The Reaping is worse than terrible, said Christy Lemire in the Associated Press. 'œIt's a highfalutin hodgepodge of biblical mumbo jumbo, more likely to inspire laughter than fear.' How two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank ended up starring in this uncommonly bad genre flick is the film's most intriguing mystery. Swank is Katherine Winter, a professional skeptic who tours the world investigating and debunking supposed religious miracles. But when she comes upon a blood-filled river in the town of Haven, La., she's stumped. As locusts, hail, darkness, and pestilence descend on the town, she's further flummoxed'”her faith in God died with her husband and daughter years before. The premise is clichéd'”and so is everything that follows, said Craig Lindsey in the Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer. The plot, a 'œgreatest-hits collection of supernaturally scary movies,' steals from The Omen, The Exorcist, and even Rosemary's Baby. 'œThe Reaping is not just bad'”it's offensive,' said S. James Snyder in The New York Sun. The people of Haven are portrayed as backwoods dopes, a degree less clever than Adam Sandler in The Waterboy. Winter's back story, in which her husband and daughter died at the hands of Sudanese ooga-booga tribesmen, smacks of old-fashioned racism.
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