There’s a lot that is familiar in The Ritual, the new film from director David Midell. There’s a woman who’s been possessed by a malevolent spirit for no readily apparent reason and needs an exorcism. She’s put in the care of a troubled priest who not only has recently experienced a personal loss that’s damaged his faith, but he isn’t even sure he really believes in demonic possession to begin with. So, to perform the actual rite, a somewhat frail older priest who has dealt with this particular entity before is called in. Perhaps you’ve heard something like this setup before?
There’s a reason for such familiarity, though it might not be the one you’re thinking of. The Ritual is based on the real life case of Emma Schmidt (aka Anna Ecklund), whose four-month-long exorcism in 1928 was part of one of the most documented instances of possession on record, even receiving a profile in the February 1936 issue of Time magazine. Schmidt’s case would become one of the primary inspirations for most every movie about demonic possession to ever be produced including, obviously, The Exorcist. So, no, The Ritual is not a rip-off of William Friedkin’s celebrated film as its story is, in a certain sense, the original.
That’s not to say the omnipresence of The Exorcist in popular culture doesn’t still hurt the film a little. That’s unavoidable. Not only due to some of the overly familiar plot similarities, but also because The Exorcist and all the movies its success spawned have trained audiences to expect a certain level of sensationalism when it comes to the depiction of possession. You know, stuff like levitating and spinning heads and other nasty things we’re not going to mention here. The Ritual seeks to avoid too much of that kind of artistic license, preferring for the most part to stick to a more realistic portrayal of the rite. Scares are not the primary goal here. It’s a refreshing approach, but one that moviegoers looking for a full-on horror movie will likely find a tad too tame.
What The Ritual is interested in depicting are the effects an exorcism has on those who take part in it and the questions the whole endeavor raises. From the moment Emma (Abigail Cowen) arrives for the rite, the possessing spirit begins to work on picking apart the faith of Fr. Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) and the various nuns in residence, including Sister Rose (Ashley Greene) and the Mother Superior (Patricia Heaton). It attacks them from every possible angle, from the dangers of physical harm, from their concern that they might be making things worse for Emma, and most importantly, from their doubts that no one is really there listening to their prayers. It even manages to get under the skin of the seemingly unflappable elder priest Fr. Theophilus (Al Pacino), who worries he might ultimately fail Emma again as he did when she was younger.
All this naturally leads to discussions among the characters about God and why he allows innocents like Emma to suffer such ordeals. Other exorcism movies have asked the same questions, but it’s more of the focus here than in many other films in the genre. The answers the movie tries to provide are surprisingly Catholic in their viewpoint. In fact, The Ritual seems to take great care in accurately portraying the Catholicity of its setting with little to no negativity. Of course, it’s the 1920s version of the religion, so viewers might want to dust off their old Latin missals before watching. Still, it’s nice not to have any potshots at the faith to have to overlook.
There are nitpicks to find as there are in all movies. Without the usual overblown horror trappings, the film relies a bit too much on jittery camera movements to try and instill urgency. That won’t bother everyone though. There are also some expected deviations from the true life events, but you have to give your actors something to do, right? Overall, for anyone looking for a more restrained, closer to reality take on the rite of exorcism that remains respectful to the spiritual matters involved, The Ritual is worth a watch.
The Ritual opens in theaters on June 6.
