The Reaping - 2007 ***

This is a very bizarre movie. I wasn't expecting the ending at all, but not really in a good way. Hilary Swank is a missionary who goes off to a town that appears to be suffering from the 10 Plagues. A lot of wandering around takes place and Hilary Swank doesn't seem to be getting much closer to the truth, especially when she finds out that the red river in the town is filled with human blood. Lovely. She also has a lot of visions including ones of her daughter who died a number of years ago ( but we never really find out how or why). There are too many plot-holes in this film, although I originally purchased it because I find the 10 plagues fascinating and hoped we would be shown them in a modern setting ( the most famous film of them is of course The 10 Commandments) but we aren't really. However Swank gives a memorable speech to her collegue Ben about how all the plagues relate to each other and how there is nothing mythical or magical about them. It's actually a fascinating speech and I rewound it a few times to hear it again. *SPOILER* As you can probably imagine with a modern film like this, the one person that everyone believes to be evil is actually good, and the whole village of 'good' people are part of a cult. Sort of predictable but I had hoped for something more.

'The Ten Commandments' is a FAR superior film to this.