‘The Ritual’ seeks to portray exorcism respectfully

One thing seems certain about the exorcism-themed movie “The Ritual” (XYZ); it is not intended as the first installment in a franchise. “It really was a one-off,” director David Midell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Enrico Natale, tells OSV News.

The film dramatizes perhaps the best-known case of alleged possession in U.S. history. By 1928, psychiatric remedies for the long-term mental anguish endured by Emma Schmidt — who may or may not have been a Wisconsin native, and who was later referred to by the pseudonym Anna Ecklund — had been exhausted, and an exorcism was authorized as a last resort.

The subsequent events, which unfolded at St. Joseph’s parish in Earling, Iowa, were considered newsworthy enough that the cleric who conducted the rite, German-born Capuchin priest Father Theophilus Riesinger, later found himself on the cover of Time magazine. On screen, Riesinger is played by celebrated method actor Al Pacino.

Schmidt was 46 at the time of her exorcism. But in “The Ritual,” she’s portrayed by 27-year-old actress Abigail Cowen. Midell said Cowen landed the role thanks to the vulnerability she was able to project during her audition.

Reverent and low-key in tone, the production is less reliant on gross-out special effects than many other movies dealing with its seemingly ever-popular subject matter. That was very much by design according to Midell.

“Some of them,” he observed of such films, “are exploitative about the faith. We didn’t want to go in that direction.” Likewise, “we didn’t want to hypersexualize it. We feel a responsibility to do justice to their story.”

It’s a tale, in Midell’s view, about “very vulnerable women who suffered a lot” and a Catholic community coming together to help one of them. The real event apparently took 23 days, with the final exorcism rite lasting 72 hours. Theologian Father Carl Vogl published an account of it, originally in German, titled — rather forcefully — “Begone Satan!”

Ordained in 1899, Father Riesinger had lived in Wisconsin since 1912, mostly at St. Anthony’s Friary in Marathon. He died in 1941 at age 73.

With the help of the Mississippi Film Office, “The Ritual” was shot on location in Natchez in January and February 2024. Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz of the Diocese of Jackson gave the filmmakers permission to use the Basilica of St. Mary, a venerable structure dating back to 1843.

Father Aaron M. Williams, the basilica’s rector, served as advisor on all things Catholic. He conceded to OSV News, however, that “It’s not the kind of movie I usually watch.”

Still, since he’s working on his doctorate in liturgy, Father Williams found he could answer virtually any question from the cast about how priests and nuns comported themselves, and how the Latin Mass looked and sounded decades before the changes wrought in the aftermath of Vatican II. He also got to make suggestions about the script.

There were some costume adjustments. The Franciscan nuns who assisted Father Reisinger wore black habits. But that was considered too dark a hue for the film — so their habits became gray instead.

The cassock worn by Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens), the priest who helps Father Riesinger while struggling with his vocation, also underwent a transformation. The outfit supplied by the costume designer didn’t look quite right to Stevens. So he ended up wearing the cassock Father Williams wears on Sundays.

It’s the first time Pacino, who turned 85 in April, has portrayed a Catholic cleric. He always arrived on the set with margin notes in his script, and, in keeping with the Method, asked Father Williams what the mentality of a priest should be when he walks into a room.

His answer: “We have to remember that Christ is already victorious. We are just waiting for Him to manifest Himself.”

Midell allowed Pacino a couple of takes in which he could ad-lib, and to Father Williams’ surprise, he heard the actor repeat those words. “But they didn’t use that take.”

Least in need of guidance on spiritual matters was Catholic actress Patricia Heaton, who plays the community of nuns’ mother superior. Heaton’s sister Sharon is in the Dominican order. Father Williams observed that Heaton “handled herself very well” and had the air of authority he remembered from his high school principal, a Sister of Mercy.

And that, Father Williams said, encapsulated the entire approach of Midell and his collaborators. “I never got a sense they thought of this as a fantasy. They approached this with a great deal of reverence. They wanted this to be accurate. They want Catholics to feel we’ve been respected.”

“The Ritual” will be released in the United States on Friday, June 6.

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