The Ceremony Is About to Begin (2025) with Underwhelming Cult Horror

Title: The Ceremony Is About to Begin

First Non-Festival Release: February 9, 2025 (Digital/Streaming Platforms)

Director: Sean Nichols Lynch

Writer: Chad Westbrook Hinds, John Laird, Sean Nichols Lynch

Runtime: 70 Minutes

Starring: Chad Westbrook Hinds, John Laird, Michelle Westbrook Hinds

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

Cults have a long history of using and abusing vulnerable people seeking connection. Great promises of personal and spiritual enlightenment can sway even the most logical thinking person into resigning their life away.

Documentarian Keith (John Laird) knows this all too well after receiving an email from his long-lost ex-girlfriend Maddy (Michelle Westbrook Hinds). Back in college, she broke up with Keith before joining an Egyptian based cult in Northern California known as the Osiris Collective. In attempting to track her down, Keith begins communicating with Anubis (Chad Westbrook Hinds) and agrees to meet him at the compound. Once he arrives, he is greeted to a nearly empty property and learns what happened to the remaining members of the Osiris Collective.

Lean yet unfulfilling found footage horror The Ceremony Is About to Begin squanders its excellent premise.

A strong start introduces the mystery behind the Osiris Collective, leading viewers into its unique setup. Leaning fully into its faux documentary aesthetic, former members of the Osiris Collective detail the final days of their established commune before parting ways when Anubis’s transition to power manifests. The wayward ex-members expound about the good times under Osiris’s leadership and make eerie statements about Anubis’s leadership. This cold open sets the scene in all the right ways without revealing too much.

Unfortunately, the story takes a turn for the worse when Keith arrives at the compound and meets Anubis, destroying the tension previously built. Bumbling around without much direction, the pair discuss Anubis’s ascent to power and Keith’s failed marriage while the main mystery remains unfurled. Once they take us to the reveal, The Ceremony Is About to Begin feels even more taxing. A neat enough idea that feels woefully under explored, the remaining 15 minutes crumbles under the weight of its pacing. All of found footage’s tricks without any of the innovation makes for a disappointing experience.

With only two characters for the bulk of the film, The Ceremony Is About to Begin relies heavily on Chad Westbrook Hinds and John Laird, who both struggle with the material. Both actors try to maintain a sense of banter during the film’s midsection blunting any tension built in the first act. Anubis never feels like a threat and Keith barely registers a personality. Neither develops significantly throughout the course of the evening, which puts a serious drag in the second half of the film, especially since the mystery remains pretty untapped.

While the overall product is disappointing, The Ceremony Is About to Begin does attempt to satirize the whiteness of alternative religious spaces leaving some interesting statements along the way. With nearly every member of the cult being white, the fixation the group has on Egyptian culture is strange to say the least. Adapting to cultural traditions unlike their own, even re-naming themselves, to feel a connection to others and their spirituality, the group abandons their beliefs once it stops serving them. Executives, elite college students, and others may have given everything to the Collective, but there is clearly a life beyond it that isn’t abject poverty. And all of it is a front for their own cosplaying as an enlightened club. While most get out, the few that don’t pay the price for their commitment. The Ceremony Is About to Begin makes it clear that there’s danger in messing with things that are not your own.

Standard found footage fare dragged down by a lack of commitment and rough production quality, The Ceremony Is About to Begin coasts heavily on its promise rather than its execution. Dull characters, a middling approach to supernatural horror, and an irritating stinger of an ending make The Ceremony Is About to Begin a tough sell. Its concept is interesting enough for diehard fans of found footage but is otherwise an engagement many would rather miss.

Overall Score? 4/10