In 1928, a parish priest in Earling, Iowa, witnessed the attempted exorcism of a woman named Emma Schmidt over the course of twenty-three days. Together with some attending religious sisters, Fr. Joseph Steiger reported seeing instances of superhuman strength, strange voices, and levitation as the exorcist, a Capuchin priest named Fr. Theophilus Riesinger, labored to free Emma from what he believed to be demonic possession.
In the nearly one hundred years since these events occurred, Emma’s story has been the basis for numerous movies and books. The Ritual, out June 6, tells the story once again.
We first meet Fr. Steiger (Dan Stevens) shortly after his brother’s death. A priest dedicated to his parish and the adjoining convent, he learns in an unannounced visit from his bishop that his parish is to provide the venue for an exorcism. Exorcism is a last resort, since modern science has been unable to explain or alleviate Emma Schmidt’s issues. Steiger initially protests his bishop’s order, but presumably out of obedience to his superior, he is drawn reluctantly into the titular ritual along with a no-nonsense Reverend Mother (Patricia Heaton) and her small community of religious sisters.
The Ritual might have better been The Rituals, plural. Night after night, the women join Fr. Theophilus (Al Pacino) and Fr. Steiger to resume Emma’s exorcism. Not much progress is made, and indeed, things seem to be going from bad to worse as Emma deploys her uncanny strength, clairvoyance, and powers of mimicry against the hapless religious sisters (the religious sisters really get the worst of it, it has to be said).
As the exorcism drags on, spooky things start happening around the convent and Fr. Steiger’s fraying spiritual and mental well-being begin to cause problems for him and those in his spiritual care. Stevens and Pacino provide the young priest/old priest dynamic that is familiar from other exorcism films. There is also a slight Mulder-and-Scully aspect to their relationship, with Stevens’ Fr. Steiger desperate to find a rational explanation for Emma’s suffering that will let him and his community off the hook. In response, Pacino’s wizened Theophilus quotes Hamlet, admonishing the younger priest that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in his philosophy. But on the whole, there are no truly hard-boiled skeptics in The Ritual, which takes place entirely within the confines of a religious community. Characters have their moments of doubt, but everyone has more or less bought into the concepts of God, evil, and intercessory prayer. Catholic audiences will appreciate the movie’s particular emphasis on St. Michael as a powerful intercessor against evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
The very people who were charged with protecting her have let her down, abused her, and manipulated her.
Although the actual exorcism took place over twenty-three days, it’s unclear in Ritual’s first half quite how long they’ve been chipping away at it when a weary Reverend Mother gives Fr. Theophilus one more week to keep trying. And as the beleaguered Fr. Steiger descends further and further—mentally and spiritually, literally and metaphorically—the labyrinthine bowels of the convent become something of a distraction. The Ritual is decidedly light on laughs, but I did chuckle when, as the movie’s action retreats still deeper into both the recesses of the convent and the struggle with demonic forces, someone suddenly brings up the hitherto-unmentioned catacombs. The incredulous look on Pacino’s face echoed the simultaneous question—“You guys have catacombs?”—that I asked the characters on screen. Because we don’t know quite how Fr. Steiger’s parish fits into the broader town of Earling, when we are told the outside community is aware of the goings-on since Emma and Theophilus arrived, it is hard to know what precisely that means.
The benefit of a clearer chronology and sense of space is evident in The Ritual’s suspenseful second half, when Fr. Theophilus and his team are racing against time to save Emma’s life. I found myself liking each member of this little religious community played by the talented cast. Pacino’s endearingly disheveled Fr. Theophilus scurries around with a shuffling gait and patiently says his prayers over the distressed (and distressing) Emma. It is easy to forget while seeing this kindly cleric that Pacino once played the Prince of Darkness himself in The Devil’s Advocate. I almost wish The Ritual had run as a miniseries so we could have learned more about him, as well as about Fr. Steiger’s relationship with his late brother, and Emma’s own story.
Writer-director David Midell states in the press notes for the film that exorcism stories are something of a Rorschach test: “Those with a background in faith and religion see a spiritual struggle for the soul of a human being, while those who are more scientifically minded see a person in need of psychiatric assistance.” Indeed, The Ritual racks up the most points on the “eeriness” scoreboard when it leans into the tension between the psychological and supernatural (one religious sister’s arc briefly excited the hope that we were headed into full-on Black Narcissus territory). The spookiest moments arrive when the demonic forces that oppress Emma attempt to scatter and confuse the religious community housing her. Or are they just the effects of overwork and exhaustion playing tricks?
The Ritual recognizes something that other films in the exorcism subgenre miss. The conditions that empower the diabolic to operate are often profoundly sad. Midell’s previous body of work looks at the way society treats its most vulnerable, including the disabled and those with mental health challenges. Whether the viewer finally concludes that Emma Schmidt was really possessed or not, as we learn with Fr. Steiger about Emma’s personal history, it is unequivocal that the very people who were charged with protecting her have let her down, abused her, and manipulated her. Ultimately, The Ritual seems to suggest true horror occurs wherever and whenever suffering is ignored, neglected, and unredeemed.