The Ritual 2025

In 1928, in the quiet farming town of Earling, Iowa, a young woman named Emma Schmidt begins to suffer from terrifying and inexplicable phenomena. She’s tormented by night terrors, violent outbursts, speaking in languages she doesn’t know, and an unnatural hatred toward anything sacred. Her family devout Catholics believe she’s possessed and seek help from the Church. Their desperate plea reaches Father Theophilus Riesinger, a seasoned German-American priest known for conducting rare, authorized exorcisms.

Riesinger, aged and worn but unwavering in his faith, travels to Iowa with a reluctant companion Father Joseph Steiger, a younger priest with a crisis of belief. Steiger is skeptical of demonic possession, haunted by his brother’s recent suicide and disillusioned with the Church’s handling of mental illness. Yet when he meets Emma and witnesses the things she does, her unnatural voice, her ability to recount personal sins she’s never heard, and her extreme physical strength, his skepticism begins to erode.

The exorcism takes place at a secluded convent. Riesinger requests strict conditions, silence from the nuns, locked doors, constant prayer. Emma is tied to a bed in a sparse upstairs room. As the ritual begins, the house seems to change, the temperature drops, the air thickens, and Emma’s body convulses. She begins to speak in multiple voices, some mocking and vile, others eerily calm. The demons reveal themselves as ancient spirits, including Beelzebub, Judas Iscariot, and even Emma’s deceased father, a man who had abused her in life. The spirit of her aunt rumored to have practiced witchcraft also appears, further confusing the lines between Emma’s trauma and the spiritual battle at hand.

What starts as a one-night ritual turns into a harrowing 23-day ordeal. The exorcism is conducted in three major stages, each more violent and draining than the last. Emma vomits strange substances, levitates, and speaks in Latin and Aramaic. Her body contorts in impossible ways. The physical toll on both priests is immense—Steiger begins to break down emotionally, while Riesinger becomes obsessed, praying nonstop, barely eating or sleeping. During this time, Steiger begins to confide in Emma during rare lucid moments and slowly finds renewed purpose in helping her.

During the final stage, which lasts for 72 continuous hours. Emma thrashes and screams, the room shakes, objects fly, and demonic voices cry out in fury. Riesinger continues the rites with absolute intensity, while Steiger finally commits himself fully to the ritual. They demand the names of the spirits and force them to swear obedience to Christ. At the ritual’s peak, Emma breaks free from her bindings, hovers above the bed, and then crashes down, lifeless.

A moment of silence. Then, Emma opens her eyes, calm and tearful. The exorcism is complete. In the aftermath, Emma returns to a normal life, though whispers remain that the demons occasionally returned over the years. Riesinger, though victorious, appears deeply altered, his eyes hollow, his hands shaking. Steiger, however, finds peace for the first time in years. He writes a journal detailing the event, unsure whether what he saw was divine or psychological, but certain that it changed him forever.

The film ends with a slow shot of the empty convent room, the bed now stripped and bare. A cross hangs crookedly on the wall, flickering slightly in the candlelight.