Director: David Midell
Writers: David Midell, Enrico Natale
Stars: Al Pacino, Dan Stevens, Ashley Greene
Synopsis: Two priests, one in crisis with his faith and the other confronting a turbulent past, must overcome their differences to perform a risky exorcism.
There’s few aspects about David Midell’s exorcism film The Ritual that will shock you more than a sassy priest Al Pacino butting heads with a demon-inflicted young woman. But even then, his performance isn’t even close to being campy enough to save this film from being a total mess. From its directing, acting, and, even down to the way The Ritual is shot, it all makes it feel more like an overly long sitcom than it does a horror film. Whether you are new to exorcism films or a veteran, there’s little to keep you invested in a film based on the most documented exorcism in history.
Midell takes us back to 1920s Iowa with his film based on a true story focused on the exorcism of young Emma Schmidt (Abigail Cowen), performed by Parish leader Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) and Father Theophilus Riesinger (Pacino). After trying to find a cure for Emma’s ailments through medical and even psychological methods, she is turned over to the spiritual experts to figure out what is happening to her. She’s wasting away from fragility suffered from not eating or drinking and fears what is taking her over. When Father Steiger’s parish is chosen to hold the dangerous exorcism, he’s in the middle of a conflict of faith, seeing Emma in more of a need for a hospital than an exorcism. Even with his protest against it, he agrees to take part in the exorcism taking notes. Father Riesinger leads the process, with some restrictions put in place for Father Steiger’s participation.
The script is rather straightforward and each act loses itself in the other, mostly due to the repetitiveness of the events taking place. Day one of the exorcism feels too similar to day four, and so on. After a few days of rigorous scripture shouting at a young woman who finds herself becoming more and more taken over by whatever is harming her fails to render an answer, tensions rise as harm falls on Sister Rose (Ashley Greene). Causing a break in the lull of the film, whatever has a hold on Emma starts getting nasty, spilling secrets to those who shouldn’t be hearing them, and torturing the nuns and priests while speaking in the voices of their past loved ones. Through the loose lips of Emma’s affliction, Father Reisinger’s past with Emma is made known, a prior event years ago had both of them crossing paths, information that clearly irritates Father Steiger. 
There’s some praise to be given to the film’s cast; their performances are the only aspect of the film that serve any sort of entertainment. Pacino is an extremely aged Father of the cloth, carrying a grumpy old man demeanor throughout the film that comes across as comedic at times, even if that’s not the intended purpose. Stevens, who was the main draw to me for this film, gives one of his more dull performances, especially after such memorable horror roles last year with Abigail and Cuckoo. His conflicted feelings for the faith come across as more of an obstacle of irritation; his patience is quick to snap, but Stevens rarely captures any feelings outside of annoyance for his situation than anything else. Greene arguably has the least to work with in The Ritual, and her performance as a quiet nun leaves a lasting impression for her modern appearance over her lack of range in the role.
On a technical level is where the film completely falls apart due to the constant moving of each frame in The Ritual. There’s not a moment where it feels like that camera isn’t in motion; even in moments where characters like Father Steiger are in contemplation quietly sitting by himself, the camera’s constant need to move makes it nearly impossible to pay attention to smaller details. The way this film is shot could’ve worked in a found footage film, but the choice here is truly baffling. Picture, if you will, an episode of the television show The Office, and imagine those quick zooms and unsteady camerawork devoid of the humor and instead it’s a generic exorcism film. It’s a shame that the camerawork is distracting enough to take away from some rather beautiful shots of Catholic buildings and imagery from Cinematographer Adam Biddle, leaving even the scarier bits of the film to fall by the wayside.
The film takes place mostly in the same room after Emma is brought to the parish, leaving much to be desired from a production design standpoint. It’s confusing what time period the film takes place in, and if you don’t pay expert attention to the film’s opening, looking at the cast won’t help you distinguish it. The cast, especially the nuns, are some of the most modern-looking actresses I can imagine; microbladed eyebrows and filled lips make even the background nuns stick out. Characters in the film wear the same outfits from one day to the next, making the days indistinguishable from one another unless strictly laid out on screen with a prompt of the day.
On the grand scale of films involving exorcisms, this fails to hit the heights of such films as William Friedkin’s The Exorcist or even Scott Derrickson’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Which is maddening considering the story that this film is based on has been used as inspiration for the genre. Where those films succeed is with memorable performances and creating genuinely terrifying visuals of a woman being possessed. Writers Middell and Enrico Natale choose to focus a lot of their time establishing the ritual of the Father’s task, leaving the audience stuck in scripture rather than the supernatural elements that make the genre captivating. Even as the film comes slowly to an end, the lack of any kind of resolution or answer makes the effort to watch feel as if it’s for nothing.
Overall, it’s hard to find aspects of The Ritual that are worth a watch, especially when there are other films with the same subject matter that excel in every aspect where this one fails. A middling lack of focus on the flow of the film, along with a script that teeters on being a parody, makes The Ritual more of a chore to watch than a treat-yourself trip to the movies.
