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‘The Ritual’ Review: Exorcisms Happen, Excitement Not So Much in Drab Horror Opus With Al Pacino
Al Pacino and Dan Stevens lead 'The Ritual,' an earnest but tepid film about an exorcism case in Iowa 1928.
Not since Paul Schrader’s ill-starred “Exorcist” entry “Dominion” in 2004 has an exorcism-centric thriller taken itself quite so seriously as “ The Ritual.” Based on a real-life case, like director David Midell’s prior “The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain,” this more fantastical drama is a relatively restrained effort less interested in standard horror effects than the events’ psychological impact on their participants. Cowen, who bears passing resemblance to Ashley Bell of “The Last Exorcism” (that film’s costar, Patrick Fabian, plays a senior cleric here), provides a touchingly pathetic presence, whenever she’s not a yelling, growling special effect. There are some creepy and scary moments, yet the whole feels uninspired — this director doesn’t seem terribly committed to the mechanics of horror, while the milieu and characters don’t come to vivid life in a way that reinforces “Ritual’s” stance as more of a strange-but-supposedly-true docudrama.
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