The Reaping

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

What hath Hollywood wrought (or should that be rot)? Stop us if you think you've heard this one before. After a child dies, a small southern town finds that their river has turned blood red. When other increasingly bizarre signs of the 10 biblical plagues appear, the impressionable hicks believe these occurrences must be signs from God. Into this world comes a former missionary (Hilary Swank), whose own personal family tragedy has shaken her faith, making her believe there are scientific rather than religious reasons for even the oddest of occurrences. Adding complication to her work is a strange child (AnnaSophia Robb), whom the town believes is responsible for all of God's wrath being forced upon them. Swank's investigation leads to a Bible Belt conspiracy that could spell doom for all unless she takes matters into her own hands. Meant to be a supernatural thriller along the lines of The Omen and its cinematic offspring, The Reaping just reeks of cliché after cliché, aided by pumped-up musical cues on the soundtrack foretelling every evil twist. Forced to deliver awkwardly written speeches on her scientific theories, Swank struggles to be convincing in a role the two-time Oscar winner must have taken to pay the rent. Of course who wouldn't have trouble spouting lines like, "Wanna talk plagues? Let's talk plagues!" All 10, by the way, are here: frogs, flies, lice, boils, dead cows, locusts , darkness, fire from the sky, death of the first born, and 11 bucks plus parking plopped down for this load of crap! We get it, "the end" is coming. Just not soon enough in this case.