FILM
THE RITUAL
★★
OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 98 MINS
DIRECTOR David Midell
CAST Al Pacino, Dan Stevens, Ashley Greene, Abigail Cowen
If you’re telling a story that involves an old priest, a young priest and a possessed girl and you aren’t The Exorcist, you have taken on the kind of challenge that would terrify Beelzebub himself. Director David Midell makes a valiant attempt at this fool’s errand, even if the result ultimately feels like just another wannabe. Dan Stevens plays the assistant, young Father Joseph Steiger, while Al Pacino is the old priest, Father Theophilus Riesinger, who must exorcise the disturbed Emma (Abigail Cowen). The film can’t quite decide whether it believes in demons or not. Stevens offers increasingly horrified reactions while Pacino hams it up, but it could have used a stronger script to play all the angles, and find a way to stand out from the cassocked crowd.