The Reaping (2007) and some other nasties

She may have two best actress Oscars to her credit, but Hilary Swank is not an easy actress to cast and she has made some very dubious role choices.  Here she plays an ordained minister who has lost her faith after her husband and child were slaughtered at an African mission and who now spends her time debunking so-called religious phenomena.  She is approached by a representative from the small town of Haven whose bayous have turned to blood and asked to investigate.  The envoy is played by Brit actor David Morrissey who appears to have overcome the shame of appearing in the Sharon Stone stinker "Basic Instinct 2" and who fakes a pretty good American accent here.

Her arrival in Haven is accompanied by further mysterious happenings which seem to be simulating the Egyptian ten plagues for which Swank has some short-term scientific answers, but the townfolk are convinced that their dying cattle and lice and boils can be laid at the door of 12-year old swamp child AnnaSophia Robb and that she must be killed.  Swank is torn between her scientific training and her loss of faith vs. continuously inexplicable events as the storyline dissipates itself into pure horror territory.  The movie is awash with creepy-crawly effects as the various plagues take hold, and if there is one thing that is guaranteed to make me turn away from the screen, it is this.  Keeping one's eyes averted is quite possibly not the best way to watch or judge a movie, so chances are this was a one-off viewing for PPP.

Generally speaking this was quite a nasty film and uncomfortable viewing which fit in well with two other 2007 movies seen in the last few days.  "Straightheads" (I know not what this title means) is known in the States as "Closure" which is probably a better title.  A low budget movie funded by the Lottery, it has X-Files favourite Gillian Anderson in one of her now infrequent appearances as a successful London businesswoman who takes up with much younger security engineer Danny Dyer.  They are attacked on a lonely road on the way home from a countryside party; he is badly beaten and might loose an eye and she suffers multiple rough rape.  They both feel that they can only heal their souls by revenge and stake out the home of one of the assailants.  However her rage finally finds a less horrendous outlet (while still quite horrifying) than his bloody one -- after which this short film abruptly stopped (which is fine with me, since I really had enough by then!)

I personally find young Mr. Dyer an annoying actor with his whiny low-class voice and cheeky would-be charm and had actually just finished seeing him in another unhappy movie called "Outlaw".  In that one he played a character who again had just been beaten by thugs and who was not able to defend himself.  So he joined up with some other victims of violence who were trying to rid society of its various vermin under the disaffected leadership of ex-soldier Sean Bean.  It was kind of a latterday "Death Wish" but without any feel-good emotions to speak of and a black, black ending.  None of these three movies could even remotely fall into the "fun viewing" category and are all probably best-avoided.

Tags: The Reaping, Hilary Swank, Nasty films