The Last Ritual (2023) Review

The Last Ritual (2023) Review

When renowned filmmaker Daya Lama goes missing, the media is left in a frenzy, putting the pressure on a determined detective, Rakshya, to solve the case. But as she struggles with alcoholism and a secret dark past, the odds are stacked against her.

While the investigation takes place, Daya’s adopted son, Dhiraj, embarks on a mysterious journey to the Himalayas, his intentions veiled by an intriguing blue bag. As twists and turns unfold and secrets are revealed, Rakshya and Dhiraj’s paths become intertwined, unearthing a gripping murder mystery at the centre of this enthralling thriller.

At the time of my writing this review director Pradeep Shahi’s award-winning THE LAST RITUAL has eight user reviews all of which highly praise it, and their combined score ratings have resulted in an extremely healthy 8/10 rating for this film on website IMDB. I read each of the reviews to see if there was something that I missed whilst reviewing this unnecessarily overlong and over-indulged Nepalese thriller. Was it just me that found it a slog to sit through? Apparently so, the IMDB user reviews state that THE LAST RITUAL provides Nepalese movie fans with a different and unique concept, which is perplexing as I found it formulaic, the pacing laboured, the characterisations basic and by-the-book and the camerawork near static and uninspired.

There’s humour in the mix and it is these moments, the only moments in the film that work, otherwise THE LAST RITUAL made for the longest two hours I have spent watching a movie. Come the film’s climax there was no satisfying pay-off for the time I afforded to its viewing. The IMDB reviews also praise THE LAST RITUAL for tackling ‘sensitive subjects’ and ‘complex human emotions’ – were they watching the same film I was? This is all by-the-book stuff, there’s nothing new here. The characters are basic, and their motivations are all surface rather than ‘complex.’

With murder-mysteries overloading TV viewing schedules and streaming services THE LAST RITUAL really needed to stand out from the crowd, sure it involves the spiritual practice of sky burial, and it is not every day that this gets featured in a movie, but as with everything else about the movie, it’s presented in such a static uninspired way that the end result is sadly a huge disappointment.

On digital 11 August from Miracle Media

TRAILER