Three years ago I caught a film at Arrow Video’s FrightFest called Red Snow. It was a fairly campy, but fresh, vampire Christmas horror comedy. As someone who doesn’t really enjoy camp, or Christmas for that matter, there was very little reason for me to enjoy it as much as I did. There was something about Lynch’s script and directing style that spoke to me; it felt like a very sincere film. “I’m very interested to see what other horrors he can bring to life,” is how I ended my review of Red Snow. Cut to three years later. I’m looking through the screening library for Panic Fest, and I see this film. After seeing who co-wrote and directed it, I was excited to dive in.
The Ceremony Is About to Begin finds documentary filmmaker Keith Evans (John Laird), whose latest project centers on the Osiris Collective, a cult disguised as sort of a free-love commune. Through a series of interviews, Keith learns about a rift within the cult. After their leader, Father Osiris (Raul Delarosa), disappears under mysterious circumstances, the enigmatic Anubis (Chad Westbrook Hinds) takes charge. Members of the cult started to leave in droves, with only a handful of people left. One of the remaining members left behind is Keith’s ex-girlfriend. With the hopes of getting her out of the cult, Keith accepts an invite from Anubis to come and film at the compound.
When I said I was interested to see what Lynch would do next, found footage was not at the top of that list. Red Snow is a horror comedy, and The Ceremony Is About to Begin is fairly serious in comparison. Part of the success of The Ceremony comes from Keith and Anubis’s characters and performances. It should be stated Keith and Anubis actors, John Laird and Chad Westbrook Hinds, are also listed as co-writers. It’s unclear whether their writing credits stem from them riffing in character, or if the script was methodically written this way, but Lair and Hinds have unbelievable chemistry. The way Anubis builds and subtly works his magic on Keith almost feels like you’re watching a cult leader groom a potential member. It’s haunting.
The atmosphere throughout The Ceremony could best be described as, “Dude, get the hell out of there.” Things ramp up slowly but surely to a third-act twist that, on paper, should not work. NOTHING about this finale should work. It’s absurdly ridiculous. But…it does. Completely out of left field, The Ceremony turns into an entirely different subgenre at the drop of a hat. This lean and suspenseful cult film shifts into something that has dire consequences of worldwide proportions.
As a found footage film, The Ceremony doesn’t do anything overwhelmingly original with shot composition and camera style. It feels like many other found footage films, and it doesn’t try much to distance itself from them. And that’s okay! Whether or not the wheel is reinvented doesn’t matter; it’s the relationship between the main characters that sells 70% of the film. With excellent performances, well-executed dialogue (or improvisation), and a finale that’ll knock your cartonnage off, The Ceremony Is About to Begin is a freakily fun found footage flick.