The Reaping
Short description
Katherine Morrissey once worked as a Christian missionary, but the death of her family led her to abandon her faith. She now teaches at a university and devotes herself to investigating supposed miracles and explaining them through science. Doug Blackwell, a teacher from the small Louisiana town of Haven, asks for her help: the local river has turned red after a boy was found dead, and residents blame his sister, Loren. Katherine travels there with her associate Ben, intending to expose the events as natural occurrences, but the strange incidents multiply.
The Reaping is a horror film directed by Stephen Hopkins, released in 2007. It followed The Life and Death of Peter Sellers in his filmography and came before Race. Carey and Chad Hayes wrote the screenplay, and Robert Zemeckis, Joel Silver and Susan Downey produced. Hilary Swank plays Katherine, with David Morrissey, Idris Elba, AnnaSophia Robb, Stephen Rea and William Ragsdale among the cast. The production cost about 40 million dollars and took in roughly 63 million worldwide, a modest return.
Audience response was mixed: on IMDb the film holds 5.6 out of 10 from around 46,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.8 out of 10 from over 900 votes. A critics' rating of 3.7 out of 10 from 130 reviews places it below those audience scores. The story moves between scientific explanation and the possibility that something beyond it is at work in the swamp.
What's left behind the scenes
- Filming took place from August 15 to November 17, 2005, primarily in the state of Louisiana, USA. During the devastation of Hurricane Katrina (August 26), work on the project was interrupted for a week, and the possibility of relocating filming was seriously considered. Producers rejected this idea, believing it would be morally unfair to deprive the affected state of potential revenue.
- When Isabella accompanies Katherine and Ben on the road to the church, she calls the baby in the stroller Pad. This name was chosen in honor of Pad Kuesack, the film's sound editor.
- Well-known expert in the research and scientific explanation of paranormal phenomena, Joe Nickell, was invited as an official consultant. Hillary Swank’s heroine’s investigation in the first part of the film and its methods are largely based on his many years of practice in this field.
- In one of the opening scenes of “Harvest,” the Chilean city of Concepción is depicted as a small, hot, and poor provincial town in a Third World country, although in reality it is a large port and industrial center with a rich history and culture. This fact provoked strong dissatisfaction from the mayor and residents of the city, who were extremely outraged by this portrayal. Furthermore, in the film, Chileans speak Spanish with a distinctly Mexican accent, which is also inaccurate.
- During the presentation, the first slide clearly shows ethanol (a spirit with 2 carbon atoms) depicted under the word “methanol”; the structure of methanol itself is shown on the left.
- Philip Glass was supposed to write the film's soundtrack, but at the recording stage, the producers were dissatisfied with his work and decided to start over, inviting the much less well-known composer John Frizzell as a replacement.
- The film's release date was postponed three times. Initially, the premiere was scheduled for August 11, 2006, then moved to November 8, 2006, and later to March 30, 2007. Shortly before this date, a decision was made to push the release back another week, to April 5, 2007 (the Easter weekend), which was largely due to the presence of Christian elements in the film’s plot.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
