Every exorcism cliché one can imagine is summoned up in this religious horror film by David Midell. A troubled priest (David Steiger, played by Dan Stevens) suffers a crisis of faith when he’s confronted with an apparent case of demonic possession – young Emma (Abigail Cowen) is stuffed full of demonic entities, and the Bishop wants to use David’s parish to stage the exorcism.
Better call Father Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino, channelling Russell Crowe in The Pope’s Exorcist), who comes armed with a box of ropes and a headful of sacred rites. It’s all a bit much for the recently bereaved David, who soon begins to question Riesinger’s methods after witnessing Emma’s violent reaction to religious scripture. So far, so The Exorcist.
Being based on a real-life case, we can forgive The Ritual its relatively grounded approach to the subgenre, eschewing levitations and a body count in favour of some mild wall-crawling (during the opening sequence, in the film’s only good scare) and yanked out tufts of hair. Fresh from impressing in Abigail, Stevens gives a stuffed-collar performance as dubious David, reigning in the more manic energy we know him to be capable of. That’s up to Pacino and his wandering accent, although even he’s more restrained than he has been in the past.
Repetitive in structure and themes, it’s a po-faced slog through the dustiest of exorcism routines, featuring gravel-voiced swearing (but nothing too obscene), vomiting (but not too voluminous) and crises of faith (but nothing that can’t be overcome).
If it possesses anything, it’s a well-sustained atmosphere of doom and gloom, but the ugly visuals and sleepy performances are about as exciting as a particularly dull sermon you’ve heard many times before. Less of a ritual, more of a chore.
THE RITUAL is out in UK cinemas now.
