Going into this film I wasn't expecting much. At first glance you've got your fairly typical haunted house set up with a dash of creepy sibling action in the mix but this time around our protagonist is a young illegal immigrant in dire straights working a terrible job and with nowhere else to go. You know where this is going, ghosts of past residents, increasingly weird antics from the brothers, horrible dreams of a dead relative and even a cursed box this time from South America. It was not something I expected to think much about after a first watch after the intro.
I was expecting a possession story or something along those lines but with the demon being of indigenous American mythology but in the last 20 minutes it actually threw me a twist I was not expecting. The box turns out to be some sort of non Euclidean construct or gate that when opened allows a pretty gnarly looking monster to come through. Its a great fucking design that would have made Miura proud but it wasn't Berserk that I was thinking of when I saw it but another horror film a lot of people liked from a few years back, in part because of its fantastic monster design, The Ritual.
This is where the spoilers for multiple films comes in. No One Gets Out Alive actually seems to exist in the same universe as The Ritual featuring its own stunningly designed monster. The creatures share from both films are striking in design and have similar features and seem to work in similar fashions like preying on those who feel guilty or are plagued by regret and offering worshippers extended life through the capture of more sacrifices or potential worshippers.
Looking into it further it the films have the same director and are based on a series of books which explains the connections but I don't really think there was any real marketing around the fact they're connected which seems odd in the age of cinematic universes and their potential if they catch on. It's actually rather hard to talk about the spoiler without bring up the other movie but it does make for a cool little extended universe and potentially sets up a third film if the creatives want to go there. Hopefully the future monster design is as strong as the first two creatures. They're some of the best I've seen in a decade, maybe two and I love all the implications of what could be found in this world by those encumbered by extreme emotional scars in the dark places rarely traveled.
Moder from The Ritual
Itzpapalotl from No One Gets Out Alive
Itzpapalotl from No One Gets Out Alive
Do we call it, The Ritual Cinematic Universe? What other regions of the world or pantheons might you want to see the director explore for a future film?
