Al Pacino is set to star alongside Dan Stevens in the upcoming demonic possession movie The Ritual in 2025, which will continue an exciting trend that has dominated horror movies for the last year. Due to release in April 2025, The Ritual will feature Pacino and Stevens as two troubled priests who come together to perform a series of exorcisms on a young American girl. The movie is based on a real-world exorcism, as it follows the ordeal of Emma Schmidt, whose exorcism is one of the most thoroughly documented cases on record.
Horror in general is having a resurgence both from a quality and from a box office standpoint, as production companies like Neon and A24 have brought haunting stories to the big screen for relatively small dollar amounts with tremendous results. Dan Stevens’ inclusion in The Ritual is exciting thanks to his extensive background in horror, but it’s Pacino’s inclusion in the cast that is of real interest, and it’s due in large part to a trend that began in earnest during 2024.
RelatedWhile box office hits have overshadowed the conversation on horror movies in 2024, plenty of other great releases flew under the radar.
Al Pacino Is The Latest Hollywood A-Lister To Star In A High-Profile Horror Movie
Horror Has Been Attracting Some Of The Biggest Names In The Industry
With more and more high-quality stories being told through a horror lens in cinema, the genre has begun to attract some huge names for its leading roles. The rise of high-concept horror has yielded a number of incredible movies that feature true Hollywood A-listers in key roles. In the last year, multiple Oscar winners have starred in genuine horror movies, which would have been considered unusual even five years ago.
Al Pacino starred in the 1997 supernatural horror movie The Devil’s Advocate alongside Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron, in which he starred as a human manifestation of Satan.
Halle Berry, who won an Oscar in 2002 for her performance in Monster’s Ball, starred in the post-apocalyptic supernatural horror movie Never Let Go, while BAFTA Award-winner Hugh Grant recently starred in the mind-bending psychological/religious horror movie Heretic. Academy Award winner (and multiple-time nominee) Nicolas Cage actually starred in two horror movies in 2024: the surprising smash hit Longlegs and the underrated post-apocalyptic horror movie Arcadian. Pacino’s starring turn in The Ritual proves that audiences can continue to expect A-listers to embrace horror.
Why More Iconic Actors Are Committing To Horror
Horror Is Evolving Into A More Respected Form Of Cinema
Horror has historically been looked down upon as a genre of cinema for a number of reasons; budgets are typically low, and the focus is usually on blood and spectacle, as opposed to high-quality writing, even pacing, and exceptional camera work. Film critics in particular have dismissed horror, given that the genre historically hasn’t paid attention to the elements that they look for, such as narrative strength and film-making technique. However, a new wave of creators has fully embraced those elements, often while maintaining a small budget mentality, which has attracted higher-caliber actors.
Horror films have eschewed body counts and senseless violence in favor of well-developed characters and poignant metaphors, all told through a frightening lens. Horror movies explore deep themes within their narratives, often including trauma, grief, mental illness, isolation, and other societal fears expertly woven into a scary story. On top of that storytelling strength, many modern horror film-makers are experimenting with new and exciting ways to frighten an audience, well beyond the simple jump scares or disturbing imagery.
Even some of the recent horror movies that a critic might consider “low” horror have displayed elements of high-caliber film-making. Box office sensation Terrifier 3 contains many of the hallmarks of a low-budget 1980s slasher sequel, but buried within the demon clown antics and gut-wrenching gore is a powerful metaphor about trauma and a pointed story about the cosmic battle of good versus evil. Simply put, horror has become a much more respected form of cinema, and as a result, more of Hollywood’s most talented actors and actresses are embracing it.
High-Profile Acting Talent Means The Sky Is The Limit For Horror In 2025 & Beyond
A-Listers Could Yield More Award Recognition For Legitimate Horror
With high-profile actors and actresses in horror movies, there are naturally more eyes on them. As a result, it’s reasonable to think that the continued trend of A-listers in horror movies could lead to more formal recognition of the genre. While there are obviously some major exceptions to the rule (ex. The Silence of the Lambs, Jaws), historically horror films don’t receive much attention when it comes to major awards like the Oscars, BAFTAs, or Golden Globes. That could change as more and more horror movies are buoyed by the A-listers in their casts.
That shift in respect may already be under way, in fact. Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs, which stars Nic Cage as a twisted serial killer and scream queen Maika Monroe as the FBI agent tasked with hunting him down, has already entered the Oscar race for 2025. Robert Eggers’ vampiric adaptation Nosferatu has received staggeringly good early reviews, and could be in the mix for major awards in 2025. Time will tell if Al Pacino’s performance in The Ritual measures up for critics and fans, but no matter what, his inclusion in a horror movie is exciting for the genre in general.
