PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 4/4/07)

There was a scene in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia in which frogs rained from the heavens, an unexpected but thought-provoking sight (those familiar with the Bible were reminded of Exodus). It's telling, then, that in The Reaping, the amphibians in the downpour flop down dead, much like this heavy-handed movie.

To be fair, The Reaping, directed by The Life and Death of Peter Sellers' Stephen Hopkins, isn't completely terrible. It just majorly overreaches. Minister Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank) has not just given up on religion; she has made it her life's (very successful) work to disprove miracles. That is, of course, until Louisiana native Doug (Brit David Morrissey with a Southern accent straight out of Oklahoma!) asks her to find the scientific truth behind what appears to be the second coming of the plagues. Katherine takes the case when she learns that the town is prepared to kill a 12-year-old girl (AnnaSophia Robb) whom they feel is responsible for the spiritual ugliness around them.

Predictably, Katherine finds it impossible to rely on science in the face of flesh-eaten cows and rivers of human blood. She soon realizes there is a "greater power" at work, and the movie takes a permanent turn for the worse, becoming a preachy tale of faith versus evil. Katherine wallows in the angst of a tragic past and an unexplainable present, compelled back to her faith by her histrionic spiritual mentor, played by a dark and craggy Stephen Rea.

At least Rea seems to be having fun with the earnest campiness of it all. If only the film could take itself as lightly. Horror movie plagues should at least be a hoot, not a stultifying waiting game, but that's how it often feels. (Ok, there's the blood. Vermin, check. Pestilence, check. Is that all of them yet?) Some of the effects are squirm-worthy, if not actually frightening. Amid all the fake profundity, those moments — you know, when the film is actually entertaining — are rare.

— Laine Ewen