The Reaping is yet another entry in the psychological drama/supernatural sub-genre of Christian/Biblical/Apocalypse Horror films rich with such films as The Exorcist (1973) and it's sequels, The Seventh Sign (1988), Stigmata (1999), Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 (2001), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Constantine (2005), The Omen (1976) and its sequels, The Final Conflict (1981), The Devil's Advocate (1997), even Carrie (1976) (Carrie's mom was a Christian fanatic and it was she who set the entire plot in motion), and even the classic Rosemary's Baby (1968). And if you've seen those films, then you've no need to waste your hard-earned bucks - you've already seen The Reaping.
Released in the absolute perfect religious time 
period - right after Passover and just before Easter - The Reaping is clearly a film made specifically to appeal to the religious masses. Most importantly The Reaping was made for the above-the-liners to pay their extravagant mortgages. With that in mind this reviewer will now coin the phrase "mortgage movie" used here on the pages of gather for the first time.
In The Reaping, Hilary Swank (The Black Dahlia, Million Dollar Baby, Boys Don't Cry, The Next Karate Kid, Beverly Hills, 90210) plays a former Christian missionary, Katherine Winter, who lost her faith after her husband and daughter were tragically killed in Sudan while there on a Christian Mission. She has since become a college professor and world-renowned expert in disproving religious phenomena.
As many current films in this genre do, The Reaping begins in a church in Mexico where Katherine debunks yet another face-in-a-tortilla-type so-called miracle, proving the nasty deeds done were not by god and his mob of good-or-bad angels, but by a smarmy 
corporation who were tossing old chemicals down an old dried out well under a church, rather than disposing of them legally. People who prayed to a well-preserved body for miracles from god to heal themselves mobbed the church. Katherine finds that the chemicals preserved a body that had been dead for over two years and the inhalation of those same chemicals were intoxicating anyone who entered the church.
When Doug Blackwell (David Morrissey) asks Katherine to investigate the strange happenings at a small forgotten Louisiana town called Haven she reluctantly answers the call. The town is being struck by what appears to be the ten Biblical plagues and Katherine can't wait to inject some reality into the situation. She drives there immediately - leaving the audience to wonder what happened with the college classes she was supposed to be teaching - with her right-hand man Ben (Idris Elba) at her side.
The minute they enter Haven strange people and happenings abound. The townspeople believe that a young 
pre-pubescent girl named Loren (AnnaSophia Robb) is responsible for the strange devilish happenings in Haven. Katherine spots Loren running aimlessly around the swamp, so of course, knowing the devil is around, our heroine goes on solo jaunts through the haunted Haven swamplands looking for the devil's rep on earth with no back-up.
Hasn't Katherine ever watched a movie before? Doesn't she know she shouldn't be tramping through a strange swamp she's never been to before? These are just a few of the thousands of thoughts you will have while watching this mortgage movie. You will have thousands of thoughts because the film will, most 
likely, bore you to death between the SpFx shots of the plagues.
The river runs red with human blood, livestock attacks SUV's, bulls and cows are downed, maggots infect carcasses, frogs rain down, lice infects school children, people break out with boils, locusts black out the sun, rocks rain down, night falls during the day, and fire reigns from the sky. Katherine finally recovers her religiosity.
In keeping with the tenets of the religious supernatural film, Katherine communicates with a priest, Father Costigan, played by Stephen Rea, (V for Vendetta, The Crying Game, The Good Shepherd) whose slight and one-note talents have ruined many films before this. He contacts Katherine to tell her that all of the photos he has of her were damaged. Each one has her face burned out of each photo; when Costigan puts them together the burn marks form an upside down sickle, a supposed sign of the devil. He calls to warn her, but of course, since she's never seen a Christian supernatural thriller she discounts his warnings. Rea's appearance is yet another pointless subplot that never pays off.
Many other Christian-based supernatural clichés are in full splendor here: devil worship; a messy deserted haunted house full of blood complete with a satanic temple in the basement hidden behind a moving bookcase; a single sexy dangerous, yet seemingly charming, love interest for our female protagonist; a spooky cemetery with those alarming above-ground crypts with dead children hanging from the ceiling; a destroyed church; priestly warnings; dream-like flash-backs and flash-forwards; a sex/rape scene we are not completely sure really happened; a town full of satanic believers. All proof that there is nothing like devil worship to make you believe in god.
Hilary Swank is almost unbearingly awful to watch, her work is up in her head and she doesn't seem to really connect with her character. What is enjoyable about Swank, though, is the fact that she considers it her job to promote every film she's in; she's on the movie campaign trail as I type trying in vain to up her opening weekend box office numbers. This reviewer doubts her efforts will succeed for this monumentally bad film. Idris Elba acquits himself in mildly admirable fashion, the only one of the cast to do some actual work in this piece of drek.
The Reaping was shot in and around Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and when Hurricane Katrina hit midshoot (August 26, 2005), production was suspended for a week. The Producers considered other locations, but in the end decided that the post-Katrina look was most fitting for this film. Even though The Reaping is only 96 minutes in length it felt twice as long. What a sad mortgage movie The Reaping is!
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Digital Dogs rating: D
MPAA rating: R for violence, disturbing images and some sexuality.
Running Time: 96 minutes
Producers Susan Levin, Herb Gains, Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, Director Stephen Hopkins, Screenplay Carey Hayes from a story by Brian Rousso, Music John Frizzell, Editor Colby Parker Jr, DP Peter Levy, Actors Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, Idris Elba, AnnaSophia Robb, Stephen Rea, William Ragsdale
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© 2007 by Digital Dogs
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Digital Dogs is an opinionated writer, editor, and digital designer who lives and works in the Entertainment Capital of the world. DigiDogs' unique reviews are usually written well before a film's release date, and definitely worth the advance look at the films that influence the world.
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Comments: 17
Burqa- less, of course.
But, really, OTOH, Christianity is full of these spooky supernatural haps so it makes it a natural for this sub-genre. I mean, after all, Christian beliefs give us "holy" ghosts, the devil &/or satan, people rising from the dead, the drinking of blood (vampires), the eating of flesh (werewolves), wierd self-flagilation to prove level of belief, etc. It's tailor-made for supernatural flicks, don't you think? It's always been one of my fave supernatural sub-genres.
There is an evil spirit in Muslim folklore called an afrit; there are probably good stories about them. I only wish my friend Jerry Pearce were still alive. He was a writer of extraordinary talent who specialized in murder mysteries and science fiction, and wrote for TV and film as well, who although he was an Englishman had grown up in Baghdad during the 1930s. He could have given us something really nasty involving afrits.
There are some really ghastly demons, spirits and badass dead stuff in pre-Christian Slavic folklore.
I think that the black cloak worn by the guy in "Scream" is just another version of the one worn by the Grim Reaper; it's probably a funerary robe from Europe in the middle ages. The burkah is worn by women, not men. And the aba does not have a hood. A burnus does, but that's North African, I believe.
Cool!
And for those of you that don't know me, could you visit www.jakesclosetmovie.com
thanks.
ray
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Thanks DD for your kind words. My years of trying to remember everything I read and hear, no matter how trivial, seem to have paid off. I can actually describe my job as "knowing stuff for a living", and it's loads of fun.