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Russell Crowe’s The Pope’s Exorcist was based on the Vatican’s real-life one, and now Al Pacino stars as Theophilius Riesinger.
The historical figure was a German-American priest and exorcist based in the US.
The upcoming horror film The Ritual “is a faithful and terrifying depiction of the case of Emma Schmidt, whose alleged decades of demonic possession culminated in a series of exorcisms in 1928.
“The harrowing true story follows the two priests who went to war with Satan to save her soul.”
Emma, real name Anna Ecklund, started having possession symptoms at the age of 14.
Called by the Bishop of Des Moines, Riesinger was sent to Iowa to exorcise her of the demons, which took 23 days. After which, the exorcist claimed the demons had been driven out, and the previously possessed woman cried: “My Jesus! Mercy! Praised be Jesus Christ!” He was accompanied by Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens), who oversaw the exorcism and gave an account to a German priest. Yet the Roman Catholic Church did not approve its publication and it was only made public in 2020 as part of P Laycock’s The Penguin Book of Exorcisms.
The Ritual is released in UK cinemas on May 30, 2025.
