Rating summary

Movie		0.5
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

The Reaping Blu-ray Movie Review

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Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 25, 2008

The only miracle is that people keep believing.

I was admittedly intrigued by previews for The Reaping, though as I sat down to watch it for the first time a few days ago, I figured that, at best, I'd be in for a run-of-the-mill, generic horror flick in the vein of Stigmata or Bless the Child, knowing at the same time not to expect a film of such noteworthy excellence as The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, or the original The Omen. It's hard, no, darn near impossible, to top The Exorcist, the film that is unquestionably the king of the horror sub genre that derive their plots from religious and spiritual goings-on. The Reaping, penned by Carey and Chad Hayes (House of Wax) is yet another wannabe religious/supernatural thriller/horror film that takes a very good idea and completely ruins it (like many movies seem to do), leaving me longing for anything, even the most putrid, vile, celluloid-wasting of films, as long as it means I don't have to subject myself to The Reaping again. The movie is chock-full of every cliché in the book, overflowing with phony scares, split-second shots of "horrific" imagery, and overblown and loud musical cues that try really hard to make the film scarier than it is. This is the kind of film that I'd show in a college level film class, should I be so fortunate as to teach one someday, as the perfect example of how not to make a film.

Loren ponders which is worse: a plague of locusts or 'The Reaping?'

Hillary Swank (P.S. I Love You) stars as Katherine, a "miracle-busting" professor of something (Religion?) at Louisiana State University. A former Christian, she's lost her way since the death of her family on a mission trip to Africa, and now devotes her time to scientifically explaining away miracles, both those told of in the Bible as well as those events that seem a miracle in contemporary times. After one of her classes, she is confronted by a man who wants her to come to the small town of Haven, Louisiana, where he believes the first of the ten Biblical plagues, a river turning to blood, has occurred. She reluctantly agrees to go, traveling with her assistant Ben (Idris Elba, 28 Weeks Later), a stalwart Christian who's life changed after being shot multiple times. It seems the residents of Haven are blaming a family who lives isolated from the rest of the town for what's happening, singling out their daughter, Loren (AnnaSophia Robb, Bridge to Terabithia), and proclaiming the family to be devil worshipers. As more of the ten plagues befall the sleepy town, Katherine must come to terms with her lack of faith as she struggles to scientifically explain what's happening and ultimately comes face-to-face with the truth behind what's plaguing the town.

When questioned about the plague of "lice," a character in the film responds it was the fifth of ten plagues. If you ever attended Sunday school, you would know that the plague of "lice" occurred as the third to bedevil Egypt. When even I am smart enough to identify historical inaccuracies in films, I consider the lack of research on the part of filmmakers unpardonable. The inaccurate representation of historical import creates in The Reaping a decidedly shallow intensity in that, save for the plagues of water-turned-to-blood (the first plague) and locusts (the eighth plague), the portrayal of the plagues that strike the town of Haven fall far below what we might consider Biblical intensity. Not only is the factual misinformation inexcusable, the acting and script are, well, diabolical. Hillary Swank's involvement is this movie is baffling. She's gone from Academy Award-winning actress in both Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby to perhaps one of the worst and least believable performances here (except for possibly The Core). She pulls off the role of a religious scholar and university professor about as well as Denise Richards pulled of the role of a nuclear physicist in The World is Not Enough. Granted, Swank has absolutely nothing to work with, here, but the film's lone bright spot, AnnaSophia Robb, manages to salvage a bit of dignity with a decent performance.

The Reaping Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Warner Brother's 2.40:1, 1080p image presented with The Reaping is best described as mediocre at best. The first thing I noticed about the appearance of the movie is that many of the darker scenes in the film are marked by perhaps the heaviest grain field I've seen yet on Blu-ray. I'm certainly not a grain hater, but it looked excessive here. Some darkly lit scenes, however, don't suffer from an abundance of grain, and in those scenes black levels are very well reproduced. Many scenes appear overly bright, almost washed out in appearance. The movie also seems to color shift at times, appearing with a heavy green tint in one scene. It's hard to say if this is intentional or not. The image on the whole definitely lacks depth and sharpness, appearing flat and uninspired. Many scenes look a bit soft and detail is not overly high. On the plus side, outdoor images look pretty good. The bright sunlight hitting the trees in contrast to the blood-red swamp in which they stand makes for a nice looking image. Flesh tones also seem to be very natural in appearance. The print itself appears devoid of any blemishes. I was certainly baffled and disappointed by the inconsistencies in the transfer. When the film looks good, it's easily a 4-star, good transfer, but there are too many issues to give it better than 2.5 stars.

The Reaping Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Faring much better than the video is the lossless Dolby TrueHD track accompanying the film. Although many of the sound effects are generic, tired retreads we've heard countless times before, there is no denying they sound great on this Blu-ray disc. Addressing what I consider the negatives first, I found both dialogue and music to be a bit muted and hard to hear at times, even listening at my normal reference volume. In fact, the music's presence is sometimes hardly noticed, playing second-fiddle to the movie so to speak. First of all, it takes our mind off the fact that we've heard this style of music before, and secondly, it allows the movie to remain front and center, which could very well be construed as a bad thing. I found it to be a different approach nevertheless, one that allowed me to think about something other than the movie for a few minutes of reprieve. The music, written by John Frizzell (Alien: Resurrection and Gods and Generals) is that typical of this kind of film, stringy in sound, often with a demonic sounding choir accompaniment, and builds to a crescendo until another "scare" comes up to silence it. On the plus side of the track, surround sounds kick in quite a bit. Early scenes in the film reminded me of Hostel, with the screaming in the distance and heavy industrial, metallic sounds coming from the rear speakers. Bass levels pick up big time for a scene in chapter nine, making for a tense, engaging segment that came out of nowhere. The scene depicting the plague of locusts made for a fun listening moment in the film as these winged creatures imbued with Biblical ill-repute swarm around our room, almost making us believe we're in the midst of this plague ourselves. All in all, this is an above average track with a few nice, surprising moments, and makes for the lone bright spot in this otherwise disastrous Blu-ray release.

The Reaping Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Warner has wisely kept the number of extras to a minimum for their release of The Reaping. The first and primary extra, Behind the Story is split into four parts that are 95% fluff and 5% informative. Science of the Ten Plagues (480p, 16:00) examines the Biblical plagues and asks if they are real or ancient myth (reminding me of something PBS might offer). Proponents of both sides make their case, and the feature plays things safe, concluding with a commentator stating, basically, that both theologians and scientists should meet in some middle ground. The Characters (480p, 7:00) looks at the intricacies of each character, and how the actors approached them. A Place Called Haven (480p, 5:02) looks at the small town where the film was shot. The Reaping: The Seventh Plague (480p, 1:08) takes a behind the scenes glance at the bugs used in the movie. Last on the disc's supplements, but first in quality as regards to story-telling is AnnaSophia Robb's Scary Story, (480p, 3:06). During this most entertaining three minutes on the disc, AnnaSophia Robb narrates a story she wrote and titled Backseat Swamp. Needless to say, the story is more entertaining The Reaping.

The Reaping Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Suffice it to say, this was one of the worst films I've ever seen. I don't enjoy this aspect of the job, handing out scores this low, but I have to be honest about my convictions and give this one the lowest score available. It's a shame, because the subject material is ripe for a good story and movie, but in my view, the filmmakers failed, miserably, at bringing this to the big screen. Unfortunately, in this instance, a lackluster movie transferred to a lackluster Blu-ray presentation. The video quality is questionable at best, though the audio quality isn't bad. The supplemental materials are rather skimpy as well. The Reaping may not be filmmaking at its absolute worst, but I would suggest everyone avoid it like the plague.