.

"Rites of Spring" is not a bad film. But it's not a good one.