Rites of Passage

Unrated

10/16/20121h 35m

Premiere Release (US)

~ Sex, drugs, and an ancient ritual... anthropology 101 is a killer! ~

Overview:

Anthropology students and their professor experience terror when they visit a sacred burial ground.

Director:

W. Peter Iliff

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$2,500,000.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

drug abuse
ritual
anthropologist
indian burial ground
burial ground

Cast

Wes Bentley

~ as ~

Benny

Kate Maberly

~ as ~

Dani

Ryan Donowho

~ as ~

Nathan

Travis Van Winkle

~ as ~

Hart

Briana Evigan

~ as ~

Penelope

Christian Slater

~ as ~

Delgado

Stephen Dorff

~ as ~

Professor Nash

Carly Schroeder

~ as ~

Carly

Ashley Grace

~ as ~

Sandee

Guy Burnet

~ as ~

Mojo

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

Wuchak
Written 1 year(s) ago
6
When college partiers in SoCal experiment with Chumash drug rites

A ‘hip’ anthropology professor (Stephen Dorff) and his party-obsessed students spend the weekend at a mostly unoccupied ranch on the Pacific shore to take part in a Chumash jimsonweed ceremony. Unfortunately for them, the drug-addled brother of one of the students (Wes Bentley) lives on the ranch and wants a fantasy Chumash wife. Worse, there’s a psychotic crystal meth cook lurking nearby (Christian Slater).

“Rites of Passage” (2012) is a dynamic cabin-in-the-woods flick written & directed by one of the scriptwriters of “Point Break" from 21 years earlier. The ‘cabin’ in this case just happens to be a house on the coast of California on a vacant greenhouse farm in the Santa Barbara area. The production cost $2.5 million, which is certainly enough to make a competent movie of this sort.

Briana Evigan stands out on the female front as Penelope. Most of the rest of the ladies are attractive, but they could all stand to eat cheeseburgers for a week or two, if you know what I mean. For those who know Kate Maberly (Dani) from the outstanding “Secret Garden” (1993), it’s interesting to see her as an adult.

If you can handle the hedonistic spirit, the first half is compelling and amusing. For instance, one of the blondes is a Christian, which of course conflicts with the libertinism of the others. There’s also an entertaining sock monkey that seems to talk. Elsewhere, both Bentley and Slater are effective in their off-kilter roles, but the energetic second half loses its mojo along with the viewer’s attention. It needed tightened-up by editing out at least 12 minutes.

The movie runs 1 hour, 42 minutes, and was shot in November, 2010, by the coast in Santa Barbara, California.

GRADE: B-/C+