The Ritual, David Midell’s 2025 film, is loosely inspired from the most documented demonic possession in American history. Well, needless to say, yes, it is based on a true story that centers around two priests, Theophilius Riesinger and Joseph Steiger, set about trying to cure the ailments of a young girl named Emma Schmidt, as she suffers from inexplicable episodes of fits and convulsions, while also taking the name of Satan and showing all the signs of demonic possession. However, the two priests differ in their evaluation, at least initially, until the condition of Emma grows worse and one has to admit defeat. Overall, The Ritual is a completely skippable film that ends up being so predictable, and therefore boring, that you will only feel sad for yourself, as well as the legendary Al Pacino, for having had anything to do with the film.
Spoiler Alert
What is The Film about?
The Ritual begins with a brief scene of a priest walking through the corridors of a convent, with loud groans and shouts heard from the room he is headed to. As the priest finally reaches the room at the end of the corridor and opens the door, the shadow of a woman seems to make an unbelievably high jump towards the ceiling, and the scene terribly shocks him. The film then takes us back nine days, to a seemingly normal October morning in 1928, at the small farming town of Earling, in Iowa, where the same priest, Father Joseph Steiger, prepares for his sermon. Although Steiger is a beloved man in the community and has never had any difficulty with regard to preaching religion, he is evidently disturbed on this particular morning. After all, the priest lost his brother a couple of days ago, and the grief of this loss still looms large over him.
But Father Steiger does not have much time or chance to be alone with his thoughts, as he is joined by Bishop Edwards right after the sermon. The bishop informs him of a peculiar case that has been reported to the church about the strange sufferings of a young woman named Emma Schmidt, who has not only been having inexplicable convulsions and fits, but has also been shouting out names of the devil and has also been hissing at the sight of a church. Although her family has taken her to numerous doctors, nobody has been able to diagnose her condition, and a detailed psychological evaluation has also been carried out. In fact, it is the result of this psychological test that Bishop Edwards hands to Father Steiger, clearly to prove that a different kind of treatment is required to deal with Emma’s condition.
The bishop states that Emma Schmidt’s parish now wants a ‘solemn sacrament’ to be performed on her, which basically refers to an exorcism, but Steiger is not entirely convinced. He feels that the young woman is suffering from some psychological illness, and a religious exorcism is not going to help her condition. But his opinion is not taken seriously, as the preparations for an exorcism have already been made, and the higher-ups have decided to have the exorcism performed at his convent. Soon, Steiger has to arrange for the young woman to be brought to the convent he preaches at. The Capuchin friar who has been tasked with performing the rituals, Theophilius Riesinger, also arrives at the place, but Father Steiger still remains unconvinced that the church is taking the right step in the matter.
Why does Emma need to be restrained?
One thing that Joseph Steiger is adamant about from the beginning of Emma’s time at his convent is the need to be sensitive to her and to understand her pains. While Father Riesinger also agrees with this, he differs from the younger priest in one specific condition—for he wants Emma to be kept restrained in her room, especially during the rituals. Steiger feels this to be an extremely unnecessary step, though, as it only feels like an act of torture to him to have the young woman tied up against her will. Riesinger asks for three sisters to be present in the room during the exorcism, while Steiger would also have to be present in order to write a detailed report regarding the process used and the effects on the suffering woman.
While Steiger does not mind being a part of the exorcism and keeping a record of it, he does not allow for Emma to be restrained, solely because he does not want her to be more hurt and injured than she already is. However, there is an extremely serious repercussion to this decision when the woman suddenly displays supernatural strength during the exorcism. On the second night of the rituals, Emma suddenly grabs hold of one of the nuns, Sister Rose, by her hair and refuses to let go of her as a sort of revenge against the forceful exorcism being performed on her. It definitely looks like whatever demonic entity is possessing her takes full control of the situation and grabs Sister Rose to hurt her, especially since Emma also keeps muttering curses and angry rants during this time.
The strength of her grip is such that by the time Rose can be pulled off her, Emma still has thick strands of hair in her hand. This display of strength and unpredictability is enough for Father Steiger to change his mind about the situation, since he had clearly misread things. Emma’s condition is not a very simple one like most other cases of this kind, in which the seemingly possessed individuals turn out to be suffering from mental illness. Although Steiger still believes that Emma is mentally sick and not possessed, he now agrees that she needs to be restrained during the exorcism in order to prevent her from causing injuries to any more of the sisters.
What had happened in Emma’s past?
Once Steiger starts to question the Church’s methods with regard to the case of Emma Schmidt even more, Theophilius Riesinger has to open up about the past of the young woman, which was always known to him, but he had chosen to keep a secret. Being someone with profound and unnatural sensitivity, Emma was seemingly blessed, or cursed, with the ability to be taken over by otherworldly beings and entities. When she was just a young girl, her mother had asked for Father Riesinger to come to their village of Redding in order to take a look at her daughter, who had started to act strangely. Young Emma had started to experience similar struggles as she’s going through at present, but Riesinger was very inexperienced at his job at the time.
He had only just become an exorcist, with no real experience, and the helpers that he could find while tackling the case also could not help him much with it. Although he and his team easily figured out that Emma was indeed possessed, they could not do anything to help her and almost abandoned her, telling her mother that the girl’s condition was psychological and had to be treated by a doctor of medicine. When the girl was taken to a doctor and underwent scientific treatment, she had indeed recovered and started living a very normal life. However, just as Riesinger guessed, the demonic spirits had only been waiting to strike once again, which they did later in her life, when she lost her mother to illness and became lonely. Taking advantage of this disturbed and troubled state of mind, the demonic entities once again returned to take control over her, and this is why she has been showing the same symptoms at present.
Going through the reports in Emma’s file, Father Steiger also learns that the girl had been poisoned and cursed multiple times during her childhood at the hands of her evil father and aunt, who also happened to be lovers. Emma’s father, Jacob, and her mother’s sister, Mina, had had an illicit love affair, because of which they decided to use witchcraft on young Emma, either to ensure that their affair would not come out in public or to remove Emma and her mother from the picture completely. This exposure to witchcraft combined with her already sensitive and vulnerable nature to make her become an easy target for possessions. It is suggested that her father had assaulted and tortured her during her childhood as well, which is why she is seemingly haunted by the evil spirit of her father as well, just like the demonic spirits.
Is Father Steiger’s faith shaken?
Father Joseph Steiger is arguably in the most difficult position in The Ritual, maybe second to Emma Schmidt, as he cannot decide what stance he should be taking in the matter. Initially, Steiger is totally sure that Emma’s condition is psychological and has nothing to do with demons and spirits, since he does not really believe in the existence of such supernatural beings. But this disbelief in the supernatural is taken to be a sign of his shaky faith by Theophilius Riesinger, and also by the film itself, as the young priest had indeed been questioning his faith secretly. Steiger had just lost his brother at the beginning of the film, and it is revealed that he had committed suicide, meaning that he had suffered tremendous mental pain that had led him to take his own life.
Deep inside his mind, Steiger had started to lose faith in God after this incident, as he felt faith and religion to be insufficient to ensure a human’s well-being. Perhaps he was driven by the idea that his brother must have also sought relief from God through his faith and prayers, but none of it had worked, and he had to ultimately give in to his self-consuming thoughts. Therefore, Steiger is really at his most pragmatic state of mind when Emma arrives at the convent and her exorcisms begin. But his opinion once again starts to change as the woman shows supernatural strength and is clearly in the grip of otherworldly entities.
One of the few positives in the film is the character of Joseph Steiger, who is not restricted to being just good or bad, pious or sinful, but there are multiple facets to him. Although Steiger has been a dedicated servant of God for many years now, there is clearly a romantic, or even sexual, tension between himself and Sister Rose, as both of them are often flirtatious with one another. When the two share a private moment during the later half of the film, when both their faiths have been shaken by the supernatural incidents, it feels like both are taken over by the thought of breaking all their vows of celibacy and uniting in body and spirit. But ultimately, The Ritual chooses to be a typical religious film, and therefore, despite their wavering faiths, they still have enough faith in God to get rid of these dark thoughts and pull away.
By the end, Father Steiger goes through another shift in opinion, but this time it also brings him a sort of perspective and understanding that he had been lacking for so long. During the last exorcism session, the evil inside Emma takes control of the situation and wreaks havoc, resulting in Theophilius Riesinger temporarily being unable to carry forward the ritual. It is then Steiger who steps up and performs the exorcism of Emma, which ultimately rids her of all evil and cures her ailments. This confirms that Steiger has once again found faith in God and religion, since he has now totally given himself to belief in supernatural and demonic entities, which is why he steps up to fight against such powers. But moreover, the scene also symbolizes that Steiger has now finally come to terms with the death of his brother, as he uses the same medallion of Saint Michael the Archangel to carry out the exorcism that he had found among his brother’s belongings.
Is Emma really possessed?
The Ritual ends with another reminder that the film is based on the very real events of the exorcism of Emma Schmidt, which is really the most documented case of exorcism in American history. The real Emma Schmidt, although much older than shown in the film, had also been seemingly possessed by demonic entities, following which the veteran German-American priest, Father Theophilius Riesinger, had carried out her exorcism. Reverend Joseph Steiger was also the real priest who had been given the responsibility of documenting the exorcism that had lasted for 23 long days. The final session of the exorcism had lasted for 72 hours at a stretch, as Emma’s condition kept worsening, and she supposedly did some horrific things like levitating and contorting unnaturally.
The primary reason behind this real event having been adapted into films and shows numerous times, with perhaps the most famous adaptation being “The Exorcist,” is that the case happens to have an air of ambiguity to it. While the situation of Emma Schmidt could have been considered one of demonic possession, there was also reason to believe that she was actually afflicted by psychological ailments that had not been diagnosed and therefore not treated. Even Steiger remained unclear about what had actually happened to the woman, and he even mentioned so in his account.
However, The Ritual annoyingly gets rid of any doubt regarding the matter and very plainly shows the young woman to have really been possessed by demonic entities. We are even shown dark demonic shadows, clearly representatives of Satan, roaming around the convent and trying to spook the two priests out of conducting the exorcism. The only reason we do not see Emma levitating or taking some demonic form is because the film didn’t have the budget to show such dramatic scenes. Throughout its runtime, The Ritual just tries to establish a direct connection between being religious and wholeheartedly believing in the supernatural, making it extremely predictable and rather pointless.
