New supernatural horror The Ritual, starring The Godfather's Al Pacino and Godzilla x Kong's Dan Stevens, has unveiled its first trailer – and it looks chilling, if a little... familiar. The pair star as two priests, who are both wrestling with more than dark forces, in the fright-filled flick...
Directed by The Fare's David Midell, who co-wrote the script with Enrico Natale, the film takes inspiration from the well-documented real-life case of Emma Schmidt AKA Anna Ecklund, a Catholic-born young woman who was subjected to a five-month long exorcism back in 1928, after it was alleged she'd been possessed by a demon. In reports from that time, Schmidt begun exhibiting strange behavior when she was just 14 years old, but was 46 at the time of her final exorcism. Over the years, though, there has been some doubt cast over her true identity, with many voicing suspicions about how all of the written accounts were deliberately misleading.
Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond), Abigail Cowen (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), Ben Foster (X-Men: The Last Stand), and Ashley Greene (The Twilight Saga) round out the supporting cast.
Exclusive first look at the trailer for The Ritual, starring Al Pacino and Dan Stevens 👀 The film will be released in theaters nationwide on June 6. pic.twitter.com/bX7HWlglXzMarch 25, 2025
In the promo, which you can watch above, Pacino's character Father Theophilus Riesinger can be heard saying, "We are the Lord's army in this battle. Emma is not well. I need a team of three. Father Steiger will be taking notes and will assist with restraints. The Devil do whatever it takes to foil our claims. We must be resolute and hold back the darkness." But of course, all that's easier said than done...
The teaser then cuts to Ashley Greene's sister checking in on Emma, and finding an empty bloodied bed. Uh oh. What follows is a lot of genre fare we've seen before; bodies contorting, shaky-voiced religious types reading from the Bible, and more rosary beads and crucifixes than you count. But with Pacino and Stevens on board, we can't help but be intrigued.
Neither are strangers to the world of horror, either, with Pacino having played Satan in The Devil's Advocate (1997) and Stevens' previous works including Apostle (2018), The Rental (2020), and last year's Cuckoo and Abigail.
The Ritual, not to be confused with the frightening folklore flick of the same name from 2017, is set to release in US cinemas on June 6. For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming horror movies heading our way.
