The Reaping

(2007) ***

The sometimes attractive, sometimes masculine Hillary Swank is Katherine Winter, a former missionary from Africa who became an atheist once her entire family was killed. As a result she became one of the premiere debunkers of miracles around. Early scenes show her in classrooms, teaching students why all “miracles” can be explained by science, right on sister!

Katherine’s good little life is disrupted when a bayou schoolteacher asks her for help. It would seem that the river in his hillbilly town has inexplicably turned red. Unfortunately the ignorant denizens of the town, believing that the river is flowing blood, blame an 11-year old local girl whose brother was found dead in the red river.

As Katherine and her trusty sidekick Ben begin to investigate, a number of biblical ‘signs’ begin appearing and Katherine does her darndest to explain these events via science. However, it’s difficult to explain away frogs falling from the sky and out-of-the-blue locust attacks among other things.

When it’s determined that the river is indeed flowing with blood, Katherine must rethink her atheist position. Just what the hell is going on?

I enjoyed The Reaping but was dismayed that it ended with Katherine finding her fucking ‘faith’ once again. Despite this unfortunate event, The Reaping is chock-full of creepy biblical imagry (don’t those words always go together?). The premise is crazy-silly but the cinematography is gorgeous, the acting is decent, and there are a few good scares. Recommended if you can’t get a copy of The Omen.