Whenever Satan, the father of all evil, is involved in the plot of a scary movie, that film had better deliver some serious scares. And although The Reaping doesn’t deliver the gore of a classic like The Exorcist, its more involved storyline leaves the viewer either on the edge of – or jumping out of – his or her seat for the entirety of the film.
The film follows Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank, Freedom Writers), a scientist and college professor who spends her career debunking people’s belief in God’s presence by explaining away what they call miracles as simple scientific occurrences.
The first mystery in the storyline that follows a young Winter is why – if she spends her life preaching science over God, that is – does a priest with whom it seems she used to be friends call her randomly to warn her about danger in her future?
In typical scary-movie fashion, she doesn’t take too much stock in his warning, but not too long after this ominous phone call Winter is visited by Doug (David Morrissey, Basic Instinct 2). A stranger from small-town Louisiana, Doug has heard of Winter’s work and wants her to investigate a river in his hometown that has turned red after a young boy died there. Doug explains that the entirety of the religious town believes the boy’s little sister is the child of Satan and caused his death, and that the river turning red (or water turning into blood) is the first of 10 plagues from the book of Exodus in the Bible. Winter agrees to go with him and investigate, and because every main character needs a sidekick, brings along the lovable yet hesitant Ben (Idris Elba, Daddy’s Little Girls) for the ride.
But despite Winter’s religious skepticism, when she and Ben arrive in town, they soon find everyone in the town on the edge of hysteria, fervently terrified that the plagues of the Holy Book will soon destroy them. The two scientists also start to hear rumors about the dead boy’s sister, Loren McConnell (AnnaSophia Robb, Bridge to Terabithia): Town residents believe Loren murdered her brother and brought on God’s wrath through her evil deed.
Of course, this being a horror movie and the town being so small, there is no motel – so Winter and Ben have to stay with Doug in his huge, creepy and rundown Southern mansion, which also just so happens to be in the middle of nowhere. And once the creepy setting comes into play, it’s not long before every other spine-tingling plot twist follows.
As more unexplainable events start to occur, such as an outbreak of lice and the unexpected deaths of town livestock, Winter becomes more determined to prove they can be scientifically explained. But a twist in Winter’s character development sheds light on her motives, gives the audience understanding of her science vs. religious ways and drives her to try to save Loren from a violent fate. After all, perhaps the town’s undying faith is in something other than God.
The twisty plot is enhanced by the cinematographic effects for the plagues and for Katherine’s dream sequences, which are used to perfection and look believable. And in another production twist, the camera is sometimes shot from a first-person standpoint, but not in a Blair Witch Project kind of way. Instead, the angles are effective in making the viewers feel like they are witnessing firsthand everything this scorned little town has to offer, from the plagues themselves to the horrified residents.
And unlike a majority of other scary movies that rely on bad acting and gory effects, The Reaping adds an additional creep factor with superb acting from Robb, who proves that her ice-blue eyes and angry face – used to play the snobby girl in Tim Burton’s Charlie in the Chocolate Factory – don’t go to waste when she’s playing the Devil’s Advocate, either. When all is said and done, The Reaping delivers, and it’s not a message from the Scripture like you might expect – just thrills and anticipation all the way.
Contact reporter Courtney Pomeroy at cpomeroy@umd.edu.
