‘The Ritual’ Fails to Add Anything New or Particularly Exciting to a Well-Worn Genre: A Review

The Ritual goes through the motions of its genre.

Magic Symbol: Thorn Rune
The Ritual was released in North American theaters on June 6, 2025.

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What is The Ritual About?

The Ritual adapts the “true” story of Emma Schmidt by focusing on a priest who participated in her exorcism and thoroughly (and famously) documented it.

Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) is mourning a recent family tragedy when he is told that his parish will host the exorcism of a woman named Emma Schmidt (Abigail Cowen). Experienced exorcist Father Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino) soon arrives, and he begins his holy duty to save Emma. The exorcism lasts for days, and it tests the faith and resolve of everyone involved as Emma’s condition seems to worsen.

The Ritual was directed by David Midell (The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain), and the film was co-written by David Midell and Enrico Natale. In addition to Al Pacino, Dan Stevens, and Abigail Cowen, the main cast also includes Patricia Heaton, Ashley Greene, and Patrick Fanian.

The Ritual Review

Dan Stevens in The Ritual (2025).
Dan Stevens (Abigail, Cuckoo) is a priest who is skeptical about the exorcism he’s been compelled to participate in.

If you’re a fan of exorcism movies and just want a new one to watch, then The Ritual will serve you just fine. It hits all the expected beats of the genre. It has a bit of “science versus religion” in the differing approaches of the two priests. It has a possessed woman pulling against her restraints as she speaks in various voices and languages. It has spooky noises and violent supernatural occurrences. It’s all here, and it’s… fine.

If you’re looking for an engrossing story, this might not be the movie for you. The focus feels like it’s split too much between Emma Schmidt and Joseph Steiger. Part of this feeling could be due to the framing of the film. The marketing and even the movie’s opening text tell us that this is a true story about the most widely documented exorcism in American history. But The Ritual isn’t really about Emma, the person being exorcised; The biggest character arc belongs to Joseph. So, the focus of the story is unevenly split between the two characters, reducing both stories and making the film itself feel uneven.

The Ritual (2025).
The trailer says Emma Schmidt’s story inspired The Exorcist (1974), but it’s commonly said that elements of the exorcism of Roland Doe are what William Peter Blatty used to write the novel that The Exorcist was based on.

There are also lots of potential story threads that they story build, but many of them don’t really go anywhere. For example, one of the sisters in the church takes the focus of the story a few times, and she and Father Steiger seem to have something unspoken going on between them. It’s not necessarily anything illicit, but there’s something there. However, all that buildup amounts to is one awkward moment, and later the demon inside Emma throws out one line towards them talking about sin. It’s not explored to any significant depth, and that sort of thing is true for most of the ideas in The Ritual. Its themes are shallow, mostly because not enough time is spent digging into any specific character too deeply.

Also, this is one of the many movies that touches on faith versus science/psychology while very clearly taking one side. Some truly great movies do this too, but it’s usually kind of a bummer for me personally when I see it. Ambiguity can be more chilling than certainty. Joseph initially thinks Emma’s condition is psychological, and he conflicts with the devout Father Riesinger because of his insistence that the possession is genuine. But Joseph (and the viewers) sees occurrences that are explicitly supernatural, so the theme is moot at that point. Strangely though, Joseph brings mental illness back up later in the movie despite seeing what he’s seen. Father Riesinger’s reaction is pretty humorous in that moment, but it’s also an eye-rolling moment for the viewer. It was for me.

The Ritual (2025).
Emma’s signs of physical and mental deterioration increase over the course of the movie, just like you’d expect.

It’s also worth noting something that I’ve seen a fair number of people mention. The movie is shot in a handheld, documentary style. The style didn’t really bother me, and the shakiness and zooms only brought attention to themselves a few times while I was watching. I think the style was probably chosen because of the fact that this is a “true” story, and because it was documented in various publications over many years. So, the look of The Ritual was likely meant to evoke that idea of documenting true events. To be clear though, this is not found footage, and it doesn’t even feel like it. The handheld nature of the cinematography might give the movie a slightly more grounded aesthetic, but that’s about it.

Like I said before, The Ritual is just fine for about 100 minutes of spooky noises and violent outbursts. I enjoyed it okay when I watched it this afternoon, but by tomorrow I probably won’t think about it much more. I think there’s a more dramatic and frightening story that can be told about Emma Schmidt, but this one is just okay.

The Ritual Rating and Recommendation

The Ritual (2025).
Al Pacino makes a good priest, so there’s that.

Star Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Watch The Ritual if you really just can’t get enough of exorcism movies. Al Pacino is fun to watch. Even as tired and haggard as his character seems, he makes a good exorcist. The possession acting from Abigail Cowen as Emma Schmidt is also spot-on for movies like this. Twisty, angry, and spooky. The story is bland though, the focus is split too far between ideas, and the resolution isn’t really worth the buildup.

The Ritual began playing in theaters on June 6, 2025.

Further Reading

Meet The Author

Chris has a degree in film studies at Temple University’s campus in Tokyo, Japan. He is a renowned expert on horror cinema.