Henry O'Brien
In 1928, 46-year old woman Emma Schmidt received an exorcism from Father Theophilus Riesinger. The well-documented ceremony has been of morbid fascination for nearly a century and happened a half-century before William Friedkin’s revolutionary horror film, The Exorcist. The Ritual, the second feature film from director David Midell (The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain), attempts to put itself in the lineage of Friedkin’s horrific triumph. But sadly, Midell’s efforts come up short as the film features plenty of the cliches and contrivances of the exorcism subgenre. The film, distributed by XYZ Films, has less interest in the paranormal and its relation to the world than a Buzzfeed Unsolved video.
Co-leads Al Pacino and Dan Stevens are both talented but it’s clear neither of them can save the script or are particularly engaged. The dynamic between Pacino’s Riesinger and Stevens’s Father Joseph Steiger is immediately apparent the second the two start talking to each other. Riesinger is a devout believer in spirits and demons who has experience in exorcisms. Meanwhile, Steiger, who lost his brother shortly before the exorcism begins, has some form of a crisis of faith.
Anyone who has seen The Exorcist, or anyone who has seen an exorcism for that matter, can understand the dynamic. It made 1973 such a strong script and a deeper examination of faith. But The Ritual has none of this thematic weight and only tries to be a knock off as much as possible. To the film’s credit, it wastes no time in getting to the exorcism, especially since the real-life case lasted for months. It just continues to show how little there is to it.
Once the priests meet the seemingly possessed Emma Schmidt (Abigail Cowen), we start to understand how Riesinger has been trying to exorcise this demon for some time. He espouses speeches to Steiger and the nuns about how if the demon divides them, they will fail in this exorcism. Pacino phones in a Bavarian accent, in what one can assume is a paycheck role for one of Hollywood’s greatest and most venerable actors. Still, it’s quite a fun time whenever the elder Pacino tries to pull off a silly accent.
Stevens attempts to portray Steiger as a man suffering under the weight of his job and the loss of his brother. Increasingly throughout the movie, nuns around Steiger start to say he doesn’t look well, and that the exorcism is starting to affect him physically and mentally. There’s no indication, whether it be performance or simply makeup, that makes Steiger look disheveled or tired.
The one time that Steiger’s crisis starts to feel believable is when The Ritual pulls another cliche from the book. After a few attempted exorcisms, the demon possesses Schmidt, and it starts to talk about Steiger’s dead brother to him. This causes confusion and doubt, but the contrived nature of the whole proceeding does nothing to make the film any more entertaining or interesting.
That isn’t to say The Ritual doesn’t raise eyebrows in some aspects. Cinematographer Adam Biddle, brother of the late cinematographer Adrian Briddle, shoots the film almost entirely in shaky cam medium close ups. The rapid editing between priests in the middle of the exorcism can mask glaring issues like having actually scary visuals. That said, The Ritual takes it a step further and has this same cinematography for regular conversations. The movie plays out in a way that an angry spirit watches over all of these characters. These questions permeate throughout the exorcism, especially when it is revealed that the demon itself. Additionally, the desaturated environments can create a godless feeling, as if there’s no soul or light anywhere. But the film never really hints at that, as it remains focused on the exorcism at hand.
The stakes in The Ritual never feel that vital or important to begin with. No moment raises the stakes or indicates to the audience that the priests won’t eventually save the day. Indeed, the film has none of the predictability that made The Exorcist’s final moments so shocking, bleak and hopeful all at the same time. The Ritual will go down as an exercise in contrivance, showing that there is nothing to be gained by doing a shameless ripoff of one of the greatest horror movies ever made.
