Well, I finally saw a film shot and edited worse than “A Working Man” (2025), which is a low bar. Along with William Peter Blatty’s 1973 novel, “The Exorcist,” and “The Exorcism of Anna Ecklund” (2016), German priest Carl Vogl’s 1935 book “Begone Satan: A Soul Stirring Account of Diabolical Possession in Iowa,” an account of a twenty-three-day exorcism, inspired “The Ritual” (2025). Set in Earling, Iowa during October 1928, Bishop Edwards (Patrick Fabian) basically orders parish priest Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) to host Father Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino) so he can perform the sacred sacrament, exorcism, on Emma Schmidt (Abigail Cowen). With the aid of the resident nuns and over the objections of Mother Superior (Patricia Heaton), the exorcism comes at a great cost to the nuns and Father Joseph’s physical and mental health respectively. Will they be able to save Emma or will they all be lost?
“The Ritual” was clearly trying to lean on its true story roots by showing how a decent community gets frayed because of the presence of evil, but it does not do enough to establish that community’s personality before shaking it up. Father Joseph (Dan Stevens) is in minimal mourning, but is otherwise a usually playful, kind priest who prefers science over superstition as proven with his glancing at a liberal arts college brochure and stealing food from a tray with a mischievous grin on his face. Now rinse, repeat with the nuns who are not really differentiated except Sister Rose (Ashley Greene) seems to have a closer relationship with Joseph over the others, and in a different world where sex and God are not mutually exclusive, they would make a cute couple. There are older nuns, a Hispanic nun and a couple of Black nuns—most are not even credited on IMDb. The movie often feels anachronistic Were people that cool with integration in those days? President Woodrow Wilson says hi. Uniformly everyone leans towards giving medical and mental health treatment to Emma over an exorcism even though it was the Twenties in the Midwest. Why did you take a job that literally requires a belief in the spiritual world if the idea of possession is absurd? Of course, it is just story posturing so when they wholeheartedly become the Church Lady and scream “Satan,” they do not seem biased.
“The Ritual” has no sense of pacing, and everyone starts off shook so when the crap does hit the fan, there is nowhere to go. If the film was a slow burn movie, then the pearl clutching and swooning would make sense, but on day one, everyone is gasping, speaking in hushed tones and wide-eyed over a girl not eating. That is not an innately big deal and may not have anything to do with the fact that the food was blessed. While reading her file, Joseph discovers that old girl hisses at churches, but when she arrives, she meekly goes in. Because possession movies are numerous, doing the basic minimum with bones crunching, growly voices, sexual taunting, minimal violence and flying around the room may be faithful to the book, let’s even call it realistic for argument’s sake, but it is not going to raise horror fans’ pulse although Emma’s demons are sexist because they only like to physically attack women. Her demons are Judas Iscariot, a man who could not stand on business after doing dirt, Mina, who is likely not the chick that Dracula was into in Francis Ford Coppola’s version and some other person. It feels like weak sauce for former people to possess a person, especially since they were not that impressive the first time around. We used to be a society, but now anyone can be a demon. Those early twentieth century exorcists were easily impressed. The priests emerge relatively unscathed though it felt as if the film was teasing the possibility of Theo expiring at an inopportune time.
“The Ritual” is a frustrating movie because everyone in the cast usually does a decent job. After hitting it big in “Downton Abbey,” which seems to be the aberration in his career with the benefit of hindsight, Stevens, a solid attractive actor, has become a scream king recently or at least game to appear in movies and television series that someone of his caliber could turn up his nose and go on to more respectable projects: “The Guest” (2014), “Colossal” (2016), “Legion,” “Cuckoo” (2024), ”Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” (2024) and “Abigail” (2024). They just dyed his hair black and basically told him to be dramatic and wring his hands from the outset. Especially if you are a Stevens fan, skip it because he is given nothing to do. There is one scene when Joseph really loses it and should need medical attention, but in the next scene, he is fine. His character was annoying because he barks orders at people, including how the nuns should hold Emma’s head. Bitch, do it yourself. When they carry her, Joseph is the guy who helps by carrying a throw pillow when moving a couch.
There are two actors who seemed to understand at least the emotion behind the assignment and were able to convey it. Second place goes to Pacino. Remember that “The Ritual” is supposed to be based on real people, and Father Theophilus Riesinger is German. Pacino is not good with accents and stop letting him. This character is the oldest character, and the anachronisms continue with his backstory. The implication is that he immigrated from Germany because of fascism and racism, and that’s World War II! Still, it is a moving speech about how he recognizes evil from experience whether quotidian and commonplace or more overtly demonic. It makes the whole proceedings more relatable considering the audience is experiencing similar anxieties, and it is easier to blame Satan than imagine people to be so mind-numbingly cruel and self-destructive
Credit where credit is due even to a Presidon’t supporter. First place goes to Heaton. Real life Catholic Heaton gives Princess Leia meets Isabella Rossellini in “Conclave” (2024) energy and is the only one among all the exorcists not to waver while Emma is doing her Regan impression. Of course, her character also has the common sense to not stay in the room too long after spitting bars, but she is still doing better than everyone else. Heaton gave a flinty, stern performance of a character who is sick of everyone, human being and demonic, but will refrain from utterly devastating everyone for Jesus. At least she played a recognizable character, not a mouse or a Jello mold. When the rubber hit the road, she was the only character who seemed to actually believe and stand. If exorcist movies get annoying, it is how shocked the experts are when some supernatural shenanigans occur. You should be psyched to finally see the real deal. Points deducted for another baffling attempt at an accent.
“The Ritual” could have been a good movie if the community was more established before Emma’s arrival, the editing and decision to film it as if it was a found footage film or “The Office” was nixed and if it leaned more on the Christian aspects of the story than hastily drawn individual backstories. The emotion feels real but will only get you so far.
