The Ritual ending explained: Why didn't the creature kill Luke?

The Ritual is a movie directed by David Bruckner and is adapted from a novel of the same name written by Adam Nevill. The film stars Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, Sam Troughton and Paul Reid in the lead roles. Here is an explanation of the ending of the film and why the monster didn't kill Luke by the end of the film.

Plot of The Ritual

Four friends go on a hike through a forest which is possessed by a demon monster that kills people who do not submit to his authority. Many villagers who live in the forest worship the monster in exchange for immortality. By the time the four friends, Phil, Dom, Hutch and Luke figure out that the forest is possessed, it is too late as the monster or demon starts killing the group one by one.

Throughout the plot of the film, Luke’s guilt keeps building up as he sees his friends dying one by one. Despite being at the same place where a friend gets mercilessly killed. Luke is always spared his life, this, in turn, fills him with more pain and agony.

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Ending of the Ritual

Only Luke is left from the group by the end of the film. He comes face to face with the monster or demon as he runs for his life trying to escape the forest. The figure of the monster is finally revealed in the film and viewers get to see that the demon is much bigger than what Luke could have imagined.

The demon pushes Luke down to the ground again and again and he seems to be very close to his death. Luke rises one final time and seemingly hurts the demon with an axe. Then Luke runs out of the forest and discovers that the monster is not following him. Taking a sigh of relief, he walks towards civilisation.

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The Ritual Ending explained

• Luke screaming at the monster and burning down the worship place signifies that he wanted to end whatever was going on in the forest. The screaming shows that he overcame his fear of death and guilt faced the demon which he had been running away from. It also shows that he finally let out all the emotions that had pent up inside him over the past few months ever since his friend Rob died in front of him.
• Why was he marked? The marking signifies that he was picked by the demons to worship the creature as he was already going through a turmoil of emotions and was guilt-ridden. This made him a perfect one to join the submissive cult.
• Why didn't the monster kill Luke? Towards the end of the film, we see that the demon does not kill Luke even though Luke seemingly gives up fighting the demon. This could be because Luke is the 'chosen one' and the demon monster wants Luke to submit to him and worship him like all the other villagers and join the cult.
• Luke is one filled with agony, pain, sorrow and guilt. This has seemingly made him perfect to be submissive and could be a decent addition to the cult.

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Image credits: Still from the trailer