GHOST - 2 Big To Rig (Review)
- Jaime Gómez
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Cinema release: August 26, 2026
Director: Amir Chamdin
Score: RRRRR – 5/5
The Riff Doctor’s Diagnosis
Grandiose, intimate, ridiculous and unexpectedly moving, 2 Big To Rig captures Ghost exactly as they should be experienced: surrounded by fire, confetti and thousands of devoted voices. A spectacular celebration of the band, their congregation and the enormous crew responsible for raising their cathedral every night.
The Full Review
When Ghost imposed a strict phone-free policy throughout the Skeletour, they asked audiences to put their screens away and surrender themselves completely to the ritual unfolding before them. Now, for those wishing to relive that experience — and for the many who were unable to attend — 2 Big To Rig provides the definitive window into what happened inside Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes.
Directed by Amir Chamdin, the film was captured across Ghost’s two sold-out performances on September 24 and 25, 2025. There had originally been a third date scheduled for the previous evening, but a severe case of food poisoning left Tobias Forge unable even to stand, forcing the band to cancel the first show and hastily rearrange their filming plans.
What emerged from those far-from-ideal circumstances is a magnificent concert film with a grainy, heavily saturated analogue texture. Shot on 16mm, it gives the production the atmosphere of some rediscovered stadium-rock spectacle from the 1980s, while a thunderous and genuinely immersive mix makes the Palacio de los Deportes feel considerably closer than the nearest cinema screen.
Rather than focusing solely on the performance, 2 Big To Rig divides its attention between the band, the people watching them and the enormous operation required to build Ghost’s travelling cathedral. Black-and-white backstage footage captures the preparations, the crew’s pre-show camaraderie and the controlled chaos behind a production that appears effortless only because hundreds of people work extraordinarily hard to make it look that way.
Some of the film’s most fascinating sequences focus on the sheer logistics behind the Skeletour. The enormous seven-tonne Grucifix is shown lying on the venue floor before being suspended above the stage, surrounded by the lights, platforms, instruments and theatrical machinery that make up a production weighing between 60 and 62 tonnes in total. Moving and assembling it night after night is an extraordinary undertaking for a touring crew of more than 120 people, supported by a similarly sized local team at each stop. The title suddenly feels less like an exaggeration and more like a perfectly reasonable warning.
The ritual itself begins with Peacefield. Bursts of pyrotechnics tear through the saturated 16mm image, their edges crackling through the film grain as Papa V Perpetua emerges looking remarkably energised for a man who, only hours earlier, had been attached to an intravenous drip.
The Nameless Ghouls’ keyboards and guitars move in perfect formation through Lachryma and Spirit, navigating Ghost’s melodic and heavier passages with the precision of a band operating at the peak of its powers. Majesty then brings one of the film’s most striking visual moments, with Papa rising behind the drums on an elevated platform, dressed in his finest ceremonial robes and magnified into an almost kaleidoscopic apparition.
The pace briefly relents as Forge addresses the cancellation of the previous evening. In classic Papa fashion, he explains that a couple of nights earlier he had not been Papa Perpetua at all, but “Poo-Poo Perpetua”. It is a magnificently childish joke. It is also exactly the sort of joke anyone familiar with Ghost would expect him to make after surviving the so-called curse of Montezuma.
His gratitude towards the Mexican audience is nevertheless sincere, and The Future Is A Foreign Land follows with an added emotional weight. From there, Devil Church leads into a colossal rendition of Cirice, during which the crowd’s response reverberates through the cinema almost as forcefully as the band itself. It becomes immediately clear that these were not merely two convenient dates on which to point some cameras. Mexico City is an essential character in the film.
The ceremony darkens through Satanized and Satan Prayer before reaching the brilliant Umbra. Cameras positioned onstage bring us unusually close to the musicians, capturing the performance from behind and beside the Nameless Ghouls rather than simply observing it from the safety of the crowd. Even the song’s peculiar cowbell receives its moment, courtesy of another small piece of physical comedy from Papa, while the instrumental duel between guitars and keyboards becomes one of the film’s musical highlights.
Away from the stage, the cameras venture outside the Palacio de los Deportes to meet the Mexican congregation. Painted faces, elaborate robes and carefully designed costumes reveal a level of devotion that extends far beyond simply knowing the words. These fans have dressed for Mass, and several appear ready to stay there indefinitely.
Back inside, Year Zero arrives amid pillars of fire and all the dark theatricality expected of a modern Ghost ritual. He Isintroduces a more reverent atmosphere before Rats restores the swagger, with Forge sounding fully recovered and clearly enjoying the chance to remind 20,000 people that he remains one of rock’s most naturally entertaining frontmen.
Kiss The Go-Goat pushes his voice into its higher register, offering further evidence that the curse of Montezuma had been exorcised with remarkable speed. Mummy Dust then changes the mood entirely, bringing harsher vocals, metallic weight and the inevitable storm of confetti and Mummy Dust bills. Once the dust — and the money — has settled, Papa calls upon his old friend Jesus, who dutifully arrives to clear the stage and “clean his house”. With the housekeeping taken care of, the transition into the solemn Monstrance Clock places the audience at the centre of proceedings, thousands of voices carrying its chorus through the venue like a hymn.
The final stretch leans heavily and unapologetically into nostalgia. Mary On A Cross has become far bigger than anybody could reasonably have predicted when it first appeared, and here it is received accordingly. The irresistibly danceable Dance Macabre further dissolves the boundary between performers and congregation before Square Hammer delivers the grand finale: explosions, confetti and one of the most recognisable choruses in Ghost’s catalogue.
By the time the final notes fade, the film has become so immersive that it is surprisingly easy to forget you are sitting in a cinema. A few spontaneous claps escaped me before I remembered that the band could not hear them.
The cameras then follow the musicians backstage, where the group embrace after once again proving themselves inside the Palacio de los Deportes. Papa — our Papa — finally enters his dressing room and takes a quiet sip of tea, apparently unaware of what he has just accomplished. Or, knowing Tobias Forge, perhaps completely aware.
Before the credits roll, a short message thanks the audience in Swedish.
What it says will remain between Ghost and those who attend the ritual.
The 2 Big To Rig – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is also available now across all major streaming platforms, allowing the congregation to revisit the music long after leaving the cinema.
2 Big To Rig is more than a professionally captured concert. It is a celebration of Ghost’s spectacle, their congregation and the vast, frequently invisible crew responsible for bringing the ritual to life. Ghost may currently be stepping away from the road, but this film ensures that the Skeletour will continue rattling cinema walls — and living rooms — for a long time yet.
Jaime Gomez for The Riff Collective
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