3 Pulses

Rated R

Director Stephen Hopkins has put together a religious horror movie in The Reaping. As a springboard, it uses the book of Exodus, in which God sent the Ten Plagues upon Egypt to convince the Pharaoh to let his people go.

However the religion, which is mostly held back until the third act, just serves to facilitate the horror. It is very much in the vain of Stigmata but lacks the same depth and attention to detail, although it’s still interesting. While The Reaping wouldn’t have held up as well if it were just a horror movie, it does because of the religious aspect.

Katherine Winter (Swank) is an LSU professor who teaches of 48 incidents she has encountered, all of which were proclaimed to be miracles. However, she was able to disprove all through scientific fact.

So when a science and math teacher from Haven, Lou., tells her that his town’s river is all red, she’s more than a little skeptical. She and her friend Ben (Elba) decide to check it out anyway. Just as Winter believes she knows the scientific reason for the town’s dilemma, more plagues continue to rein down on Haven.

The town believes these disasters are being caused by a little girl who runs wild in the wilderness (Robb). Her brother died in the river right after it turned red and she was the only one found at the scene. If Winter doesn’t scientifically disprove her 49th incident, the girl will be murdered.

The Reaping is not without its horror clich’s, two of which stand out.

First, if a character is scared and sees something unidentifiable, slowly moving toward it, while the camera emphasizes the unidentifiable and cuts back and forth between the object and the character, one knows a loud sound effect is about to go off, scaring the audience.

Second, when a character searches an abandoned house, going into dark corridors and such, chances are when the character comes to a dead-end and turns around, someone will be there to scare the character and the audience. Again, a loud sound effect will often accompany the scare.

Regardless of The Reaping’s flaws, it was interesting to see how the Ten Plagues would be handled, similar to waiting for the Seven Deadly Sins in Seven. Also, Swank does a fine job balancing her character’s toughness, vulnerability and femininity. More often than not, Swank takes on more masculine roles; it was a nice change of pace for her.