Patricia Heaton has spent most of her career playing deeply human characters, whether they’re fumbling through motherhood on “Everybody Loves Raymond” or juggling family chaos on “The Middle.”
But her latest role in the indie horror film “The Ritual” takes her somewhere entirely different: a secluded Iowa convent in 1928, where she portrays a no-nonsense Mother Superior faced with a darkness that defies earthly understanding.
And while the subject matter — a real-life exorcism — is terrifying on its face, the 67-year-old actress and mother-of-four found herself unexpectedly moved by the project.
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“It’s not about spinning heads and vomiting pea soup,” Heaton told The Christian Post. “It’s got some elements of that, but this is a gritty film rooted in reality. It’s more impactful because it’s smaller, and you can relate to it.”
“The Ritual,” also starring Al Pacino, Dan Stevens, Ashley Greene and Abigail Cowen, is based on the exorcism of Emma Schmidt, one of the most thoroughly documented exorcisms in American history.
The ordeal, conducted in a convent in Earling, Iowa, involved a woman plagued for decades by blackouts and disturbing aversions to sacred objects, symptoms that baffled medical professionals and eventually led the Catholic Church to intervene.
Heaton plays the head of the convent, a Polish-born nun tasked with maintaining peace among her sisters as the fabric of spiritual and physical reality begins to unravel around them.
“I just loved her character immediately,” Heaton said of Mother Superior. “Hollywood usually portrays a caricature of religious orders, especially nuns, as silly or goofy. But my own sister is a Dominican nun. She has a master’s degree, and her order is one of the fastest-growing in the country. These are incredibly accomplished women. So when I saw how the script honored that strength and complexity, I was thrilled.”
The film doesn’t shy away from theological depth or the real horror of spiritual warfare, something Heaton says modern audiences, both in and out of the Church, often struggle to talk about openly.
“People have no problem saying they believe in God, but they’re shy about saying they believe in Satan as if suddenly you’re a kook,” Heaton said, referencing a favorite sermon from her friend, the late pastor and theologian Tim Keller. “But Jesus talks about Satan quite a bit. He was tempted by him in the desert. It’s a very real phenomenon.”
While many horror films lean into over-the-top spectacle, “The Ritual” draws on primary documents, including medical reports, diaries and the firsthand account of Capuchin friar Theophilus Riesinger, who performed the exorcism. Heaton was startled to find that her own sister had two copies of Riesinger’s book on the event sitting on her bookshelf.
“I got chills,” she said. “She mailed me a copy, and reading it really grounded me in the reality of what these people experienced. When you read what these priests and psychiatrists said about it, they write almost matter-of-factly, like it’s just part of the job. But there’s something sobering in that — because Satan is boring. He has nothing new. He just wants to mess with people. He’s already lost.”
Heaton, who has long spoken about her Catholic faith, said she was eager to portray a woman wrestling with the tension between obedience and discernment. In one scene, Mother Superior laments that she’s spent her life “taking orders from men whose piety doesn’t compare to the humility of the sisters she works with.”
“She wants to protect her sisters,” Heaton said. “She’s seen evil before. You get the sense she may be a refugee from Poland. So when this comes into her convent, she objects. But eventually, she too comes face-to-face with the demonic.”
Though the events of “The Ritual” took place a century ago, Heaton said the film’s themes are profoundly relevant, particularly as spiritual warfare continues to rage.
“There’s a lot of aggression, a lot of violence in the world right now. Hatred is no longer hiding — it’s on the surface,” she said. “I think it’s important for all of us to put on the full armor of God, not to be paranoid, not to see Satan around every corner, but to be aware. There are things in this world that distract us from our walk with God.”
Heaton pointed to C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters as an apt framework for understanding the insidious nature of spiritual warfare.
“In that book, the junior tempter is told to distract the human from beauty, from art, from anything that might lead them to God. That’s how it works — quiet, small things, not always spinning heads. Sometimes it’s just noise, distraction, comfort.”
Heaton said she hopes the film “wakes people up a little” and reminds viewers that there is an unseen battle going on, citing Ephesians 6:12: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
“Like Paul said, this isn’t about flesh and blood, it’s about powers and principalities. I hope people walk out of this film and think, ‘Maybe I need to go back to church. Maybe I need to take my spiritual life more seriously.'”
“Prayer is a great weapon,” she added. “Especially communal prayer — praying with your spouse, your children, your church. And for Catholics, the sacraments are incredible weapons too. They protect us. They sanctify us. They help us grow.”
Despite her years of success in Hollywood, Heaton emphasized that as a believer, she approaches roles like this with humility and a sense of duty.
“At the end of the day, it’s a movie,” she said. “There’s a lot of technical work involved. But you also have to fully commit emotionally to the story. And this story, the story of evil being defeated, is one that needs to be told.”
“It is finished,” she added. “Satan has already lost. But that doesn’t mean we get to let our guard down.”
“The Ritual” is currently in theaters.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
