The Reaping (2007)

	Directed by: Stephen Hopkins	COUNTRY USA GENRE Horror NORWEGIAN TITLE The Reaping RUNNING TIME 96 minutes
	Produced by: Susan Levin Herb Gains Joel Silver Robert Zemeckis
	Written by: Chad Hayes Carey Hayes

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Katherine Winter	Hilary Swank
Doug	David Morrissey
Ben	Idris Elba	½
Loren McConnell	AnnaSophia Robb
Father Costigan	Stephen Rea	½
Sheriff Cade	William Ragsdale	½

Review

This predictable horror yarn from the not too successful director Stephen Hopkins (Blown Away) boasts surprisingly renowned personnel considering the highly contrived script by the Hayes twins (House of Wax). Not even Oscar-winners Hilary Swank and Robert Zemeckis can prevent The Reaping from reaching no further than "somewhat interesting". The standard religious dichotomy (good/evil, God/Satan) portrayed through the sacrificial and pietistic traditions of a rural town seems insipid and irrelevant today. In order to justify it all, the film is set in the American South, where stereotype suggests these sorts of things could still go on, but the setup comes off as forced, and this definitely affects the scariness of the film. On its way to a rather ridiculous finale (which looks like something out of a mediocre 1980s fantasy series), Hopkins adds all the familiar elements, including the desolate forest, the enigmatic scribblings in old books, and the spooky little girl, but he fails to add the necessary inspiration.