SPOILER DISCUSSION
1. Interestingly enough, the way the characters position themselves also shows how open they are to being vulnerable. Dom, who’s always furthest away from Luke, ends up being the one to say what the whole group is thinking and call him out for his perceived indifference to the situation. Later on in the movie he’s also the only one determined to not leave Hutch’s corpse alone, opting to make a makeshift funeral covering out of the twigs – representations of the emotional suffering the group is going through.
After him is Phil, who to no one in the audience’s surprise, is more than freaked out about being found naked in front of the Jötunn effigy.
His desperate attempts at getting the group to talk about their dreams are constantly rebuffed by the third in line, Hutch. Given each character is a stepping stone of first to Luke getting to open up and confront his emotional stunting, it makes sense that the order he loses them is Hutch, Phil, and then Dom – going from most emotionally reticent to fully emotional – showcasing his emotional growth by the end of the movie.
2. Usually movies fail because they reveal the monster. This is because the monster usually cannot sustain the level of intrigue or suspense that thinking about the monster can. The Ritual is an exception to the rule as the aesthetic design of the Jötunn is horrifying. Its eerily human features become almost revolting given the rest of its body composition. The hidden face inside that can transform, the headless effigy that’s actually a part of its build, and the immense size of the creature give it a gravitas that makes it more terrifying once we can fully see it. It’s a perfect representation of the grief and guilt that Luke feels and his choice to fight it head on is what makes the end of the movie so powerful in spite of some shakiness.
