The Ritual

David Bruckner's The Ritual is the best folk horror film since The Wicker Man. Four British friends hiking through northern Sweden take a shortcut through ancient forest and find themselves stalked by something impossibly old. The creature design — revealed in the final act as a towering, antlered nightmare offspring of Loki — is one of the most original and terrifying monster designs of the decade. Rafe Spall's Luke carries the emotional weight, haunted by guilt over his friend's death. The film's first half is a masterclass in forest-based dread: strange runes, impossible architecture, and a building sense that the woods are aware.