Jonny_Numb Review of Tragic Ceremony

Tragic Ceremony (1972)

This "Tragic Ceremony" Casts a Wicked Spell

[7/10 · 15 February 2008]

Few international starlets have gained as much notoriety from such a limited filmography as Camille Keaton, and not without due cause: "I Spit on Your Grave" was made a must-see cult favorite by the condemnations of Siskel & Ebert, while her other films have remained in relative obscurity. "Tragic Ceremony" is an early Keaton offering, an Italian-made mindscrew that takes aim at the '60s hippie culture and the eccentricities of the bourgeoisie, while crafting a fairly suspenseful, surrealistic tale in the vein of Roman Polanski's "paranoid-apartment-dweller" trilogy and the art-drenched works of Mario Bava. The ringmaster of this free-association nightmare is Riccardo Freda, who uses a lot of avant-garde techniques (the shaky-hand-held motorcycle ride; the wide-angle 'ceremony'; low angles and long shots) to establish a purposely inconsistent mood--it's a disorienting experience that uses a cliché setup (freewheeling hippies vacationing in the country run afoul of rich Satanists) to subvert our expectations time and again; the 'climax' seems to occur midway through, and just when we wonder where else the story could possibly go, Freda extends his creepy surrealism right up to the end (even if the final scene is marred by an overly awkward explanation that isn't really necessary). Even the violent moments (while clearly the product of a low budget) transpire in a style that exists somewhere between reality and the exaggeration of a dream. And, of course, Keaton is wonderful to watch, possessing the kind of understated demeanor that made her signature performance in "I Spit" so memorable. Now that it's on DVD, there's not excuse for any fan of Euro-horror to miss this "Tragic Ceremony."