A small religious town experiences what appears to be the biblical ten plagues of Egypt and lay the blame on a young girl presumed to be a witch.. Oh goodie, another “evil kid” movie… just makes you want to roll your eyes, doesn’t it?
Yeah, that’s what I thought when I heard about this film. But that didn’t stop me from giving it a just day in court, and I’m actually glad I did.
First of all, bible students out there are going to have to put doctrine aside for a couple hours if they plan to enjoy this film. True, it is soaked with religious overtones and is a story about the loss and regaining of faith, but it does twist the mythology a bit in order to make for a good story. Remember, it’s only a movie…
Visually, I’m not a big fan of too much CG, but it’s not overbearing here and the overall look to the film was rather nice. I’ll allow for computerizing a plague of locusts rather than dumping several thousand of the critters on the cast. (not to mention the lice!) There are one or two noticeable editing mistakes, but nothing to really nag on and on about.*
Predictability-wise, the timing is nice. If you pay attention, it’s not hard to figure out what’s going to happen but is still an enjoyable ride even if you solve the puzzle before the hero does. Unlike some films I’ve seen recently where they try to throw you with an ending that comes out of the blue, this film lays down a firm trail of breadcrumbs while the solid story unfolds. It’s fun when the forces of good and evil are both behaving pretty badly.
My overall thoughts – it’s a decent rainy day film.
* But if you like that sort of thing, just keep an eye out for the plague of disappearing waders.
Film information: The Reaping
1 comment:
I've been considering renting this one, but there is little I loath more then when watching a movie knowing what's going to happen before it happens. From the sound of your review I can expect with this one for that to be the case.
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