Latest news with #EmmaSchmidt
Daily Mail
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Chilling true story behind real-life exorcism of 'possessed' woman that inspired Al Pacino's The Ritual
Hollywood legend Al Pacino is starring in his first ever horror movie, The Ritual. The terrifying film is based on the real-life exorcism of Emma Schmidt in Iowa back in 1928. The case is the most documented exorcism in history, largely thanks to theologian Carl Vogl's 1935 book Begone Satan. It's also believed to have partially inspired the 1973 horror classic, The Exorcist. While some specific details of Schmidt's life and alleged demonic possession are unclear, most accounts state that she started showing signs of Satanic interference from as young as 14. Schmidt, who was raised Catholic, began hearing 'sinister inner voices' that compelled her to do 'shameful and unmentionable' things, according to Vogl's book. Some of her behavior included sexual acts, an aversion to holy objects, and the urge to attack her spiritual advisor. According to Bloody Disgusting, Schmidt was 'uniquely aware of the presence of religious artefacts'. If somebody approached her with a holy object, even if it was hidden, she could sense it and would fly into a rage. She was also 'highly sensitive to holy water', to the point that she once refused a meal that had been sprinkled with a few blessed drops. Multiple doctors examined her at the time and could find no signs of mental or physical illness, which only further fueled the theory that she'd been possessed. Schmidt underwent her first exorcism in 1912 at the hands of Father Theophilus Riesinger, who is played by Pacino in The Ritual. At one point, it was suspected that she had been possessed by her Aunt Mina, who was believed to be a witch. While little is known about her first exorcism, Riesinger returned almost two decades later in 1928 to perform a second exorcism. This one was far more elaborate, with Riesinger and another priest, Father Joseph Stieger, played by Dan Stevens in The Ritual, taking Schmidt to a convent in Earling, Iowa. Schmidt was given a pseudonym, Anna Ecklund, to protect her identity during the chilling exorcism. The second exorcism was performed in three sessions over a period of four months, totalling 23 days in total. Riesinger claimed that Schmidt was possessed by four different spirits, including her own father, who had unsuccessfully tried to get his daughter to commit incest with him. According to Vogl's book, Schmidt levitated in the air, vomited repeatedly, contorted her body, and made inhuman animal noises during the exorcism. Eventually, Riesinger completed the ritual after three consecutive nights and days with no breaks. Schmidt survived and lived out the rest of her life in peace, although some reports claim that she suffered from mild possessions over the years until her death. Her case largely remained a secret until a widely-read Time magazine article was published in 1936, Religion: Exorcist & Energumen. Now Schmidt's chilling story is being brought to life in The Ritual. Directed by indie filmmaker David Midell, the movie sees Pacino transform into Father Riesinger, who teams up with Dan Stevens's conflicted Father Steiger to banish a demonic spirit from, Schmidt, who is portrayed by Abigail Cowen. It's new territory for Pacino, who has steered away from the horror genre throughout his illustrious career. The closest that the 85-year-old has come to horror is the psychological thrillers The Devil's Advocate, Insomnia, and 88 Minutes.
CBC
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
The Ritual is dreary, dumb and dangerous. And misogynistic. Also, it sucks
Two separate times in David Middel's horror film The Ritual, title cards pop up declaring that you are watching the most well-documented case of demonic possession in history. A final message then asserts that "debate persists" over whether this instance — the 1928 exorcism of Emma Schmidt — was a case of medical or spiritual malady. Having made it to the end of this offensive mess, I can only assume that "debate" is a reference to the fact that The Ritual believes you are an evil imbecile if you disagree with the practice of exorcism — a practice that has led to literal torture deaths across the world. Middel also seems to suggest that spirits and demons are not only real, but they only continue to exist because egghead authorities don't believe hard enough — even in the face of extraordinary and frightening evidence that you should be calling 911 for the bleeding, wailing, vomiting young woman instead of dousing her with holy water. This is not a knock against religiosity, or even Christianity itself; The Ritual 's central didactic instruction isn't to believe in a higher power. Instead, it's an absurdly specific, fearfully atavistic and almost despairingly cruel directive not to listen to the voice of reason in the face of fatal consequences. WATCH | The Ritual trailer: It's all strung around the neck of Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens), a faltering parish priest in the small town of Earling, Iowa. He's already struggling with conflicting responsibility and powerless leadership when a bishop bluntly informs him his church will soon be the site of an exorcism. It's Emma, you see: she's been exhibiting all the telltale symptoms of mental illness. Ones that through time immemorial have led to countless women's ostracization, forced hospitalization and lobotomies — all of which, for example, were perpetrated against little-known Kennedy sister Rosemary when she didn't act presidential enough for the presidential family. Throughout history, such practices have forged a horrifying pattern of abhorrent, confused and counterproductive treatments to silence, control and kill women. Just Google where the word "hysteria" comes from (also, chillingly, its diagnosis). Instead of scientific tortures or burning at the stake, the men in Emma's life have opted for a more traditional method. Looking for all the world like a Jeremiah Johnson Jesuit, Father Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino) has apparently chosen to give up his day job hanging out beneath bridges to demand tolls from fairy tale travellers. Now, he'd like to excise the spirits from poor Emma's battered and bruised body. All Steiger needs to do is take notes, and keep the pesky nuns and Reverend Mother (Patricia Heaton) from complaining too much about the very loud atrocities being committed beneath their bedrooms. Dangerous message Unfortunately, that proves a bit too much for that meddling kid (i.e. non-psychopath). Instead, Steiger impudently questions the wisdom of treating a clearly suffering woman with assault instead of, say, literally anything else. Too bad he's an idiot, apparently. Because as Riesinger assures him, his fancy-dancy doctors can't save Emma, can't save him, can't save any of us. This is something far more "ancient" we're dealing with here. Any second-guessing or second opinions will invariably lead to everyone's doom. This is the film's supposed central message, allowed to bloom even as its supposed central character, Steiger, fades inauspiciously into the background, while Riesinger and Schmidt graduate to blood-spattered moralistic caricatures, which are bestowed with all the depth, accuracy and effectiveness of those anti-drug D.A.R.E. comics (which in some cases actually got kids to do drugs more). An equally trite and terrifying tone (in neither case intentional) drips through this sad affair. If it were made with even a modicum of artistry, the film may have run the risk of sparking a roaring prairie fire of collective madness. Something this insidious, made proficiently, could well have become another Michelle Remembers, the Canadian ritual-abuse memoir so incorrect and inflammatory it set off the Satanic panic. Luckily, The Ritual is garbage. But it's noxious, like a tire fire that, if ignored, could spark a human tragedy going on for years or even centuries. But instead of ignorance, let's be better: let's look the Devil right in the face, and deal with what makes The Ritual a steaming pile of belching trash, deserving of its own exclusion zone at least the size of Chernobyl's. It's not the awkward, stilted writing. It's not the Office -style handheld zooms, making this supernatural horror look not unlike a daytime TV sitcom. It's not even Pacino's bizarre accent, seemingly a low-effort homage to his years of terrible and forgettable roles taken to recover from Ponzi scheme-induced financial ruin. No, the truly repugnant point of this movie comes toward the end, where after 90 minutes of dancing around Steiger's milquetoast hemming and hawing, Midell gives up the pretence of evenhandedness. In a scene that hits you over the head so hard it could star in Concussion, The Ritual combines liturgy, a dropped bible and laughable CGI smoke straight out of Lost to make its case. The suggestion is that Steiger was a moron to ever doubt. You can deal with mental illness at home, the film proclaims. All you need is rope, a wrought-iron bed frame and the privacy of a securely locked cellar. It is an asinine lesson, but also a cruel and dangerous one. It comes after in-movie assurances that 1920s medicine was unable to find anything medically or "biologically" wrong, sure — as a smugly (and historically, and scientifically) ignorant pat on the back for our resident exorcists. It also ignores the fact that self-righteous belief in the face of these practices does result in death. It ignores that exorcists killed Anneliese Michel. That exorcists killed Tylee Ryan and Joshua Jaxon (JJ) Vallow. That, according to Vice, exorcists traumatized Canadian Marie McClellan and continue to prod others into demanding the treatment for themselves. Vile morals All in all, it's vile. It's as if someone made a new Bambi, except now his mother dies because she stupidly neglected to do enough whippets. Or a Stand By Me where, instead of relying on the power and fleeting beauty of boyhood friendship, Gordie tells a crying Chris of course the pain will go away. All he has to do is start drinking gin. Or if in Roots, Kunta Kinte gave in before even the first lashing. "Isn't it great being a slave?" he asks this time, smiling dopily at the camera. "I am Toby Obedientman." Cue credits. Happy ending. Did you learn something?
Time Magazine
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
The Real Story Behind The Ritual and the Woman Who Inspired The Exorcist
Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Ritual. Considering it provided some inspiration for William Friedkin's seminal 1973 horror classic The Exorcist, the real-life exorcism case of Emma Schmidt (who was also referred to by the pseudonyms Anna Ecklund and Mary X) is unsurprisingly one for the books. But how much truth there is to the religiously-fueled aspects of the story is up for interpretation. The Ritual, now in theaters, purports to be based on the true story of Schmidt's exorcism, which took place at a secluded convent just north of Earling, Iowa, in late 1928. In the movie, writer-director David Midell (NightLights, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain) presents Schmidt's afflictions as symptomatic of demonic possession rather than mental illness or other influences, a decision that positions the film as a faith-based thriller despite an ending title card that acknowledges there are those who doubt that narrative. Although Schmidt (who is played by 27-year-old Abigail Cowen despite the fact that she was in her 40s at the time of the events chronicled in the movie) is at the center of the story, The Ritual really revolves around the push and pull between the two Catholic clergymen who preside over the rite, local parish priest Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) and Capuchin friar Father Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino). While Steiger is experiencing a crisis of faith following his brother's suicide, Riesinger is a devout and somewhat controversial believer in the ritual of exorcism. This focus on the two male characters may result from the fact that, as Midell explained in a video he shared on Instagram in April, The Ritual is based on a 1935 booklet titled Begone Satan! This account of Schmidt's case was put together by the Catholic Church, which it's probably safe to assume brought its own slant to the way the story was told. What happened to Emma Schmidt? The Ritual hits most of the generic exorcism horror plot beats in retelling Schmidt's story, with Schmidt exhibiting an aversion to holy objects, spewing blasphemy, experiencing fits of violent rage, vomiting bile, and clinging to walls in an inhuman fashion, among other demonic behaviors. In real life, Schmidt's exorcism was one of the last officially sanctioned by the Catholic Church, a fact that seems to have contributed to its infamy. As the movie alludes to, Schmidt, who was born in 1882, began showing signs of what was deemed to be possession starting at the age of 14. The issues began after Schmidt was subjected to abuse at the hands of her father, who allegedly took a sexual interest in her, and her Aunt Mina, who was reportedly her father's lover, a child murderer, and also a witch "who had placed a spell on some herbs which she placed among the girl's food." However, when it comes to claims about witchcraft, it's important to remember this was still the 1800s, when the term was applied with some regularity to women who defied various social norms and conventions. Riesigner performed the rites of exorcism on Schmidt for the first time in 1912. But Schmidt's symptoms later returned, pushing her to what Begone Satan! author Father Carl Vogl wrote in the booklet seemed like the edge of sanity. "She was conscious of some sinister inner voices that kept on suggesting most disagreeable things to her," he wrote. "These voices tried their utmost to arouse thoughts of the most shameful type within her, and tried to induce her to do things unmentionable and even to bring her to despair. The poor creature was helpless and secretly was of the opinion that she would become insane." Schmidt's final exorcism was eventually performed in three stages over the course of a total of 23 days between Aug. 18 and Dec. 22, 1928. During the course of these sessions, Riesinger claimed there were four different spirits possessing her: Judas Iscariot, Beelzebub, her Aunt Mina, and her father. If Vogl's account is to be believed, Schmidt's ailments during this time appeared to be of an unearthly and inexplicable nature. But your opinion on the matter will likely depend on how much stock you put in the word of the Church. Eventually, Riesinger is said to have successfully completed the exorcism after three consecutive nights and days of working on Schmidt with no breaks, allowing her to live out the rest of her life in relative peace. Some accounts claim Schmidt was possessed off and on until her death. Riesinger would go on to be profiled by TIME in 1936. As for what Midell himself thinks happened to Schmidt, in a statement included in the film's production notes, he describes feeling "struck by the scientific and fact-based approach many have taken in relation to seemingly unexplainable (i.e. paranormal) events." "Some have described exorcisms as Rorschach tests: those with a background in faith and religion see a spiritual struggle for the soul of a human being, while those who are more scientifically minded see a person in need of psychiatric assistance," he said. "Spiritual or psychological, what cannot be denied is the profound suffering experienced by Emma Schmidt, and the bravery and fortitude required by those who came together to alleviate her suffering."
Buzz Feed
30-05-2025
- General
- Buzz Feed
16 Shocking Facts About The Most Documented Exorcism
The exorcism of Emma Schmidt, aka Anna Ecklund, occurred in 1928 in Earling, Iowa. It went on for twenty-three days from morning to night in three rounds: August 18-26, Sept. 13-20, and Dec. 15-22. Emma was 40 years old at the time of her exorcism. At the time of its occurrence, it was believed to have been the longest known exorcism. This exorcism wasn't Emma's first. In 1912, she was also exorcised after her aunt Mina, who was "known among the people as a witch," reportedly placed a spell on herbs she served Emma in her food. Prior to her possession, Emma was described as a "very pious and respectable person" who was very involved in the church. When she was 14, she began having these strange occurrences, like hearing an inner voice that tried to coerce her to do particularly evil things. One of those things, for example, was to attack and strangle her spiritual advisor. Doctors and specialists reportedly examined Emma for her unusual symptoms, though none found anything abnormal, physically or otherwise. So, they decided to seek out something different — and that's how her exorcism came to be. Another peculiar symptom Emma displayed was understanding languages she'd never learned, let alone heard. For instance, when a priest would speak to her in Latin, she could tell he was blessing her and would act out and foam at the mouth. When he stopped, she stopped, though she did not know a word of Latin. It was also said that she could tell the difference between items that were blessed from those that weren't, even though they were done secretly and without her knowledge. The pastor set to perform the exorcism — Father Theophilus — had a ton of car trouble on the drive over despite his car being new. Nothing particularly wrong with the car could be identified, but the vehicle "lacked the usual speed," thus delaying his arrival. He and his fellow priests, of course, believed this was the work of the devil and Emma's possession. At the very start of her exorcism, Emma reportedly "dislodged herself from her bed," pulling free of the several guards who'd been holding her down, then shot across the room and clung to the wall mid-air. So, you know, classic exorcist movie stuff. After Emma was returned to her bed and the ritual continued, a loud, shrill voice that sounded like it was far off seemed to fill the room, along with a sense of dread felt by all. The commotion was said to have been heard not only in the convent, but through the neighborhood nearby so loudly that people rushed over thinking someone was being murdered. Emetophobia warning here: Emma threw up...a lot. Like, an inhuman amount. She was said to have vomited pitcherfuls-worth at a time, and it wasn't uncommon for her to throw up twenty to thirty times a day despite barely having eaten anything for weeks. She also seemingly threw up things she hadn't eaten at all, like macaroni or chewed tobacco leaves. For the most part, she was only drinking milk and water by the tablespoon or was nourished through liquid injections. OK, so back to the whole ~hearing voices screaming that aren't Emma's~ part. Apparently, there were multiple voices, both human and inhuman sounding, which they believed indicated that there were "un-numbered spirits" possessing the woman. These horrific noises happened every day of the exorcism for hours at a time. The sounds weren't being made by Emma (her mouth was reportedly "closed tight" the whole time) but were coming "from somewhere within her." Emma previously stated that she didn't know when or how she became possessed, though one of the entities possessing her revealed to Father Theophilus that the cause of her troubles was her father, Jacob. It was said that he cursed her after attempting to force to her to "commit incest." At one point during the exorcism, Emma's face was described as becoming "so distorted that no one could recognize her features." Her head would turn bright red, her eyes would bulge out, and her lips would swell as big as her hands. Her stomach and limbs would also sometimes become as hard and heavy as stone, thus bending the legs of the iron bed she'd been laid out on so dramatically that it'd hit the floor. At one point, the exorcism went on without pause for three full days and nights, after which Father Theophilus was described as looking so exhausted that he resembled a "walking corpse." The exorcism finally ended on December 23, 1928, at 9 o'clock at night. How did they know it was over, you might ask? Well, Emma shot up out of bed once again, essentially floating over the mattress so that only her heels grazed it. She then fell back onto the bed, a spine-chilling noise was heard, and chanting of the names of those that had possessed her filled the room. Additionally, a positively rotten odor manifested out of nowhere that was so horrible and unbearable that "all the windows had to be opened." And then, it was over. Witnessing the exorcism was reportedly so horrific that after all was said and done, every nun who was present for it asked to be transferred to a different convent. And finally, despite the three-week-long exorcism, Emma was said to still experience "possessions but of a milder nature" after the fact. Hooked on this story? The Ritual, a horror movie based on the notes and findings of a real-life exorcist and the multiple exorcisms of Emma Schmidt (aka Anna Ecklund), opens in theaters on June 6! You can check out the trailer here:
Buzz Feed
28-05-2025
- General
- Buzz Feed
Haunting Photos With Ghostly Presences
On the spooky r/ParanormalEncounters subreddit, people are constantly sharing unexplainable photos that appear to catch some kind of paranormal activity. Even if you're a non-believer like me, it's a blast to check out some scary images that feel like the inciting incident of a horror story. Here are some of the creepiest finds that will have you questioning if the paranormal is real: "A 2009 photo from the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis, MO. Zoom in on the bathroom floor tiles." Do you see it? Pet ghost? Or a mere trick of the shadows. "My family member went on a hike, but someone (or something) showed up in her photo." Did you see it? Is this the ghost? Or perhaps a stranger with a creepy photobomb? "This photo was taken in 2013, I'm still dumbfounded by it." "What are your thoughts?" "Photo taken on the main graveyard (Zentralfriedhof) in Vienna." What do you think? A floating torso or an optical illusion? "Photo taken in 2019 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee." Is that the face of an apparition behind this couple enjoying dinner? Or is this a camera malfunction? that? "Ghost or a lens flare?" "My dad is pretty sure it's a lens flare, but it does look very uncanny. I have shown these pictures to multiple people, and they all think it's a ghost." "Picture from a hospital CCTV camera shows what appears to be a demon on top of a dying patient." The scariest part is the photo quality, but whatever that is, it looks like something straight out of a horror movie. "My friend has recently shown me this picture from 2016 of him and his brother at the front of Blackpool beach at 7 a.m. Photo taken by mother, when they looked at the photo, they saw the figure between the legs and looked around, and nobody was there." Did you see it? Now you can't unsee it. "Little girl" Be sure to wave back at this little ghost if you ever see her. "Something was peeking at me." I think someone is keeping an that someone is on the ceiling. "Can anyone explain this?" My something else in your room. "Night shift at target." This brightened image shows that someone, or something, is lurking in Target. "There was something in my woods last night." Headlights? Glowing eyes? Something else??? You be the judge. "My aunt's china cabinet." Just a trick of the camera, or a reflection from beyond? "Weird figure captured in the middle of the woods." Someone — or something — lurking. What do you think of these photos? Comment below and share your own evidence if you have any! If you love the supernatural, you'll love the upcoming horror film The Ritual! Based on the real notes and findings of a real-life exorcist and the multiple exorcisms of Emma Schmidt (aka Anna Ecklund), it's sure to horrify you. Check out the trailer here:
