Review of The Remaining (2014) by Critser — 13 Apr 2016

Yep, this is a horror flick, a lot better one than many, many others. if the films intention as a "Christian horror" flick, was likely intended to scare unbelievers into rethinking their atheistic or agnostic orientation, was not likely successful in that regard.

The acting was better than average, special effects on a small budget were slightly "Hitchcock-ian" wih demonic critters largely alluded to instead of shown. Full transparency: I AM a Christian, so if you're a hater or an intolerant type person you needn't read any further.

Insofar as what the Bible says about the End of Days, this is NOT how it goes down. If this movie was intended as an evangelizing tool it completely missed the mark. The whole plot was full of tremendous eschatological error, scrambled and un-sequential events, and worst of all, it represents the Creator as a malignant force.

In terms of the theological history of Christian eschatology, this particular depiction of the Last Day is a relatively new development and is unsupported by the wealth of theologians that pre-existed it.

There are so many aspects of this movie that are unsupportable in scripture that I couldn't begin to address them all here. Let's just start with two of the more obvious errors: God doesn't leave anyone alive to suffer after the end of earth's history, there's just acceptance or rejection of the Lamb and then, when time and events have come to their conclusion, those that have affiliated with the Creator are transported BODILY intact, just as Jesus did.

At no point was He a disembodied "spirit". Secondly, no one is left living to be tormented and terrorized by demons until they submit to a tyrant God, plus those two events are entirely separate from one another.

The whole Last Day exists around our being created as creatures with free will and how we have used that free will. God is LOVE, but I guess THAT wouldn't make good material for a horror flick. No wonder so many are turned off to Christianity with this portrayal of a a seemingly sadistic and psychopathic Creator.

"The Remaining" made for an effectively scary horror flick but if the intention was to move people toward God, it failed dreadfully in sharing WHY God is worthy of our worship.