A Cinematic Plague

I suppose it was only a matter of time before Hollywood decided that the Old Testament plagues would make a great concept for a horror flick (with, of course, disaster film overtones). Well, that film is now upon us, and it’s called The Reaping. Here’s the press-flack summary from Apple’s trailer page:

Hilary Swank plays a former Christian missionary who lost her faith after her family was tragically killed, and has since become a world renowned expert in disproving religious phenomena. But when she investigates a small Louisiana town that is suffering from what appear to be the Biblical plagues, she realizes that science cannot explain it.

I suppose it’s possible that this is an incisive, morally complex inquiry into the conflicts between faith, fact, reason, and doubt, one that draws upon the current frictions in the public relationship between religion and science and provides a fair examination of the truths and follies on both sides. But somehow, I suspect that it’s more likely to be yet another stereotype-ridden, obtuse, Southern-Gothicesque, wannabe spookfest that coasts on misbegotten notions of rural Southern Christians as simple-brained spiritualists who rally around hellfire-beckoning, witch-doctor preachers—in other words, exactly the sort of hokey, small-minded claptrap you’d expect from the director of Lost in Space.