I like that the detective names his inner Puritan as Oliver Cromwell. There are moments that work beautifully - the death of the girl at the start has a dreamy quality. The dialogue would work to better effect on stage in the right hands to give it readings that might tread the line between parody and satire. Major problems are headhopping and purple prose. I won’t say Pinner’s novel is bad, but it was a slog. So Pinner turned it into a novel and then Robin Hardy read it and the rest is history - insofar as the film was made but it was scripted by Anthony Shaffer. Director Michael Winner (according to Wikipedia, take that as you will) liked it and thought to make it with John Hurt but dithered too long about it. He was also starring in Christie’s The Mousetrap (“Keeping New Plays out of the West End for decades!”), so combining the procedural with occult seemed cool.
Pinner wrote this initially as a treatment for an occult film in the same vein as his recent play, the vampire comedy Fanghorn. Having come up in conversation on Twitter (I think? Rod McKie I believe can refresh my memory), I figured I should finally check it out (despite having several other books on the go, as usual - I am given to whims). The library’s only copy: large print edition!ĭavid Pinner’s novel Ritual is probably best known for inspiring the classic film The Wicker Man, which counts as horror or comedy depending on your religious alliances (or maybe a little of both - those poor animals!).
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