The Reaping
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
Rated: R
Cast: Hilary Swank, AnnaSophia Robb, David Morrissey, Idris Elba, Stephen Rea
Director: Stephen Hopkins
WorkNameSort: Reaping, The
Our Rating: 1.50
Hilary Swank plays a former Christian missionary who lost her faith, along with her husband and daughter, on a bloody mission to Sudan. Now she’s a college professor specializing in debunking miracles, plagues and anything wrought by God. She must learn the error of her faithless, cynical ways, of course, and what better way than to situate her in the midst of an inchoate Holy War bubbling up from a blood-filled river in Louisiana? The mortified Swank’s skepticism is chipped away one plague at a time ‘ by locust swarms, frog showers, boils, lice outbreaks and even this film’s Satanic Carrie, menstrual blood and all ‘ until she’s facing the Devil incarnate. This movie seems made for the sole purpose of scaring the shit out of godless liberals, and is ever more insidious for cloaking its core evangelism in the guise of effectively disturbing Grand Guignol entertainment. Of course, the whole thing is just as ludicrous, pseudo-intellectual and spiritually bereft as The Da Vinci Code, and it’s a hideous monstrosity regardless of your faith.
This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2007.