A misfire for Swank?

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

Hurricane Katrina interrupted the filming of supernatural thriller The Reaping (* out of four), which was shot in the bayou country of Louisiana. Those involved in making this inane film about horrific plagues sent from God should have taken that as a sign.

It's hard to fathom why two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank would have agreed to star in such a laughably bad movie. (Yes, it's not her first misstep post-Oscars, but it's arguably her worst.)

CLIP: Check out the trailer from 'The Reaping'

Note to respected actors: If the movie involves dodging swarms of sparrow-sized locusts, tromping about in a creepy, blood-red river or facing down a scary little wide-eyed girl believed to be possessed by Satan, run, don't walk, out of the studio meeting.

Swank plays a former minister who lost her faith after a personal tragedy. She now devotes her life to finding scientific explanations for supernatural claims. Approached by a schoolteacher (David Morrissey) to investigate some creepy goings-on in his picturesque hometown of Haven (a heavy-handed use of irony), she finds the place is anything but. Its denizens are convinced they are experiencing a recurrence of the 10 biblical plagues. Swank's character spouts scientific data, sounding like a human computer. Nobody in Haven finds much solace in Swank's science. They're certain that the plagues are connected to the demise of a young boy and the evildoing of his 12-year-old sister (AnnaSophia Robb, who mostly stares blankly as blood drips down her bare legs). After the good people of Haven develop faces full of festering boils, become infested with flies, maggots and lice, and watch their cows go mad and expire, it's hard not to turn to Scripture.

Or Smith & Wesson.

In one scene, the menfolk grab their rifles and head off to take down the young menace they blame for the unnatural mayhem.

The dialogue is beyond clichéd. "I have to end this," Swank proclaims. And you wish she could have persuaded the director to do just that.

The movie has a couple of jolts, but they're the cheating kind induced by loud noises. And if you aren't terrified by the action or the stereotypical backwoods characters, thunderous claps of music will attempt to infuse a sense of horror. If that doesn't get you, maybe the hellish choir voices (à la The Omen) will give you a shiver.

As if this drivel weren't bad enough, the ending blatantly threatens a sequel. Another incarnation of The Reaping would be too grim to bear.

(Rated R for violence, disturbing images and some sexuality. Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes. Opens today nationwide.)