‘The Ritual’ A Refreshingly Earnest (If Unoriginal) Return To The Exorcism Genre
(REVIEW) Americans — and Hollywood studios — never seem to get tired of exorcism movies, whether it's two starring Russell Crowe within a year of each other (“The Pope’s Exorcist" and “The Exorcism”), another “The Exorcist” sequel (“The Exorcist: Believer”), a “Conjuring” sequel or even ones with a Pentecostal angle (“The Deliverance”).
So far this year, we’ve had “Shadow of God,” the upcoming “The Conjuring: Last Rites” and the focus of my latest review, “The Ritual.”
Based on, as the movie says, “the most thoroughly documented exorcism in American history,” “The Ritual” follows priests Theophilus Riesinger (played by Al Pacino) and Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) as they attempt to put aside their differences to save an allegedly possessed young woman, Emma Schmidt (Abigail Cowen), through a series of dangerous exorcisms.
One of the movie’s greatest strengths comes from its faithfulness to the exorcism formula. The film hits all the beats you expect from a film of its genre and plays it all with a refreshing earnestness that fans of these tales will likely appreciate. There’s the old believing priest and the young doubting ones. There’s the demon-possessed young woman speaking in Latin and doing disturbing, inexplicable things. There’s the quoting of Scripture and use of crosses and other holy objects. The demon uses the heroes’ doubts against them — and they ultimately overcome him with the power of their faith.
There is a particular refrain that Father Theophilus keeps going back to that I think hits on a big part of the genre’s appeal. He says that as priests, they are soldiers in the army of the Lord fighting back the darkness. Most people look around the world, and it feels very real that we are in a battle of good and evil. Yet far too many depictions of faith focus on comforting us rather than empowering us to fight back. Exorcism movies give a picture of ways that a spiritual life can be a way of battling against the forces of evil.
The performances of several notable actors do a lot of the heavy lifting to add weight and color to the familiar dialogue and story. Pacino is eminently convincing as a kooky but wise exorcist. Stevens’ Father Joseph radiates sincerity and trauma. Patricia Heaton’s role as a mother superior is formidably pious and skeptical. Everyone adds shades and layers to these characters that make you feel more from them than simple tropes and archetypes, even when the words on the page do not.
The film’s biggest weakness is that beyond the classic beats, there really isn’t much there. There’s little attempt to add any twists or plunge any depths in the story that haven’t been explored before. And the film doesn’t even unpack its issues of faith, doubt and trauma as deeply as movies like “The Exorcist” that have come before it. It’s not that every new version of a genre film has to completely reinvent the wheel, but you should at least expect the film to dig a little deeper into the characters and situations that it is presenting to us, rather than stick entirely to the clichés.
There are a few hints at avenues the film could have explored. That battle of good against evil I mentioned earlier is an obvious one. Playing up Father Theophilus’ eccentricities such that you were constantly in doubt as to whether he’s crazy. The nun’s pious (yet somewhat self-righteous) resentment at being more spiritual than most of the men she submitted to. But all of these things are merely touched on rather than deeply explored.
It’s curious that exorcism films as a genre seem to only be able to do carbon copies of “The Exorcist,” like “The Deliverance” and “The Exorcist: Believer,” or complete subversions, such as “The Exorcism” and “Shadow of God.” Other genres, for example, can introduce compelling variety into their formulas without breaking them, like how “Superman: The Movie” was followed up by “X-Men,” “Spider-Man,” “The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man” — all shamelessly superhero movies but all wildly different. Exorcism movies seem trapped — imagine if the only kinds of superhero movies made were knockoffs of Superman or deconstructions like “The Watchmen.”
The most interesting innovations in the genre have come in the form of “The Conjuring” franchise and (surprisingly!) the faith-based “Nefarious.” “The Conjuring” took the exorcism tropes and used them to essentially make a superhero, popcorn-horror film mashup. “Nefarious” used the idea of the reality of demons as a vehicle for social commentary through a one-act play structure of a debate between a man who claimed to be possessed and a skeptic.
This, I suspect, is the key to why the exorcism genre seems trapped. Most of the people who believe in demons and Christianity (let alone Catholics) in a robust way aren’t the people making movies. So if they don’t have the personal experience of that spirituality, doctrine and theology to talk about it in a genuine manner. Instead, they rely on what they’ve seen in other movies and pop culture. Meanwhile, if they’re going to talk about it through their own experience, it’s likely to be a lot more destructive.
Meanwhile, those with the most personal experience with faith to find the different angles and nuances of the topic are typically not making these kinds of films. Faith-based audiences tend to be squeamish toward horror, so do not incentivize faith-based industry filmmakers to make them. This is a shame because there is an interest in these stories and what they tell us about our place in the universe. And when movies like “Nefarious” show that when they do tackle it, they can come up with some interesting stuff.
“The Ritual” is a movie you’ve seen many times before. But the story is clearly powerful enough that it is worth retelling. Hopefully, filmmakers will start figuring out how to tell these stories in new and different ways. In the meantime, we have movies like “The Ritual” and can always rewatch a classic such as “The Exorcist” again.
“The Ritual” is in theaters everywhere starting this Friday.
Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at josephholmesstudios.com.