Member Reviews
Fun, But Not A Habit
I always get a little bit excited when I see a Euro feature coming my way. There's something extraordinarily erotic about European women, something that both screams sexy and dirty at the same time, while still seeming to have an air of aristocracy. The fact that these starlets will do almost anything on film is just an added bonus. Marc Dorcel is one of the bigger names in quality Euro smut these days, and Ritual is by no means difficult on the eyes.
I was excited right away when I saw the cast list. Now granted, I don't generally know all the women in a Euro flick, but to have four I know right off the bat was very exciting: Claudia Rossi, Julia Silver, Veronica de Souza, and Melissa Lauren. I could (and would) stare and Veronica's legs all day, and I'm really excited to see her in action.
The only real downside I saw to this feature was that it was a vampire flick. That genre just bores the hell out of me, and while it does provide some opportunities for playing with setting, costume, and the like, it's just a bit too overdone for my taste. Still, Melissa pulls off the vaguely protagonistic role quite nicely.
The first scene is typical period piece, with French aristocracy from just before the revolution, with unnecessary masks on everyone and odd behavioural patterns. I was happy that at least the masks didn't last too long. They bother me in that way anytime I can't see the woman's face bothers me. It turns into just a big orgy scene, very easy on the eyes, with most of the women getting DP'd and the cum flying everywhere. It's hard to recap, other than to say that every asshole gets a pretty good workout. The pacing of the action struck me as a bit fast, but that was altogether alright. At the end of the scene, Melissa wakes up back in bed, examining what appears to be bite marks. Subtle.
Melissa then starts working on her bed partner, and it was the first time I've ever seen oral done with a condom in a porn feature. Strange to me, but I guess it works. Doesn't really make it seem like the sixteenth century, but whatever. It's still well lit and hot, if not a bit choppy. A softer scene, as one might expect from watching a couple, with the cum delivered to Melissa's ass cheeks. This just felt out of sequence.
Melissa is now in the present, with the same women, still orgying it up a few centuries later. It's the kind of scene where they needed to relax the lighting a little bit. I get that it's supposed to be a club feel, but there's too much going on where I can't appreciate what I'm looking at enough. This scene very quickly gets confusing as well, though everything we look at is pleasant enough. Sometimes it's hard to tell who's getting fucked. As long as they all are, I guess it's okay.
The rest of the disc follows a similar pattern, with a mostly girl orgy on a boat that has some great rimming action between a couple of cuties as well as quite the fucking collection. If I have one complaint about the overall quality of the disc, it's that the director seems to jump to close up shots far too easily, really without having nice establishers and medium shots. There could just be some more attention in this vein that would greatly improve the overall flow. Starting with establishers, then working between mediums and close ups would be the way to go. But here they're all mixed together.
I like this film, though some of the exoticism no doubt comes from the fact that it's all in French, that the setting is so different, that the stars are so attractive. There are technical flaws here, ones that disappoint me a bit. Yet there is definitely intelligence in the story itself and the way it's told. I think it's very close, but it's lacking that bit of polish that would really put it over the top. Fans of sophisticated smut will be happy, though.