CEREMONY
Almost totally bad

  How do movies like this happen?  Did anybody out there really think there was a market for a Christian propaganda spin on Prince Of Darkness?

Ceremony opens up by showing us its Satan, a guy in a suit and monster makeup; technically well-done, but have we ever been halfway impressed by a cinematic Satan when all there is to him is how ugly he is?  Then it zips forward 1400 years to the present; a young lady has been given custodianship of this clock-like thing, which is scheduled to open up tonight.  She invites her whole Theology class to attend with the promise of them witnessing something to forever reaffirm their faith in God.  What the device contains is a cast-down-to-earth angel who got jealous of Christ (it took her 600 years to get jealous of Christ?), who plans on, oh, doing nasty things, or something.

The title is something of a lie, because there isn't actually a ritual here; they just light candles around the device, wait, and watch.  You know how when you do this, you're not supposed to extinguish the candles under any circumstances whatsoever because then the beastie will bust out and kill you horribly?  Whatever you do, don't let that dog near the candles.

The dialogue is stupid ("This place is huge! You must have your own zip code!"), the script theologically ignorant, considering the subject matter and frequently obvious propagandistic intent ("Angels are still quite human"?), and the acting is hilariously bad by everybody.  One chick spends almost all of her screen time screaming, until a snake crawls down her throat, probably with the intention of getting her to shut the hell up.

Yessir, Ceremony is quite the piece of crap.  At least its final frames are kinda neat, showing us the futility of praying for certain people ("Watch over him, wherever he is..." Heh heh heh....heh heh heh heh heh!!!").  Directed and cowritten (with R.E. Balli II) by Joe Castro; both of 'em were first-and-only-timers.  It's easy to see why we haven't heard from them since.

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