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THE RANDOM SCARES OF RED BOOK RITUAL: GATES OF
HELL
by Thomas M. Sipos,
managing editor [April 27, 2025]
[HollywoodInvestigator.com]The Red Book Ritual: Gates of Hell (RBFGoH)
is not really a feature film, but rather what I call a random
anthology film. An omnibus of horror shorts by different writers
and directors who did not produce their works specifically for this
anthology.
Let's put that into historical context.
Usually, horror anthology films are written by the same writer and
helmed by the same director. The wraparound and individual tales are
all linked -- dramatically, thematically, and aesthetically. This was
true of the first such film,
Dead of Night (1945). It was true of
Amicus's anthology cycle (1965-74) and of
Creepshow (1982).
Spirits of the Dead (1968) and
Two Evil Eyes (1990) are rare examples where the shorts had
different directors, but they were specifically produced with the
final feature in mind. All the stories were dramatically and
thematically linked; in both films, all shorts were inspired by Edgar
Allan Poe.
Fast forward to the 2000s. The proliferation of
horror film festivals, YouTube, and cheaper and easier digital
filmmaking equipment, leads to a massive increase in the production of
short horror films. At which point, distributors come up with an idea.
Why spend money shooting an entire feature film, when you can just buy
up some shorts, shoot a wraparound for them, and call it a feature?
And thus was born the random horror anthology film, which has
become so prevelant as to practically be its own subgenre.
Such is The Red Book Ritual: Gates of Hell,
which is a sort of sequel (at least in name) to
The Red Book Ritual (2022), another random horror anthology
film.
RBRGoH's wraparound concerns four young
people who invade a creepy abandoned house to contact the dead. Five
random short films are interspersed amid their efforts:
Otherkin (2022),
Tranvia (2021), Midnight Delivery
(2018), #Nofilter (2021),
Mystery Box (2018). Note that these films
were produced by different creative teams over several years. None of
them relates to RBRGoH's wraparound story
or to each other.
Random is the correct word for the overall aesthetic.
RBRGoH is a New Zealand/Paraguayan
co-production. The wraparound seems to be shot in Paraguay, but all
five shorts are American (well, Mystery Box
is a Swedish co-production).
That said, both the shorts and wraparound have good production values.
Slick visual effects, talented casts, and many beautiful actresses.
But the stories themselves are mostly poor to unexceptional.
Midnight Delivery and
Mystery Box are standard "boo films." (A
lone protagonist in a quiet setting comes upon something odd and then
... Boo! The end.). Both these films have young attractive
woman living alone. One finds a mask on her doorstep. The other finds
a box on her doorstop. After very little story ... Boo! The
dire outcomes and visual effects are practically identical.
Otherkin feels like a "proof of concept"
film. What I call "promo films." Short films intended to show
investors what the feature version might look like. Promo films often
lack closure, thus failing as a short story.
Otherkin suffers that problem. A young woman finds her
biological parents. Much is established or hinted at by way of
exposition, but nothing is followed up or explained. The shocking
ending leaves us hanging. We are left with that typical promo film
feeling that the story was just beginning when it ends.
Tranvia is about a woman in an empty
streetcar. Spooky things occur, courtesy of excellent visual effects,
but it's all very random. Don't ask me what this story was supposed to
be about. Another promo film, perhaps. Yes, it might make for a scary
feature, provided a story can be found for it.
#Nofilter is the best of the bunch. A
young woman uses a new (and unexpectedly supernatural) filter for her
selfies and dating apps, with dire results. Of the five shorts in
RBRGoH, this is the only one with an
actual story; a theme, a series of events, a character arc, and
closure.
#Nofilter is an American short released
in 2021. It's not to be confused with the 2019 Belgium short,
#No_Filter, which was later made into the
2022 feature, #No_Filter. Yes, the
stories and themes of all three films sound pretty much the same.
It's hard to call RBRGoH a feature. It
has a running time of 80 minutes, but not counting the beginning and
end credits, it's only 68 minutes long. Slick production values,
excellent visual effects, and pretty women. But very little in the way
of satisfying stories. Just a series of random characters and events.
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