The Reaping (2007) Reviews

• Good thriller is perfect with a bag of popcorn, a soda and rainy Sunday afternoon

  dbborroughs2007-04-08

  Well I'm shocked-this is a pretty good little thriller. Hillary Swank is an ex-missionary turned scientist and debunker, she's called into investigate a small town in the deep South where the river has turned red or as some suspect to blood. this is followed in close order by other Biblical plagues. They all seem to to be tied to a young girl living in the woods. Creepy little movie thats better than many recent Bible thrillers. Here we start off with science and find as time goes on that it can't explain whats going on. well acted with a couple of nice set pieces this is a movie that works mostly by simple visualization, we see a red river, we see flies, we see frogs. except for a plague of locusts and some fire in the sky what we see out side of dreams is all simple effects given weight by the sincerity of the script and the performances. This is a film where the classic idea of its all better in the mind works to great effect with just a small push. Is it a great film? No, but its a good one. Its the sort of thing you sit and watch on a Saturday night with a big bag of popcorn and a soda. Is it worth paying ten bucks in the theater for? I doubt it but on a rainy Sunday afternoon it may fit the bill on the bargain priced matinée. (Certainly worth a rental) Somewhere between six and seven out of ten.

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• Religious Balderdash

  commandercool882007-04-09

  There are remnants of a good movie in 'The Reaping', but those are lost in a muddled sea of clichés and plagiarism. Hilary Swank is completely blameless, and a dominant first half is entertaining and mysterious. But with every increasing step it takes, 'The Reaping' descends further into self-parody and ridiculous gimmicks. Yet all these mistakes pale in comparison to the ultimate blasphemy this religious thriller makes, when it rips off one of the greatest psychological thrillers of all time. A former ordained minister who lost her faith during a mission trip to the Sudan, Louisiana State University professor Katherine Winter now dedicates herself to investigating and disproving religious phenomena. But when a small parish comes to her for help in studying strange occurrences in their little community, it will take Winters on her most challenging and disturbing investigation yet. Water turned into blood, death of cattle, locusts, etc. What began as a mission to debunk what appears to be the ten Biblical plagues will become something much more dangerous when whispers of a secret Satanic society and demon girl arise. I'd be remiss if I said I wasn't thoroughly entertained throughout the screening of 'The Reaping'. It may not have always been for the right reasons, but it no doubt kept my eyes and mind alert. The film's first half is vastly superior to what follows, and is actually fairly decent. The mood is set, the landscape is creepily effective, and the mysterious occurrences are still fresh and interesting. But I realized that the film suffers when things actually begin to happen, when the plot actually begins to take form. If the film's first 40 minutes is to establishing setting and suspense, the latter half is to ridiculous rubbish. It becomes more and more comical, often during very inappropriate moments. The highly advertised locust attack is cartoonish and laughable at best, and it isn't long until 'The Reaping' begins to borrow rather liberally from older, and much better, religious thrillers. A little from 'The Exorcist', 'Rosemary's Baby', 'The Omen', and probably even more. We shouldn't be too surprised, and all can be forgiven until 'Reaping' commits a much more criminal offense, a plot twist which is frighteningly identical to a horror classic. That seals the deal for this film's fate, something that I cannot forgive. It might surprise many that two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank would allow herself to be seen in such a movie, but in actuality, Swank is the best thing 'The Reaping' has to offer. Granted, she doesn't have a great deal to work with, but she does fine with what she's given. It's far from her best work, and I could tell that her heart wasn't completely in this project, but who could blame her? It was probably too late when she realized exactly what she'd gotten herself into. She tries to appear interested and as if she's actually enjoying herself, and it shows. Unfortunately, it's not enough to save the rest of the picture. Idris Elba is fine but stiff as Swank's counterpart throughout the ordeal, and David Morrissey just seems awkward as the character who initiates Swank's involvement in the case. Young AnnaSophia Robb is showcased as the film's 'demon child', and is sorely underused. Her only lines come at the end of the film, and it only makes you wish she had a much more vocal role throughout. In the end, 'The Reaping' amounts to little more than a hokey and gimmicky religious thriller. Those familiar to the genre will find the scares predictable and obvious, and the recycled plot twists are derivative and tiresome. As I said, 'The Reaping' is entertaining and at times even a good movie, but it's sacrificed for another by-the-numbers addition to an already exhausted genre. Skip this nonsense and see the classics, which 'The Reaping' borrows from shamelessly. That's the only true plague this misbegotten film is afflicted with.

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• Welcome to "the Paycheck Club," Ms. Swank...

  TheMovieMark2007-04-04

  Are you in the mood for an entertaining, intense supernatural thriller with religious themes featuring an Oscar winner who faces a crisis of faith? Well, good news - Signs is currently on DVD. However, if you're looking for that in The Reaping then you might want to go ahead and lower those expectations and prepare to not be blown away. Responding in a post-screening interview to the movie's tagline ("What hath God wrought?"), God emphatically declared, "Oh, I wrought the 10 plagues in the Old Testament, all right, but you ain't laying this on me!" I've decided that "it somewhat kept my interest" is no longer excuse enough for me to give a thriller of this nature a passing grade. Slow-paced, non-scary, and convolutedly confusing to a fault (due to Swank's inexplicable "visions"), The Reaping takes the potential of applying a Biblical story in modern times and wastes it with a pedestrian effort that offers nothing new or original to the genre. Admittedly, some of the special effects showcasing the plagues are visually interesting, and the atmosphere is appropriately dark, but unfortunately, there is no effort to combine emotional impact with the CGI. Rather than disturb audiences with a little eye-covering, skin-crawling aftermath of the plagues, the movie is content to just check 'em off the list. "Drop some frogs into the bloody river!" "Done." "Good, what's next?" "Flies?" "Bring it! We've got eight to go and only 60 minutes left to do it in!" Consequently, this inability to dig beneath the surface of its visuals is what detached my interest. In other words, the film just didn't grab me. Some strange dude in the seat behind me did, but that's a whole other level of disturbing. I was never scared, I only felt brief moments of tension, and I felt not a single iota of interest in any of the characters. Come on, guys, give me an incentive to care! You can't even bother to provide a handful of pandering-yet-effective jump scenes? Where's the excitement? Where's the intrigue? Where's the foreboding fear? I just sat there waiting for something ... ANYTHING ... to happen, and a climax filled with a transparent plot twist and Shyamalan-esquire "hey, here's what was really happening!" flashbacks doesn't count. Close out the festivities with a groan-inducing "oh great, there's gonna be a sequel" final scene, and I'm totally left without a single compelling reason to recommend this even to the most hardcore fans of the genre. Thanks for flippin' us the bird, filmmakers, we really appreciate it. The Reaping is very lucky to make it to theaters. It's a Mary Stuart Masterson-for-Hilary Swank substitution away from premiering on Lifetime. If I were you then that's where I'd wait to see it. THE GIST The Reaping is a simple story about a woman with lost faith who is forced to confront an age-old cult and all the plot conveniences and contrivances that come along with that. It fails to capitalize on its potential, thus failing to make this anything more worthy than a rainy day rental.

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• A Nutshell Review: The Reaping

  DICK STEEL2007-04-07

  Watching two Hilary Swank movies back to back, I thought it presented a good opportunity to see how the same actress tackles different roles, one a dramatic piece about life's lessons, and the other this, The Reaping, taking on some supernatural forces, although she almost started this movie in a lecture hall premise. I don't exactly label The Reaping as horror, because it doesn't have a single scene that can truly scare anyone, unless of course your heart's weaker than a chicken's. The structure is akin to Silent Hill, only that The Reaping is not adapted from a video game. But unlike Hill, this movie is pretty compact in its pacing, and doesn't drag scenes for too long to create atmospheric mood like its peer. Instead, if compared to Silent Hill, this is one Noisy Swamp. Hilary Swank plays a researcher who specializes in debunking biblical sightings and miracles by using science to demystify such phenomena. Listening to her rip the miracles and happenings apart however, was fun, nevermind if it sounded logical or not, since it's Swank, who managed to make the unbelievable, believable in the movie. But that's not to say that she did a fantastic job here, in a role that's largely wasted. If you want to see her act, check out Freedom Writers instead. But I digress. The Reaping's Dana Scully and Fox Mulder equivalents go into investigating a series of bizarre biblical occurrence, the Ten Biblical Plagues, ranging from the blood waters, attacking locusts right down to the last one - the death of every first born. Some may not like the hokey plot taking advantage of God's wrath on man, but as the movie turned out, it's nothing more than a special effects extravaganza, with the religious fervour added to the background and contributing some semblance for a plot to work. It's hip these days to have demonic children as part of the ensemble, and The Reaping has this mysterious girl who seemingly is the cause of God's Wrath. Or is it? There's a little mystery to solve, with a couple of twists at the end, in a tale about the devil and avenging angels. And while the end does wrap things up, it leaves room for a possible sequel, should the movie do well at the box office. The only redeeming grace from the uninspiring, unscary story, is the special effects. Nothing more, nothing less, and nothing to scare your socks off, despite what the trailer and posters suggest.

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• Better than people are saying

  kellywells262007-04-08

  Just got back from seeing The Reaping and I must say it was better than I expected. After reading the critics reviews and reading a majority of the user comments I thought this movie was going to be a real dog. One of the complaints was about the poor special effects. I've never been too impressed with CGI in the first place, but this was as good as any I've seen lately. It has never looked real to me in any movie. As far as the storyline not being original, what film has been original in the last few years. There has been so many movies made in the last 80 years or so that it's gotta be difficult to come up with a never used theme at this point. I also believe when you have an actor the caliber of Hilary Swank in a movie they are held to a higher standard and are thusly criticized more harshly than others if their movies aren't stellar. Give this one a try and judge for yourself.

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