The Reaping (2007)

Director:

Stephen Hopkins

Writers (WGA):

Carey Hayes (screenplay) &
Chad Hayes (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

5 April 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Thousands of years ago there was a series of bizarre occurrences that many believed to have been the Ten Biblical Plagues. No one thought they could happen again. Until now.

Plot:

A former Christian missionary, who specializes in debunking religious phenomena, investigates a small town which seems to be suffering from the 10 biblical plagues.

Plot Keywords:

Bayou | Family Relationships | Cult | Apocalypse | Curse

Awards:

1 nomination

US TV Schedule:

Mon. July 28

1:15 AM

HBO

Cast

Hilary Swank	...	Katherine
David Morrissey	...	Doug
Idris Elba	...	Ben
AnnaSophia Robb	...	Loren McConnell
Stephen Rea	...	Father Costigan
William Ragsdale	...	Sheriff Cade
John McConnell	...	Mayor Brooks
David Jensen	...	Jim Wakeman
Yvonne Landry	...	Brynn Wakeman
Samuel Garland	...	William Wakeman
Myles Cleveland	...	Kyle Wakeman
Andrea Frankle	...	Maddie McConnell
Mark Lynch	...	Brody McConnell
Stuart Greer	...	Gordon
Lara Grice	...	Isabelle

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, disturbing images and some sexuality.

Runtime:

99 min | USA:96 min (R-rated version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Argentina:16 | New Zealand:M | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15A | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | France:U (with warning) | Italy:VM14 | Singapore:M18 | UK:15 | Finland:K-18 (self applied) | South Korea:15 | Australia:M | Peru:14 | Malaysia:18PL | Sweden:15 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Singapore:NC-16 (edited for re-rating) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Portugal:M/16 | USA:R (certificate #43267) | Norway:15

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The film portrays the city of Concepcion, Chile, as a warm, tropical, Third World small town. This caused a furor in Concepcion, with people walking out of the theaters and others calling for authorities to ban the movies.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Katherine talks to the boy at the cattle farm, he is drawing with crayons. In the "over his shoulder" shots he is using a green crayon. In the "across the table from him" shots, he is using a blue crayon.

Quotes:

Ben: [on the plagues] There's still six more left.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2007-04-07)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Tell Me What I Did Wrong

The 10 plagues of Exodus! Really Scary!

Totally scary film!, a really good movie of the biblical horror saga!

The second book of the bible, Exodus, is about the departure of the Israelits from Egypt under Moses, God helped Moses in threatening the pharaoh to let the Israelits leave, and for that he send 10 plagues. In this film, the plagues come again in our time and shows a combination of Exodus / Apocalyptic biblical references in a dark town that make you get scared and grab strong the arm of your company until the movie ends. Great in its genre and original script (it distances more from the whole apocalyptic movies taking some old testament historical facts and constructing an horror film!). The special effects are really good, i liked specially the storm of locusts, impressive!. Two things that didn't liked me (1) The sudden and unexplained visions of Katherine and (2) I would have wanted that some of the plagues where more convincing, the flies and the lice were minimum and they didn't noticed much in the film.

In this movie about Katherine, a former Catholic missionary (Hillary Swank) that lose her faith after losing her husband and daughter in Sudan, she then specializes in debunking religious miracles in the world; she is conducted to Haven a small town where without any explanation, the river turned red and the people taught that a little girl did it!, she then goes and begin to see phenomena much like the 10 biblical plagues (water turn to blood, frogs, flies, disease of livestock and cattle, lice, boil and Blains, locusts, darkness, fire from heaven (this is more apocalyptic, the Exodus plague is more like hailstorm), and death of the firstborn). With the help of her assistant Ben (Idris Elba), and a man of the town called Doug (David Morrisey) they try to find answers of this phenomena.

I really got scared in this film, and Hillary Swank makes a really good role; 8/10 and thumbs up to Stephen Hopkins in this really scary film.