Dan Stevens has already had a busy year dominating horror, from his appearance as baddie-for-hire turned vampire in this spring’s Abigail to his chilling turn as a hotel owner with mysterious secrets in Cuckoo. Now, he’s adding another iconic subgenre to his list with The Ritual, which just got picked up for a 2025 release by XYZ Films, according to Variety, as well as various other international distributors.
While we don’t know when exactly in 2025 we’ll get to see The Ritual, we do know a bit about its plot. Stevens is going from supernatural monsters to demons as he tackles an exorcism alongside Hollywood icon Al Pacino. The film’s logline reads as follows:
“The Ritual follows two priests — one questioning his faith (Stevens) and one reckoning with a troubled past (Pacino) — who must put aside their differences to save a possessed young woman through a difficult and dangerous series of exorcisms. The film is an authentic portrayal of Emma Schmidt, an American woman whose demonic possession culminated in harrowing exorcisms. Her case remains the most thoroughly documented exorcism in American history.”
The film is also set to star Twilight alum Ashley Greene and Ashley Cowan, and is directed by David Midell, who also wrote the script alongside Enrico Natale. Natale serves as a producer alongside Andrew Stevens and Mitchell Welch.
This isn’t the first time Stevens has played a religious figure – he starred as a former missionary in 2018’s Apostle – nor is it the only exorcism film we’ve seen in recent years. Russell Crowe alone has led two, the unfortunately similarly-named The Exorcism and The Pope’s Exorcist, alongside the ill-fated The Exorcist: Believer. And that’s not even counting Mike Flanagan’s upcoming take on the iconic franchise. Fixation much, Hollywood?
Pacino is no stranger to horror, either. He most notably starred as Satan himself in 1997’s The Devil’s Advocate, so seeing how he fares on the other side of the battle (so to speak) should be interesting, especially alongside soon-to-be genre icon Stevens.
The Ritual will arrive sometime in 2025, though an exact release date has yet to be set.
