"Good But Not Great"
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What You Need To Know:
THE RITUAL is well filmed and acted, with Al Pacino and Dan Stevens playing the priests. However, the movie is filmed documentary style, with purposeful flaws like bad focus. This helps the story feel real, but sometimes makes the movie harder to watch. Also, there are multiple scenes that seem to serve no purpose, along with unfinished character arcs. However, THE RITUAL has a strong Christian, biblical worldview from a Catholic perspective. For example, people pray, read Scripture, repent, and more. That said, THE RITUAL has some scary moments and strong but brief foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE advises extreme caution.
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More Detail:
THE RITUAL is a horror movie inspired by Father Joseph Steiger’s notes taken during an exorcism he helped perform in 1928.
The movie starts off with a cold open where Father Joseph is outside, seemingly frustrated and praying, with distant screaming in the background. He goes to walk back inside and when he opens a door, a woman runs up the wall. Jump to a church service, where Father Joseph thanks people for attending the service and their support for his recently deceased brother.
A Cardinal for the Catholic Church meets Father Joseph to tell him about an exorcism that is assigned to Father Theophilus Riesinger, The exorcism is scheduled for Father Joseph’s church. Father Theophilus starts to share his game plan with Father Joseph and how they will perform the exorcism. Father Joseph is concerned because Father Theophilus says the victim must be restrained. Father Joseph convinces Father Theophilus to not restrain her for the time being.
During the first ritual, they start to read a religious passage to the victim, Emma Schmidt. Emma starts shaking and screaming. They continue to read and pray over her until she passes out.
At the second exorcism ritual, more of the same happens. However, this time, Emma becomes possessed by some thing or someone. She stands and makes her way over to Father Joseph. She grabs his hand, placing it on her chest, and licks his arm. She is pulled back, but grabs the hair of Sister Rose, raising her up. Emma rips the hair from Sister Rose’s scalp, and Rose falls to the ground.
The following day, Sister Rose talks to Father Joseph, telling him about her anger. She is trying to understand if Emma is being punished or if they are. However, she confesses her anger to Father Joseph, and he helps her repent.
For Ritual 3, Emma is restrained. During the ritual, she starts having a seizure, mouth foaming and upturned eyes. All of a sudden, a demon talks through Emma and screams. Father Joseph seems unsure of what is happening and starts to get visions of her throughout the day.
The fourth ritual starts, and Emma throws up what can only be described as dark blood and a big tongue/liver size object. Father Theophilus holds a cross up to her head and it seemingly burns into her forehead. He then talks to the demon. Later, Father Joseph finds notes of Emma communicating with the demon.
During the fifth ritual, they start the exorcism, but they find Emma with rashes and bruises all over her body. She tells them that Satan plans on crushing the God of Peace. During this, the bed crashes down. When trying to help, another nun gets injured. When talking about it later, Father Theophilus warns Father Joseph that they will “pay a price for your lack of faith.”
Horrifyingly, Emma’s condition seems to get worse with each ritual. Also, the further along they go, the more the demon possessing Emma tries to get the priests to break. Can they muster their faith and courage to expel the demon?
THE RITUAL is well filmed and acted, with Al Pacino and Dan Stevens delivering strong performances as the two priests. The rest of the cast is also good. However, the script has unfinished character arcs and scenes inserted for no other reason than to spook the viewer. Sister Rose is the biggest culprit of the unfinished arc. Finally, what seems to be every other night, there are random but predictable scenes taking place that are supposed to be spooky (floors creaking, heavy breathing, open doors, etc.). These things obviously don’t add to the story and don’t need to be there, but they do add a little bit to the movie’s atmosphere. Also, THE RITUAL is shot in a documentary style (shoulder mount camera, readjusting frames, spotty focus, etc.) This helps the movie feel more realistic, but it also can make the movie harder to watch.
When it comes to worldview, THE RITUAL has some great stuff. It has a strong Christian, biblical, moral worldview. The story follows two Catholic priests who constantly pray and read from Scripture. At one point, Al Pacino’s Father Theophilus says, “We are the LORD’s army and must save one of His children.” There is one small instance of feminism when the Reverend Mother tells Father Joseph she’s tired of all the men like him who know less than her. However, the movie puts Christianity and faith front and center throughout its running time. That said, THE RITUAL has some scary and violent moments and strong but brief foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.
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