Al Pacino stars in ‘The Ritual,’ but refused to watch ‘Exorcist’

‘The Ritual’: Al Pacino, Dan Stevens take on exorcism horror

Al Pacino and Dan Stevens star in “The Ritual,” a horror film based on the account of a 1928 American exorcism.

LOS ANGELES − Acting legend Al Pacino and “Downton Abbey” star Dan Stevens were bonding over Super Bowl LVIII in Pacino’s rented home near the set of “The Ritual” in Natchez, Mississippi, when the February skies turned ominous.

“We were basically watching the Super Bowl during a tornado,” says Stevens, recalling the “act of God” moment as he sits next to a vigorously nodding Pacino. “And neither of us had been in one before.” 

Some might see this extreme-weather occurrence as a supernatural statement or warning about making “The Ritual” (in theaters June 6), a horror film based on a real-life 1928 exorcism documented in Time magazine. But Stevens, 42, and Pacino, 85, were consumed with scanning weather reports and Googling terms like “What to do in a tornado.”

“The instructions were to get in the bathtub,” Pacino says. “But it was like, ‘I can’t see the Super Bowl from there.’ “

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To summarize the outcome: The Chiefs won the 2024 Super Bowl in an overtime thriller, and no tornado materialized, sparing Pacino and Stevens from having to shelter in bathtub. But strange things happen when making movies about Catholic priests expelling demons, as seen in the otherworldly weirdness (fire, injuries) surrounding the granddaddy of them all, 1973’s “The Exorcist.”

Al Pacino couldn’t bear to watch ‘The Exorcist’ before making ‘The Ritual’ 

Pacino, by the way, has never seen William Friedkin’s head-spinning, demonic possession movie (released a year after his own career-making role in “The Godfather”), which freaked out moviegoers and paved the way for generations of exorcism films.

“Everybody was recommending that movie through the roof,” Pacino says. “But I was worried that I would need to be taken off in an ambulance, seeing that kind of stuff on-screen.”

The Oscar-winning actor has “played everything” in his wide-ranging career, even starring with Keanu Reeves in 1997’s “The Devil’s Advocate” as Satan. “So I’ve dealt with him before,” Pacino says. “I’ve played him.”

The exorcism that inspired “The Ritual” involved German-American Capuchin friar Theophilus Riesinger, who had earned renown (and controversy) for reportedly casting out 19 devils. The Bishop of Des Moines asked the Roman Catholic priest to conduct the rite of exorcism on 46-year-old Emma Schmidt (played by Abigail Cowen) in Earling, Iowa.

Pacino signed on to writer/director David Midell’s project and showed restraint, preparing to play the voluminously bearded Riesinger.

“It’s like all of a sudden if I have this beard down to the floor, people are going to laugh,” says Pacino, starting to riff. “Even I laughed when I saw myself in my own mind with that beard. People would write: ‘Pacino is up there with this beard. He’s not overacting, but his beard sure is.’ “

“ZZ Top is here for your exorcism,” adds Stevens, who plays the fresh-faced local parish priest Father Joseph Steiger − the Dana Scully sceptic of the team, who is dealing with an additional crisis of faith after his brother’s untimely death.

Pacino not only opted for the lesser beard, but he also plays his bespectacled character without bombast. Riesinger “is this curiously sort of sweet and gentle man,” Stevens says. “There’s an aggression during the confrontation with the demons occasionally, but not in the man himself.”

The duo met with Father Mark Shoffner, a Roman Catholic exorcism expert, to discuss the specifics of the church ritual. The priest was delayed by a sudden Midwest snowstorm but still passed along exorcism information over a Zoom call.

“For me that was the scariest part of the process,” Stevens says. “Father Mark was so matter-of-fact about it, like this was an everyday event, this real exorcist. He was like a truck driver, telling us what to do in the cab of a truck.”

“Exactly!” Pacino says.

What is the origin of ‘The Ritual’?

“The Ritual” takes liberties with the actual 23-day exorcism that was first publicized in the German-language pamphlet “Begone Satan!” Nearly a decade after the Iowa events, a pamphlet translation made front-page news in the Denver Register, a Catholic newspaper, and then in Time. According to the accounts, the exorcism was declared a success when Schmidt cried out: “My Jesus, mercy! Praised be Jesus Christ!”

The demons have been silenced, but “The Ritual” has run into the ungodly gauntlet of critics who have panned the movie. But Stevens is still possessed by the real events that moved the skeptic Steiger.

“What if it is true?” Stevens asks. “And what if a nonbeliever, a skeptic, could be persuaded that this was real? What does that mean?’ The end of the movie is not a celebration for Steiger. That’s horrifying to me.”

Pacino, who fretted about seeing “The Exorcist,” is not as concerned, saying he’s “dubious” of the story.

“I’m ambivalent about everything to start with,” Pacino says. “It’s the safest way to look at our world. Things happen. Things could happen.”