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Film review

Superficial scourge

This horror film is thin on suspense as it rushes through the 10 biblical plagues.

By Marty Clear
Published April 5, 2007

Cramming all 10 biblical plagues into a single movie sounds like a much better idea than it actually is. The Reaping, 96 minutes long, allows at best only nine minutes for each plague.

Add a slew of complicated backstories doled out clumsily in flashbacks and dream sequences, and there's not time for director Stephen Hopkins Under Suspicion, Lost in Space to show enough scourge and pestilence, which is what we really came to see.

The whole plague of frogs consists of about a dozen falling dead from the trees. The lice plague is handled in one brief scene of kids getting their heads shaved.

And the plague of flies takes place, in its entirety, on a guy's barbecue grill. That sounds like a joke but it isn't: The guy's cooking fish, and suddenly the fish is crawling with flies and maggots. The guy throws the fish away. Problem solved.

Actually, seven or so of the biblical plagues turn out to be biblical minor annoyances.

As a result, there's not much horror in this alleged horror movie. Hopkins compensates by injecting a lot of startling moments, largely through sudden volume changes and quick edits. They're kind of fun, and a couple of them really do make you jump, but they're basically cheap thrills and poor substitutes for genuine suspense.

The title has no connection to the story. Never is anything reaped, literally or figuratively.

The film possesses some positive elements, mostly courtesy of a great cast led by Hilary Swank.

Swank plays a former cleric who turns her back on God after her family is murdered. She's now a professor who specializes in finding scientific explanations for supposed miracles.

Residents of a backwoods Louisiana town call her in when their river turns red. The more superstitious residents believe a strange young girl who supposedly killed her brother is to blame. They worry that the red river is the first of 10 plagues to be visited upon them.

So, guided by an attractive local widower played by David Morrissey, Swank and her assistant (Idris Elba) conduct scientific tests and learn the town's secrets. Her former colleague, a priest played by Stephen Rea, calls her periodically with biblical citations that provide a convoluted explanation for the plagues and for the twist at the end.

It's not the worst modern horror movie; biblical references and a literate cast add the trappings of intelligence. But we've seen it all before; on balance The Reaping has more unintended laughs than intended chills.

Marty Clear can be contacted at mclear@tampabay.rr.com.

Review

The Reaping

Grade: D+

Director: Stephen Hopkins

Cast: Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, Idris Elba, Stephen Rea, AnnaSophia Robb

Screenplay: Carey Hayes, Chad Hayes

Rating: R for violence, disturbing images and some sexuality

Running time: 96 min.

[Last modified April 4, 2007, 11:24:59]