MAGIC RITUAL

I think it was quite pretentious to call this as a "film" as stated in the opening generic of this rather short item (a mere twenty-six minutes). It takes over three minutes to really start and almost two for the closing sequence with the credits...

The music is scary and dark : OK. But the band always have showed a deep angle for obscure matters. I don't share much this occult fantasy (I can live pretty well without it). There are some sexy images out here, but has this anything to do with music?

The mood is super oppressive ("A Night On The Bald Mountain" would be a sweet interlude in comparison). But too much of the same feeling kills the feeling. The band also investigates more metal lines than usual; but their latest album was released some twenty years ago and I guess that they just followed a more "rewarding" trend (money wise speaking).

These so-called "horrifying" scenes are actually quite basic. The bottom line being that they are not scary at all (I would even have the tendency to laugh at them) and frankly: one could listen to the music without the need of looking at these average scenes.

The other problem (which is quite important IMHHO), is that the music presented is not of immense worth, to say the least. So: what's left? Not too much, I'm afraid.

I just consider this work as a third tier cheap video movie with an average soundtrack. Two stars for this "Magic Ritual" are quite generous I believe.