The Reaper - Movie Review

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that he shall also reap" is a popular English idiom originally from Epistles to the Galatians of the Bible. The central theme and the very message of the movie was centered on the Biblical story found in Exodus. This is when the Pharaoh of Egypt was made obdurate by God Himself by not letting the Israelites be freed from slavery. The ten plagues presented in the Bible that were brought down to Egypt by Moses are the same plagues depicted in the movie, i.e. from the first plague of the river turning to blood to the death of the first born sons and daughters of the locals. But it is worthy to note that the last plague was not brought about by the unseen supernatural force as all the others. Instead, the group members of the cult of the land were the ones killing their own. Also, unlike in the Bible, the second born children were the ones sacrificed instead of the first born. This is clearly so as to put an element of a Hollywood tinge on the movie and not be a copy cat of what's in the Bible (which admittedly would have made the movie less exciting or plain boring). Effectively, the tenth plague was made the climax of the movie. Tension was built up little by little with each plague unfolding and peaked at the last plague holding the viewers momentarily confused by deviating from what was expected (death of second born instead of first born). And then here comes the vision shared by the child Loren to Katherine where she was about to be killed for being a second born but miraculously survived after being stabbed by her brother. At the time of being momentarily dazed, the viewers are fired with explanations as to why was Katherine chosen to be in that town at such crucial time. She was, in the past, an ordained minister. She turned away from her God when the locals of the town she was serving sacrificed her family in exchange for the long drought. The cult members in the place where the child Loren lived believed that Katherine would help them kill Loren since she was after all like them, backsliders in faith. But of course, as the protagonist in the movie, she did not succumb to their wishes but instead saved the girl from them.

Since we've started interpreting the movie in Biblical terms, we might as well finish it on the same tone. In the Old Testament, God is presented as a jealous God, an angry God and all other similar actuations. The message of the movie was effectively delivered in the light of such interpretation, i.e. it was made a horror film with events lifted from the Bible. In the Old Testament, God came with thunder and lightning. But rest assured that in the New Testament, it was promised that He will come again with love and justice. So then after all the 'scary moments' depicted in the movie, we go back to that promise, then sit back, relax and enjoy. After all, it's a beautiful world (Amen).