Review of The Reaping (2007) by Bobby H — 14 Jul 2008
Pretty standard stuff. It's "The Skeleton Key" meets "In the Mouth of Madness." A town in Louisiana experiencing strange plagues! (and there's even a quick homage to "Rosemary's Baby!").
Some great visuals throughout, and Hillary Swank gives it her all, but here's the problem with this film (and others like it): authorial manipulation. The film asks us to believe something (that the town doesn't know why this is all happening), then, in a final twist, we realize the townspeople are a giant cult and are behind all of this anyway. But the final reveal in a film like this is also a giant "fuck you" to the audience...it doesn't make sense...it asks us to forget about everything we just saw, every look and every gesture and every piece of dialogue, so that the twist will work. It's like the spy/ secret agent movie where the bad guy was actually the good guy's buddy throughout the entire film...no one can act that long, and no bad guy acts like a good guy even when the hero isn't looking!
The director simply wanted us to believe something (authorial manipulation), then asked us to forget so that his ending could make sense.
Check this out for some of the visuals of the bayou and the river of blood, but otherwise: bush league.
This review of The Reaping (2007) was written by Bobby H on 14 Jul 2008.
The Reaping has generally received mixed reviews.
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