So according to "The Reaping," there’s this guy and his name is God. This God fellow is pretty much in charge of all existence and he’s in a fight with Santa … no, wait, that’s Satan. Here on Earth there are people who believe in God, people who worship Satan, others who don’t believe in either and still more who believe in a completely different God — but "The Reaping" doesn’t really bother with them.
What? You’ve heard of this God fella? New Testament? Bible? Well, you must be mistaken, because "The Reaping" (Rated R; Running Time: 96 minutes) doesn’t mention any of these things. In a movie about a small Louisiana town being plagued by the same 10 plagues that plagued ancient Egypt — locusts, fire from the skies, etc. — there is a total of about two actual references to the Bible.
Even Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank), a former Christian missionary turned unbelieving scientist (because science and religion can never mix, you see), fails to directly quote the Bible for the entire length of the movie, even as she struggles to come to grips with the increasing evidence that she is in the middle of an actual biblical occurrence.
The New Testament? Let’s just forget about all of that "forgiving God" stuff. The God of "The Reaping" will rain down fire upon his enemies. The God of "The Reaping" does not tolerate any nonsense from anyone, but it takes him a bit of time to get around to butt kicking. That seems to be the lesson the screenwriting Chad brothers took away from what must have been the briefest glance the Bible has ever received.
Aside from the lack of actual biblical detail, "The Reaping" is one of those annoying movies that could be over in two seconds if the filmmakers didn’t desperately want to have a bit of a twist at the end. While the twist and the ending are decent, it barely makes up for the time spent watching livestock die and Swank and her cohorts discuss religion without actually discussing religion.
Swank, whose amount of cleavage can be directly related to the quality of movie she is in, yells about how there is no God, steadily regaining her faith as a swarm of locusts kills townspeople. By the end of the film, as fireballs literally fall from the sky, there is no doubt that God is real and he is not happy. But much like the infamous Babel fish, "The Reaping" simultaneously proves and disproves the existence of God — if He exists, He wouldn’t have let anyone see it in the first place.