THE REAPING

'''The Reaping''' is an American religion-themed horror film based on the 10 Plagues of Egypt released on April 5, 2007, starring Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, Idris Elba, AnnaSophia Robb and Stephen Rea. The film was directed by Stephen Hopkins for Warner Brothers and Dark Castle Entertainment. The music for the film was scored by John Frizzell.

Contents

Plot

Cast

Filming

Score

Reaction

Controversy

Trivia

References

External links

Plot

The film opens with Father Costigan (Stephen Rea) finding his photo collection burning very selectively. When he puts them together, he finds they form a pattern of an upside down sickle, with a cross through it.
Meanwhile in Concepción, Chile, Katherine Winter (Hillary Swank) and assistant Ben (Idris Elba) are investigating claims of a miracle. Upon exploring the area, Katherine uncovers a cache of hazardous waste illegally stashed in an underground oil well, which has ruptured and is causing the effects of the ‘miracle’, as well as infecting the local people.
When Katherine returns home to Louisiana, she receives a call from Father Costigan, who warns her that it was her face burning in his photographs and that it is a warning from God. Ever the atheist though, Katherine ignores the warning. Doug (David Morrissey), a science teacher from the small town of Haven, begs Katherine’s help in finding a reason for the local river turning red (1st plague), which the locals believe is a plague caused by a twelve year old girl who witnessed (and they think caused) her older brother’s death.
Katherine and Ben head down to Haven, and while examining the river, Katherine meets Loren McConnell (AnnaSophia Robb). They also bear witness to dead frogs falling into the lake (2nd plague), apparently out of the high trees.
As they wait for samples from their lab, they encounter flies (4th plague), which ruin their dinner, and disease (5th plague) which kills off all of Jim Wakeman’s (David Jensen) cows.
Later, Katherine appears to dream a sexual encounter with Doug, then a meeting with Loren, and finally the history to her lack of faith. Katherine was once an ordained minister, and took her husband and daughter to the Sudan for missionary work. But after a four year long drought, the locals sacrifice them to God, leaving Katherine alive, but disillusioned.
Against her better judgment, Katherine calls Father Costigan, who explains to her that the symbol he saw was that of a satanic cult. He informs her that they sacrifice every second born in an attempt to create “a perfect child”, with “the eyes of the Devil” to bring them power. He also states that at some point, an angel, who cannot be harmed by the cult, will appear to destroy them. He insists that Loren is the child and Katherine the angel, and that whatever she thinks, Katherine has to kill Loren.
Desperate to find logical answers, Katherine goes to the McConnell house alone, where she finds the cult symbol and meets Loren’s mother, who asks why Katherine won’t kill her daughter before being attacked by a maniacal Loren.
Meanwhile in town, Ben and Doug learn of the cult, and the results prove that the river was in fact turned to blood. The citizens are having to shave the heads of all their children due to a mass outbreak of lice (3rd plague) and degenerate into a mob, ready to go out and kill Loren themselves. Ben and Doug try to get the mayor to evacuate the town, but he and his staff are struck down with boils (6th plague) and so, helpless, Ben and Doug follow the mob after Loren.
At the McConnells' once more, Katherine finds a secret door, which leads to a sacrificial chamber. Here she is confronted by Loren’s mother once more, who, regretting her participation in the cult, commits suicide. Loren finds Katherine, but is distracted by the arrival of the townsfolk.
As they prepare to attack, the area is swarmed by thousands of locusts (8th plague), who cover every surface and kill Wakeman, his son and the sheriff. Ben and Doug are forced away from the scene, while Katherine must lock herself inside the house.
When Ben informs her that Loren has him trapped locked inside a crypt filled with children’s remains, she hurries after him, knowing that she is the only one Loren trusts.
When she arrives and finds Ben dead, she confronts Loren. Darkness falls (9th plague) and fireballs shoot from the sky (7th plague). Katherine is about to kill her when Loren reveals herself to be the angel by quoting something Katherine once told her daughter (“I’m so lucky.” “Why?” “Because silly, God sent me you.”). When Loren tells Katherine to use her faith, Katherine comes to realize that the townsfolk are not God-fearing people as she thought, but rather members of the cult. They surround them and Doug, whose family brought the cult to Haven, informs her that it was trying to sacrifice Loren that killed her brother, and that as an ordained minister, only Katherine can kill Loren.
But Katherine refuses, and reminds them that because they had sacrificed generations of second-borns, the town was comprised exclusively of first-borns. At this stage, the fire begins raining down on the townsfolk, killing them. Doug tries to use Katherine as a shield, but only he is destroyed by the fire, while Katherine survives.
Unofficially adopting Loren, Katherine takes her back with her. As they drive, Loren mentions the child she senses in Katherine’s womb. It is now that it becomes completely clear to her. Her dream of having sex with Doug was not a dream, and she is pregnant with the prophesied demonic child.

Cast

★ Hilary Swank as Katherine Winter

★ David Morrissey as Doug

★ Idris Elba as Ben

★ AnnaSophia Robb as Loren McConnell

★ Stephen Rea as Father Costigan

★ Lara Grice as Isabelle

★ Stuart Greer as Gordon

★ Mark Lynch as Brody McConnell

★ Andrea Frankle as Maddie McConnell

★ Myles Cleveland as Kyle Wakeman

★ Samuel Garland as William Wakeman

★ Yvonne Landry as Brynn Wakeman

★ David Jensen as Jim Wakeman

★ John McConnell as Mayor Brooks

★ William Ragsdale as Sheriff Cade

Filming

Filming for the movie took place in and around Baton Rouge, Louisiana. When Hurricane Katrina occurred midshoot (August 26, 2005), the production of the film was suspended for one week. Producers considered shooting in another city, but decided that Louisiana needed the economic benefit of the movie being shot there. When Hurricane Rita struck around September 24, 2005, the production stuck it out in Cuba, shutting down early for only one day. Luckily, the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Area was not hit very hard by either of these storms.
The film was originally scheduled to play in theaters on August 11, 2006, then November 8, 2006; it was then switched to March 30, 2007, (the date featured on the above poster), and then to April 6, 2007. It was finally released on April 5, 2007, to coincide with Good Friday.

Score

The score was originally written by Philip Glass, and went as far as the recording. However, the producers weren't completely satisfied and decided to give it another try. John Frizzell was then brought in to compose a new score.
The soundtrack includes a song by Nina Simone, "Take Me to the Water".

Reaction

The film holds an 7% rating on the popular film review site Rotten Tomatoes,^[1] and most critical reaction was negative. The film had made a total of $62,536,661 in the Worldwide box office as of July 1, 2007, making it a financial success. ^[2]

Controversy

Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe, the Mayor of Concepción, Chile, formally objected to the producers of the movie over its portrayal of the city. She pointed out that rather than being the dirty underdeveloped tropical city as shown in the movie, Concepción is an industrialized city with many universities and was surprised that such inadequate research of the setting had been carried out for a $100 million movie.^[3]

Trivia

★ The plagues as they appear in the film are out of order compared to the Plagues of Egypt as they appear in Exodus. The list below shows how they appear in the film, with Exodus number included where the sequence deviates: blood, frogs, flies (4), disease (5), lice (3), boils, locusts (8), darkness (9), fire (7) and finally death of the firstborn. Effectively they are reordered in order of spectacle to create dramatic build-up in the film.

★ Before and during the making of the movie skeptic investigator Joe Nickell was consulted. The type of skeptical investigations by the movie's main character in the first part of the movie is roughly based on Nickell's investigations of claims of the paranormal since 1969. ^[4]

References

1. The Reaping
2. The Reaping (2007)
3. "CHILE: CONCEPCION MAYOR PANS HILARY SWANK “THE REAPING” FLICK" ''The Santiago Times'', accessed April 24 2007
4. The Making of The Reaping: Behind the Scenes of a Supernatural Thriller ''Committee for Skeptical Inquiry'', accessed June 4 2007.

External links

★ Official site

★