There are many snatches of dialogue in Ritual which, for me, brought forth vague memories of dialogue in The Wicker Man.

There are characters in Ritual which seem to be clear inspirations for some of Shaffer's characters, the most obvious being Anna Spark, whose unabashed sexuality surely paved the way for Willow MacGregor. We have the initial basic premise, which is almost identical. We know that Shaffer attempted and abandoned a screenplay based upon the novel. So, is it fair to say that Anthony Shaffer borrowed from this novel? To a certain extent, yes. If you think Lord Summerisle is fond of a florid turn of phrase, wait till you hear Lawrence Cready, Pastor White and Squire Fenn in full flow. The characters are grotesque, vaudevillian creations and wonderfully over-the-top it's as if they have one eye on the audience in the stalls and are intentionally camping it up, playing for cheap laughs. If you can get past the excessively rich and over-worked dialogue, 'Ritual' is an enjoyable, engrossing read with a narrative that, after the initial Wicker Man similarities, treads a very different path towards an entirely different conclusion. Policeman arrives at a remote village to investigate the death of a child and is confronted with an increasingly bewlidering array of psychological trickery, erotic encounters and pagan practices. For me, the thrill of finally getting hold of 'Ritual', apart from the prospect of becoming absorbed with an obscure 1960s occult novel, was in discovering exactly what similarities exist between the two works and whether the accusations of plagiarism are in any way justified.īasic premise? Well, it's not dissimilar to the aforementioned film. It is deemed by some to be the inspiration behind Anthony Shaffer and Robin Hardy's much-loved occult horror film, and this in itself is the cause of much controversy and sometimes heated debate. I've been meaning to pick this book up for many years, mainly because of 'The Wicker Man' connection.

Ritual pinner novel