Advanced Search Beta »
Basic Search Fields
The Reaping
Metascore
36 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 23
  3. Negative: 12 out of 23
view
per page
  1. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    75
    An effectively unsettling mix of Southern gothic and Old Testament hugger-mugger, with shades of "The Exorcist" and even "Rosemary's Baby" thrown in.
  2. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    60
    One either likes this sort of thing or not. Even fans might not buy the ending in which more people get wiped out than in Hurricane Katrina.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Michael Ordona
    60
    The seeds of most Biblical horror movies are sown in the Book of Revelations; The Reaping at least gets marks for originality for springing from Exodus.
  4. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    60
    Revisiting the book of Exodus in a feverish Southern-gothic context, this lurid, often ludicrously entertaining slab of Biblesploitation builds an earnest case for spirituality in a skeptical age.
  5. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    58
    For genre fans, the horde-of-locust sequence may alone be worth the price of admission.
  6. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    58
    The Reaping is Bible camp, pure and simple. And for bad-movie lovers, it's manna from heaven.
  7. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    50
    The script, which is rarely smart and barely scary, offers little more than a checklist of panic-inducing plagues, from locusts to boils to bad Southern accents.
  8. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    50
    This stuff is strictly run of DeMille.
  9. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    50
    Swank and Elba work hard for their paychecks, but Rea quite literally phones in his performance.
  10. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    50
    Notable for its enthusiastic abandonment of any semblance of narrative coherence.
  11. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    40
    The only remotely notable thing about this particular jumble of boos, bangs and door creaks...is that it tries to wed the horror trend with the heated-up God market.
  12. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    38
    Ludicrous and overstuffed, it plows through the Big 10 of Biblical plagues.
  13. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    38
    It's hard to say what is more responsible for the film's utter failure: Hopkins direction, the editing, or the screenplay. The result is such a muddle that one assumes each aspect deserves part of the blame.
  14. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Laine Ewen
    38
    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.
  15. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    33
    No belief on earth can rescue Swank from a film that's a chain of disaster chintz masquerading as a sermon.
  16. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    30
    The Reaping isn't a total failure. Swank is never less than competent.
  17. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marrit Ingman
    30
    Pardon the pun, but audiences will reap little from this satanic backwoods juju thriller.
  18. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    30
    Those two age-old foes--science and blind faith--tango yet again in this noxious slice of Biblical horror about a series of Old Testament plagues being visited upon a Louisiana bayou backwater.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    30
    If only The Reaping had the decency to be coherent.
  20. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Ruthe Stein
    25
    Although The Reaping' borrows elements from classics of the genre -- rips them off might be more accurate -- it fails to build the psychological tension that made them so creepily good.
  21. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    25
    As if this drivel weren't bad enough, the ending blatantly threatens a sequel
  22. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    12
    Long-delayed, pitiful excuse for a horror film.
  23. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    10
    This high-decibel shocker is an insult to intelligence and faith alike.
prev next
Page:
  • 1

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.2 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 27 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 7
  3. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. moviegrabbag
    3
    I'm not really sure why I didn't like this movie. The acting was solid and the story flowed very well. There was just something about this movie that rubbed me the wrong way. I think that was the fact I figured out the twist ending very early in the movie. Overall this movie is probably worth a watch if nothing else then just to say you watched it, but I don't think it's going to stick with you very long after that.… Full Review »
  2. JohnF.
    9
    Very good movie and the ending was very good and not what I expected.
  3. AlexR.
    5
    Very disappointing. I thought that they could have done way more with the material.
See all user reviews »