Cole Hauser and Morgan Freeman are on the case. In a new trailer for their crime thriller The Ritual Killer, the Yellowstone star and recent Sheridan-verse convert (Freeman has boarded Taylor Sheridan's upcoming Lioness series) team up to hunt a sadistic murderer, and it looks like the chase will test both men's sanity.
Hauser stars as Lucas Boyd, a homicide detective eyeing retirement after the tragic death of his daughter. When he's tasked with catching a serial killer who murders according to an ancient, brutal tribal ritual called muti, Boyd turns to Freeman's Professor Mackles, an anthropologist hiding an "unspeakable secret," according to the official synopsis.
The official poster for The Ritual Killer. (Screen Media Films)
From the looks of the trailer, The Ritual Killer has all the bread crumb intrigue of Se7en (one of Freeman's many bangers), with a dash of the occult à la True Detective season 1.
The trailer begins with Freeman uttering some haunting words of wisdom with his signature gravitas: "There is a fine line between sanity and madness that is endemic to all cultures." When two children are brutally murdered in a series of muti rituals, Detective Boyd (Hauser) enlists Dr. Mackles (Freeman) for his expertise in all things occult. The chase expands as the pair track the killer to Europe and learn that their target may be acting on behalf of an even bigger baddie who is ordering the rituals in a Faustian bargain for power.
Hauser, best known for playing Yellowstone ranch hand Rip Wheeler, is showing off some serious action star chops in the trailer. But shootouts and stakeouts may be the least of his worries. Freeman can be heard warning the troubled detective, "Be careful. Could be coming for you." (Big Matthew McConaughey in True Detective vibes!)
Directed by George Gallo, best known for penning the 1988 Robert De Niro starrer Midnight Run, The Ritual Killer also stars Peter Stormare (1923, Fargo) and, get this, former NFL tight end Vernon Davis, who's been popping up in well-received film and TV roles since his 2020 retirement from the league.
Watch The Ritual Killer in theaters and on demand March 10.
