Neil Welch
A professor takes his class on a field trip to experiment with Chumash Indian drug-taking. When they get there, two demented brothers apply their serial killing skills to the group.There is some established talent here - Christian Slater, Wes Bentley, Stephen Dorff on screen, and the writer of Point Break scripting and behind the camera. It is with him that the blame lies, because a film which is, perhaps, hoping to be a bit clever (Slater has delirious dialogues with an animated sock. It's that kind of movie) is, in fact, stuffed with clichés while being semi-incoherent. Bentley's character wanders around in quasi-autistic isolation while Slater is even more wildly over the top than usual. And they are the established talent - imagine what we get from the unknowns. For a slasher, there is very little blood and, for a teen sex movie, well, there isn't any.The story as to how this film got made is many, many times more interesting than the film itself which is, frankly, downright poor. It is, however, very nicely lit and photographed. It is interesting to note that the reviews on IMDb break down broadly into two groups - those who are students at the university featured, live in and around the area where it was filmed, and attended the premiere, who all think it was pretty good, and everyone else, who don't. I'm one of everyone else. I don't think it was pretty good.
brightflash
Once in a great great while an indie film, self-published book, or a self-recorded album comes out OK, but frankly most are just junk junk junk. This one is no exception, and promptly belongs in the dustbin. It's a jumbled meaningless mess that pridefully basks in its self-importance. The producers could have given the $2.5 million to charity and had a far better result.Some Native Americans have complained about this film not respectfully portraying their people and culture. They should take heart, because the good news is that the film is so bad that most viewers will never notice. Anyway, this film disrespects everybody. Keep reading to see how it disrespects one of the cast: If this is another indication, & the worst one at that, we've never seen a career begin to nosedive the way Kate Maberly's has. Her role in Rites of Passage (no acting needed, so it blends in with the other parts) does absolutely nothing for her career; maybe it buys a few lunches in Beverly Hills bistros. This once-so-bright and beaming star everybody loved seems to have fallen from the sky lately into bit roles, often ranging from the stupid to the degrading, mostly in indie films like this one, although this one gets the prize at being the most awful. Unfortunately, we haven't seen much substantial coming from her music interests, either. Showing up to LA events in the expected born-rich-girl designer outfit uniforms has nothing whatsoever to do with acting. We're really worried, and she should be, too. To even bother to show for Rites of Passage, she's taking some very bad advice. Ms. Maberly really needs to find her way home again.So, to avoid having your intelligence thoroughly insulted, don't bother to watch this film. By not watching, you will be giving yourself more time to enjoy something else. Anything else.
Ali Rudeegraap
This movie was okay for me. I am not a big fan of horror type movies but after seeing the trailer i thought i would give it a try. It was pretty cheesy and the acting wasn't all that good. i did like the concept of the story but i felt they could have done a lot better job at telling it. Christian Slater is one of the main characters, he wears a goofy wig which i feel is unnecessary. Being a student at SBCC and living in Santa Barbara, i did enjoy seeing places that i recognized. i would recommend this movie to students at SBCC or UCSB but as for anyone else looking for a good college movie this isn't the one i would pick.
Austin Burlington
I have to admit that I was very skeptical about watching a low budget film that I had heard nothing about, but Rites of Passage was a non stop thriller that had it all. I was very impressed what Peter Illif was able to do with the cast he was dealt, and also how he was ale to shoot the entire film in Santa Barbara. Their was controversy over the objectification of woman that this film supposedly has, but i thought it was a pretty accurate portrayal of how parties are in Illa Vista. Sure their were parts that went a little too far but its a movie what do you expectOverall the acting was much better then I anticipated. Slater delivered a solid performance and the supporting cast did a very nice job excluding the one actress who was given the role of the bad girl who always curses. The premise of the film was extremely original and is definitely hard to take seriously if you have not taken psychedelic drugs before or understand what they are capable of. I give Rites of Passage 2 thumbs up and recommend it to anyone over 17.
AD
