Even though none of them ever live up to the highs established by 1973’s The Exorcist, movies about demonic possession remain a staple of the horror genre. For another example, we head to 2025’s The Ritual.

Emma Schmidt (Abigail Cowen) displays troubling behaviors. Some believe these stem from psychological issues whereas others think demonic forces control her.

Though Emma already underwent one exorcism, her problems return in 1928. Father Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino) – who performed the first attempt to get rid of negative spirits – returns to supervise as Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) tries to expel the alleged demons that torment Emma.

At the film’s start, a title card states that Ritual comes “based on true events”. We also get told it “represents the most thoroughly documented case of demonic possession in American history”.

I guess this announcement intends to prompt non-believers to view the tale as truth. Good luck with that!

Whatever the case, any new exorcism movie in 2025 needs to find something fresh to say. As I noted at the start of my review, Ritual exists in an oft-explored genre, so even if we don’t expect a new possession flick to live up to the excellence of Exorcist, it still must do something different to stand out from the crowd.

Actually, I’ll amend that. I don’t demand that Ritual bring a novel effort, but I’ll embrace it if it manages to give us a well-crafted horror tale.

Good luck with that, too! Despite some potential positives, Ritual turns into a dud.

It seems like a bad sign that a movie with “name” actors like Stevens and Pacino barely got a US theatrical distribution. Ritual debuted on a mere 563 screens in June 2025 and it made a pathetic $329,198 for its opening weekend.

Shockingly, Ritual dropped down to only 48 screens for its second weekend, and that meant a 92 percent drop in gross. It fell nearly 97 percent for Weekend Three and left theaters after that.

Is it any wonder that I don’t even recall hearing of Ritual until this Blu-ray landed on my doorstep? Apparently hardly any other moviegoers became aware of its existence either.

I wish I could claim we all missed out on a winning horror tale. Unfortunately, the end product feels trite and unconvincing.

On the positive side, Pacino offers a better than usual performance. He seems less hammy than I expect from him these days and fills out the part pretty well.

Stevens becomes less convincing, perhaps because he gets the more challenging character. Whereas Father Riesinger starts and ends as a “true believer”, Father Steiger goes through more of a crisis of faith, and Stevens can’t portray these elements well.

Even with excellent acting across the board, Ritual would flop because it offers such an over the top and heavy-handed take on the topic. While basically a remake of Exorcist in many ways, director David Midell never attempts to replicate William Friedkin’s cool and stable take on the story.

Instead, Midell lays on every cheap horror movie trick in the book. The score telegraphs all potential emotions and jump scares abound.

In a weak attempt to make the movie seem “urgent”, Midell utilizes shakycam up the wazoo. Whereas Midell may think this make the film seem like a documentary, instead the camerawork just becomes a consistent annoyance.

If I look, I know I can find worse movies about demonic possession than The Ritual. But I can also locate many better productions and this one ends up as a net negative.

The Ritual appears in an aspect ratio of 2.00:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie came with a good but not great visual presentation.

Overall sharpness worked fine, though interiors tended to feel softer than expected. Some of that connected to the film’s intentionally grungy aesthetic but I still thought the image leaned a little more ill-defined than I might expect.

Neither jagged edges nor moiré effects manifested, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws remained absent.

As noted, Ritual went with a grimy vibe and that translated to the subdued palette. The movie favored ugly blues, greens and yellows that the Blu-ray brought out as intended, even if the end result didn’t look very good.

Blacks felt fairly deep, and shadows displayed acceptable clarity, even if the photographic choices made things a bit murky at times. In any case, nothing here offered a visual showcase but the image appeared to represent the source.

In addition, the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack suited the story but didn’t quite excel. As expected for a tale like this, creepy atmosphere dominated the soundscape.

This meant moody elements and creepy music filled the room in a positive manner. Some violent scenes used the spectrum in a more active way but the mix tended toward eerie ambience most of the time.

Audio quality satisfied, with music that appeared bold and full. Effects brought good accuracy and heft as well.

Dialogue always seemed concise and natural. Despite a lack of real sonic sizzle, the soundtrack satisfied.

A few video programs appear, and The Making of The Ritual runs 10 minutes, 56 seconds. It brings notes from writer/producer/editor Enrico Natale, producers Andrew Stevens and Mitchell Welch, St.Mary Basilica rector Father Aaron Williams, writer/director David Midell, and actors Abigail Cowen, Al Pacino, Dan Stevens, Patricia Heaton and Ashley Greene.

The show discusses story/characters, cast and performances, locations and Midell’s work on the set. A few insights emerge but most of the piece leans toward happy talk so don’t expect much from it.

Within The Buzzfeed Interviews, we get a seven-minute, 29-second reel. This one delivers remarks from Stevens, Greene and Cowen.

They cover story/characters as well as cast and performances. These offer a collection of brief snippets, all of which try to sell the movie and they tell us little of consequence.

Three short promotional featurettes conclude the disc: “Keeping the Faith” (1:51), “The Script” (1:37) and “Based on a True Story” (1:27). Across these, we hear from Welch, Williams, Stevens, Pacino, Greene, Cowen, Midell, Natale, and Heaton.

The segments discuss locations, story and characters, and filmmaking techniques. Taken from the same sessions featured in “Making of”, these reels fare better than expected but still lacked much informational value.

As the umpteenth movie about exorcism, The Ritual needs to find a fresh approach to the subject if it wants to succeed. Instead, it becomes a tedious collection of bad camerawork and cheap fright tactics. The Blu-ray provides largely positive visuals and audio along with a minor array of bonus materials. Ritual ends up as a tiresome stab at a demonic possession tale.