The Ritual claims to be “based on a true story” about the most documented and publicized exorcism in American history.

That the movies are still trying to pass off demonic possession as plausibly realistic rather than horror-movie make-believe has grown wearisome, although it’s not improbability that dooms this Al Pacino-headlined genre throwaway—in theaters June 6—but a crushing lack of originality and a form that makes its clichés even harder to swallow.

Confronted with the unholy, Dan Stevens’ priest may exclaim that this is a “profoundly new and strange situation for all of us,” yet only the youngest and least horror-experienced moviegoers will feel likewise.

In 1928 Earling, Iowa, Father Joseph Steiger (Stevens) acknowledges to his flock that he’s continuing to grieve the recent

See Full Page