Rite of Way
2025 · 10m
Directed by Riley Helm
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, horror
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, theatrical
A horror-comedy in which a broke, burned-out cult of educators meets in a school gym to decide which member will be sacrificed to the gods of unholy labour, until a cheerful newcomer crashes the ritual and turns the doom-laden ceremony into group therapy.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A cult of burnt-out teachers voting on human sacrifice is exactly the kind of premise that makes people uncomfortable before they realize it's hilarious—most scouts will miss the subversion hiding under the absurdist theatrics, but that's their loss.
The film sits uneasily between horror and therapy-speak in ways that feel more opportunistic than formally rigorous; it's aware of its tonal registers but doesn't commit deeply enough to either lineage to generate real tension.
The single choice to have the cheerful newcomer derail the ceremony through genuine emotional vulnerability—rather than playing it as satire—is what makes this work; it's the moment the film stops performing and becomes something real.
Reviews
This story about a cult meeting in a school gym to decide on a potentially lethal fate for one of its members elicits as many laughs as it does waves of empathy. Yet, despite the bleakness and austerity from which it springs, Rite of Way is wonderfully lighthearted.