The Ritual Review: A Tedious, Supposedly Fact-Based Supernatural Horror That Needs to Be Exorcised

At the beginning of The Ritual, this new horror about exorcism opens with the title cards that read “based on true events” and “the story represents the most thoroughly documented case of demonic possession in American history“. If only the movie itself is scary, because this 98-minute horror is a tedious slog from start to end. I would prefer to call this an antithesis of an exorcism movie: thoroughly anticlimactic and dull with little redeeming qualities.

Directed by David Midell, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Enrico Natale, The Ritual takes place in 1928 in Earling, Iowa, where Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens), a young priest summoned by a local bishop (Patrick Fabian) to investigate the case of a very disturbed young woman named Emma Schmidt (Abigail Cowen). There’s something wrong with her that might be a purely psychological and mental issue after all.

And that’s what Steiger chooses to believe because he’s more of a man of reason than a man of faith, unlike Father Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino), an elderly German priest who sports a guttural, weird and thick accent. I was expecting he’s going to pull off a full Pacino mode here, but I’m surprised he doesn’t chew the scenery as he’s pretty much restrained himself in The Ritual.

So, the two priests are constantly in a series of disagreements since they share different beliefs and ideologies. I can see Stevens and Pacino are trying their best here, but their otherwise competent acting is ultimately hampered by Midell’s ho-hum direction. The pacing is flat, and despite the movie wastes little time getting down to business with the two priests alongside the help of a few nuns, one of which includes Sister Rose (Ashley Greene), to assist in several rituals on Emma in the convent, everything here is best described as “boring“.

The movie drags along with a rinse-and-repeat storytelling of Steiger and Theophilus doing whatever they can to free the poor Emma Schmidt from an alleged demonic possession. It is as predictable as it goes, with no attempt to bring an interesting, let alone a fresh perspective, to the exorcism movie that has been done to death. Even if a movie like this is no longer a novelty, that doesn’t mean it can’t turn into a scary and thrilling supernatural horror. Not that Midell isn’t trying at all, as he throws in obligatory moments of a possessed victim speaking in foreign tongues and acting crazy, self-mutilation and causing furniture to move around.

Still, it barely raises a pulse, and the so-called scare factor is near zero. It doesn’t help either when Midell figures that shooting the exorcism scenes in a jittery, handheld camera can mimic a raw, documentary-like visual aesthetic. Too bad it doesn’t work well in The Ritual, and instead, it makes me feel more frustrated than scared. And what’s with the bizarre, mockumentary style in some scenes, with all the use of zoom lenses? Is it meant to be a dark comedy of sorts? As it turns out, Midell is taking this seriously. Like dead serious.

Making things worst is how desaturated the visual palette is, to the point it sucks the life out of this movie. I get that an exorcism movie like The Ritual often goes for the moody cinematography, but Adam Biddle’s overall muted lensing isn’t doing this one a favour. Another of the biggest problems is that the movie fails to make me sympathise with Emma’s plight as she continues to suffer endlessly.

And all for her pain, yelling and crying, I almost wish anyone who’s involved in the ritual would just slap the bejesus out of her to save us from the misery of enduring this torturous experience of a horror movie. By the time The Ritual slogs its way to an increasingly underwhelming finale, I have to say this is one of the worst exorcism movies I’ve ever seen.