SPOILER!!! Best plot twist in a religious horror film in ages
SPOILERS!!!
THE REAPING contained one of the best plot twists I've seen in a very long time.
A seemingly deeply religious Christian small town in the Deep South is suddenly and inexplicably assaulted by a series of mythical Bible-type plagues that might be demonically-caused. Suspicion falls upon a creepy, little blue-eyed blonde girl with an unblinking, 1000-yard stare. But all is not what it appears. The town has become a coven of devil worshippers, using their once-Christian worship practices to instead worship the devil overtly, without referring to the fallen one's name or using any images or overt references that actually reveal the true nature of the what is being worshipped.
One of the movie's weaker points, a mysterious prophecy surfaces out of nowhere at the movie's climax in which God has foreseen the rise of this apostate town coven and He has planned out its downfall.
The screenwriter must have some religious knowledge background of his own. Those understand God more know that God does not do his work according to appearances that we humans expect because we are so shallow and weak-minded, judging by appearances. "At the height of their power, God will send an angel to destroy them". It is not a mighty 6'2" Rambo warrior that we humans would longingly expect. The warrior angel spirit has been incarnated into the human form of the mysterious, blonde little girl, who in her human biological form, is even unaware of her true mission until almost the very moment she is needed to perform her mission, luring all the fallen townspeople together in one spot, where they all expect the former Christian pastor, Hilary Swank's character, to kill the little girl. But they are tricked. God rains down explosive fiery death upon the townspeople, destroying them utterly.
Another one of the movie's weaker points is why God included in His master plan, a side plan to destroy this seemingly insignificant small town of apostate people turned devil worshippers? Why intervene at all? We can only speculate that perhaps had this coven been allowed to persist, it would have in some way interfered or altered God's Plan for humanity, that is in science fiction terms, altering the course of the future, so things had to be put right and the town and its people liquidated. Again that must presuppose that the devil originated this dastardly plan. The devil cannot alter the course of humanity's path without God's permission and we can speculate this is what happened. The devil tried to alter the course of humanity on the sly but God sees everything and thwarted the devil's plan. All this could have been explained as I wrote it.