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Morgan Freeman is back to hunt down another brutal serial murderer in The Ritual Killer. The film revolves around a struggling detective who must turn to a local anthropologist with his own dark secret to help solve a string of ritualistic murders in the area that seemingly link back to similar deaths overseas.
Alongside Freeman, the cast for The Ritual Killer includes Cole Hauser, Vernon Davis, Peter Stormare, Brian Kurlander, Mayumi Roller, Murielle Hilaire, and Julie Lott. Hailing from comedy vet George Gallo, the film is a chilling and fun ride for those that enjoy a tense murder mystery.
In anticipation of the film’s release, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with director George Gallo and star Vernon Davis to discuss The Ritual Killer, their initial reservations about the murder thriller, the joys of working with Morgan Freeman, and more.
George Gallo & Vernon Davis on The Ritual Killer
Screen Rant: I love a good detective murder-mystery deal like The Ritual Killer. George, I will come to you first, what about the script really sparked your interest to want to get behind the camera for it?
George Gallo: Well, I’ll be honest with you, it was originally given to me by the producers who I knew, and they said, “George, why don’t you take a look at this thing?” Because of my background, I came from mostly comedies, this is a big stretch for me, and I read it, and my first instinct was, “Man, I don’t want to do this, this is just effed up, I don’t want to do it.” Then, I talked to Morgan about it, and Morgan said to me, “Don’t be such a — ” I’m not gonna say the word ” — let’s do this movie together.” So, you can’t say no to Morgan Freeman, so then I started thinking to myself, I didn’t want to make an overly stylized thriller, which I think a lot of times thrillers today, they just get increasingly stylized to the point where you don’t feel like it’s happening to real people.
I said, “You know what, I’m gonna shoot this a little more down and dirty documentary-like,” and then the next thought I had was, “I love William Friedkin’s work. I love French Connection, and I love Sorcerer.” He did a film called Cruising, which some people have mixed emotions about, but I find a beautifully disturbing movie, and I watched it a bunch of times. Then I called Billy, because I know him, and I said, “Billy, I’m doing a movie that you should have done like 35 years ago, can you give me some pointers?” He gave me some thoughts about how to approach the material, and he said, “Do it without filters, don’t get scared, don’t backpedal. You may end up with something that’s somewhat abhorrent, but so what? That’s your job, you’re a filmmaker, don’t be afraid.”
Because there’s a lot of bad behavior in this movie, and your hero, if you could call him that, is highly flawed. He’s insane in a lot of ways, he’s talking to his dead wife like she’s still alive, and he’s crazy, and he’s violent, and then he comes up against a violent man. So I just said, “Okay, I’m not going to make judgments, I’m not going to do heroes and villains in my head, I’m just going to tell the story,” and that’s how I approached it.
It’s a very honest approach to the material and it worked really well. Vernon, we’re more used to seeing you in comedies and action movies. What about the darker material really sparked your interest?
Vernon Davis: There was a lot of correlation with some things that happened in my life with my mom and myself as a kid. So, when I read the script, I was like, “Wow.” But when I first read the script, there was a character named Vernon, so I was like, “Wow, this script must be meant for me.” But, there was so much correlation, and I wanted to live the life of this character. I wanted to be in it because I knew it would be therapeutic for me, and after that, I reached out to the producer, and I kept contacting him, and he gave me the part.
You say there’s a lot of correlation in the role. What was it like for you then really diving into this deeply disturbed killer?
Vernon Davis: It was really dark, it gave me anxiety after I was done. I never, never imagined myself playing a role like this, but life is all about being unexpected, right? It’s unexpected, and that means you’re moving in the right direction. So, as I played this character, it felt really good to be Randoku, because I had a chance to do things that we fantasize about sometimes, like when someone makes you mad.
I always give this analogy, say your mom dies, you go to McDonald’s sometimes, and they get your order wrong. You got to keep coming back, how are you going to handle that? In our mind, we want to do something really crazy, it messes with our mind. You just want to kill, you say, “I want to kill this lady,” right? [Chuckles] So, I get a chance to tap into all of that, I got this alter ego, something you can’t do in real life, but you can do it in the movie. So it felt really good in a way.
I also love his appearance, between the scars and the way he dresses. Was that a group collaboration between the two of you, or was that in the script already?
George Gallo: It was in the script, and Joe Lemmon, who was one of the producers, researched this heavily. When I started this, I knew nothing about Muti, or how it all worked out, and I went online, I looked at what the Warriors looked like, they did all kinds of things to their bodies and faces, each thing had different meanings. But I just let them do it, I wasn’t going to get in the way of it. And then, obviously, Vernon had a lot to say about it, and I’ll let Vernon answer, I just let actors go. It seems absurd to me to put a lot of talented people in the room and then micromanage them, I don’t understand that. You get all these people together, and then everyone works on making something work, hopefully, it’s like, “Let them go. Let them create.”
Vernon Davis: It was great, I walked into wardrobe the first day I arrived, and we were trying all these different garments. I saw this shirt, and it had this one gold button, and we decided to say, “Hey, can we do all the buttons all the way down in gold?” We did, and it really embodied the character, it fit him just right. Being from South Africa, I want this character to look rich. But it was great, it was a lot of fun picking out the wardrobe.
George, you mentioned your lead character being this damaged protagonist who is talking to his dead wife. What it was like finding the perfect person to bring that type of character to life in Cole Hauser?
George Gallo: We talked to a lot of people, and then somebody mentioned Cole. I went, “Oh, yeah, Yellowstone, I love that show.” I got on the phone with Cole, and we talked about it, and I find that you can tell within seconds, within a minute, if a person has a grip on something, and what they want to bring to it. What Cole said to me was he was a guy that when you see him on the outside, he looks like he’s functioning, but the second he’s alone, you realize how effing crazy he is, his demons and his thoughts when he’s alone in that house.
But to me, it’s like a lot of authority figures, you see a person in a uniform, be that a soldier, a policeman, a politician, you assume they’ve got their stuff together, but you don’t know what they’re like at three o’clock in the morning at the end of the bed, you know? So that’s what we were playing around with, and I hope people understand. One film critic got particularly nasty, that the film was advocating police brutality, I didn’t see it that way at all. I think that this guy is an inch away from completely going crazy, and that’s why he’s behaving the way he is, so obviously, the person didn’t get it.
I was saying that a very damaged, crazy human being was chasing another evil person, and they’re both sort of evil in different ways to me, so I thought that was interesting. So anyway, that was the intent.
Vernon, you have a little bit of interaction with Cole in the film, but a lot of your interactions are with Morgan. You’ve been acting alongside a few heavyweights in recent years, but what was it like for you coming face to face with Morgan, especially in this very intimidating role?
Vernon Davis: In real life, I’m shaking, I’m trembling, I’m sweating. I’m like, “This is Morgan Freeman. I don’t know what this guy’s gonna do. He’s gonna tell me I’m not doing a good job, or what, I don’t know.” [Laughs] But, it was great standing there, being in the midst of a legend, an icon, and working with him was truly amazing.
We had one scene where I was walking towards him with a knife and I made a choice, but he said, “Try this.” And it was very subtle, just dropped it, looked at him, looked up, and then walked towards him. He loved it, he said, “Yeah, like that.” But it was wonderful being on [set with him], I didn’t know what to expect, because I’ve never worked with him. But after leaving, I was very, very impressed.
Was there anything that you tried to glean from him while working with him, given his breadth of experience in the industry, for moving forward in your acting career?
Vernon Davis: Oh, yeah, we talked about everything. We talked about just being subtle, and just all the little nuances that you you need as an actor. We talked about the film a little bit, but more so just just the craft, and kind of the intention behind a scene, and George will tell you too, he and Morgan would have have debates, every now and then. Morgan’s really very logical, so he wants to really understand, “What’s going on? Why am I doing this?” So, I was just looking at that, taking it all in, and just watched a legend go to work.
George Gallo: I went through a similar thing that Vernon’s talking about the first movie I made with Morgan, because this is my fifth. It was several years ago, and literally, I woke up early, and the first thing I was going to shoot on this movie was Morgan Freeman. I only met him for dinner the night before, and that’s already intimidating, you know? So I meet him on the set the following morning, and he walks on set fully in wardrobe, and he goes, “Alright, where do you want me to stand?” and I went, “Mr. Freeman — ” he goes, “Cut that out, it’s Morgan.”
I went, “Okay, this is Morgan Freeman, this is God, for crying out loud.” He says, “What do you want me to do?” I said, “Well, I’d like you to stand here at the window and say the line and then when you get to this line, you turn, you’ll step into the light on that turn, and blah, blah, blah.” So he goes, “Alright.” I said, “Do you want to rehearse?” He goes, “No, eff it, let’s go!” So, action, and we roll and he crushes it in one take, crushes it, and then I say, “Cut,” and he goes, “Anything else?” I said, “No, Mr. Freeman, that was actually perfect,” and he said, “You and me are gonna get along just fine.” [Laughs] We became like best buddies.
George, you talk about your past and comedies and how you were initially hesitant to do this. Was there any one scene in particular that you found extra challenging or extra intimidating to help put together?
George Gallo: Yeah, it’s a quick scene in the movie, when Vernon was in the room with at night with the little boy and the candles. I had to force that kid to cry, because he was jamming up a little bit as a young actor, and I was trying to get him to cry, and his mother was there, and she was holding his hand off-camera and he’s bawling, and Vern is walking around, seeing all that ritual stuff. I’m like, “Man, I can’t wait for this night to be over.” [Laughs] It was tough for me.
Plus, we’re shooting in a really rotten location, we’re in some abandoned place out in the middle of nowhere in Mississippi, and there’s like cicada bugs and they’re so loud, you can barely hear yourself think. It was like 110 degrees in the middle of the summer, and then we have all the candles going, and this kid’s crying, and the mother’s there, and we’re trying to shoot, and Vernon’s in his head doing his thing, and it kind of made me miss doing a comedy. I think it’s a good scene.
About The Ritual Killer
The Ritual Killer follows Detective Boyd (Hauser), who, unable to process the death of his daughter, embarks on the hunt for a serial killer who murders according to a brutal tribal ritual: Muti. The only person who can help Boyd is Professor Mackles (Freeman), an anthropologist who hides an unspeakable secret. The line between sanity and madness thins as Boyd goes deeper into the killer’s world.
The Ritual Killer is now available on digital platforms and VOD.
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