'We are witnessing biblical events!"
So yelps Ben (Idris Elba), a rattled tough guy (check out his bullet scars), as he and his boss, miracle-debunker Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank), run around the mossy bayous of the South.
Since arriving in sleepy Haven, La., the duo have been swarmed by locusts, pelted by frogs, freaked by dead cows, and grossed out by a lovely river turned to blood.
It's the plagues of Exodus, all right, and they're coming to a theater near you - just in time for Passover and Easter!
Although the rational, nonbeliever Katherine has a spotless track record - she's checked out 48 supposed miracles, proving each and every one to have a scientific basis - this one's going to be a toughie. Lice, check. Darkness, yup. Boils? Even the mayor's got 'em.
An effectively unsettling mix of Southern gothic and Old Testament hugger-mugger, with shades of The Exorcist and even Rosemary's Baby thrown in, The Reaping asks the question (it's right there in the ads): What hath God wrought?
What, indeed?
If anyone's going to find out, it's two-time Oscar-winner Swank. First seen exploring the catacombs of a Chilean cathedral where a dead priest is said to have cured the blind and the crippled, the actress' Katherine is a one-time missionary who lost her faith in God and found it again in Science. Now she's a professor at Louisiana State University, lecturing kids with her PowerPoints and her pluck. Sign up here for Miracle Debunking 101.
So when a handsome schoolteacher (David Morrissey) arrives from Haven ("the best-kept secret in the Bible Belt"), with talk of the plagues, Katherine and her assistant, Ben, decide to take a look. (The handsome schoolteacher may have had something to do with her decision, too. As for Ben, he's resigned to a platonic relationship with Katherine, although he's made it clear that he's ready to go unplatonic at her earliest convenience.)
