The Reaping (2007)

Director: Stephen Hopkins

Writer: Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes, Brian Rousso

Tagline: What Hath God Wrought?

Actors: Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, Idris Elba, AnnaSophia Robb, Stephen Rea, William Ragsdale, John McConnell, David Jensen, Yvonne Landry, Samuel Garland, Myles Cleveland, Andrea Frankle, Mark Lynch, Stuart Greer, Lara Grice

Runtime: 1h 39m

Category: Religious, Thriller

Synopsis: Katherine, a missionary turned atheist, is a primary investigator of “miracles”. She is requisitioned by the small town of Haven to investigate a possible beginning to the reincarnation of the ten biblical plagues of Egypt. Katherine and her assistant Ben, find that the river running through town has turned red…blood red. After some time, they discover that more strange occurrences have been happening, all following the ten plagues of the Old Testament. The town believes that a little girl, Loren McConnell, is responsible for the devastation that has befallen their quiet little town. But the town itself is not what it seems, and Katherine will soon find out the reason for all of the horrible plagues…along with her own divine destiny.

Review: I have been waiting for this movie for many years. Not necessarily this movie in particular, but something to its effect. A modern-day version of the ten plagues of Egypt is just what this genre needed. This film was everything I was hoping for. You will be blown away by the special effects and the compelling story…don’t miss it!

I was wondering how they would manipulate the story to fit a more modernized crowd. I was very surprised to see this story as a mixture of a few other movies that I have seen already. I saw elements from Phantoms (1998), The Ten Commandments (obviously), Bless the Child (2000), and a bit of Children of the Corn (1984). It sounds kinda hoaky, I know, but it is a very nice blend of many different sub-stories. The way the movie progressed was also very well done. The intermingling of the characters by the end of the film was genius. The only things that bothered me were that the story took a bit to get going (not the action, but the story progression itself), and that, from the beginning, I saw most everything coming; the town’s little secret, Doug’s involvement. But other than that, the story was very well put together and added a nice ending that made you go, “No freakin’ way!”

The acting was, to the tee, spot on. I do not care very much for Hilary Swank, but she is a very good actress. She was able to make her character believable and empathetic. The rest of the cast seemed to just “be there” for the rest of the movie though. I didn’t really think they would minimize the rest of the cast the way they did but the movie was a hit anyway, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.

I don’t think I have enough energy to get into all of the amazing special effects. I was just blown away by this movie’s ability to cause the complete cessation of my blinking reflex. I was on the edge of my seat during all of the major special effects, making my theatrical adventure just that. The locust scene was masterfully done; not too many movies have that kind of scene where there are actual, real looking locusts attacking and swarming like they just got a taste of some kind of locust cat nip. Adding to that, the river of blood was something that I have never seen before…at least done in a way were it doesn’t look like a river of catsup or a CGI concoction of what a river of blood looks like to a computer. The other thing that blew me away was the ending confrontation between Katherine and Doug; the giant fireballs were just beautiful. I haven’t seen explosions like that in very many movies, even action ones! My humblest of humble congratulations to the entire special effects team; you have outdone yourselves…and I thank you.

Rating: 22. I thought this movie was fantastic apart from the story being predictable and slow-starting. Another thing I forgot to mention is that the script was a bit lax; there just didn’t seem to be much depth to the lines…the characters were loose, except for Katherine, who had a back-story, making them transparent. Apart from the negatives, this movie completely blew me away. I must say that I am pleased I saw this at the theatre, I don’t care how big your Dolby Prologic Surround Sound, widescreen, plasma, flat-panel, wall-mounted TV is…nothing but a two thousand inch screen will do this movie justice (I’ll still buy it…and watch it on my big, enormous twelve inch Apex! Booyah bitches!) (22of25).