After watching the trailers for his film a while back, I couldn't understand at first why it's classed as Faith & Spirituality instead of Horror, and it's that that was delaying me from watching it as I wasn't interested in a preachy Christian based film. After taking a chance and watching it, I can understand the Faith & Spirituality entry.
I'm an atheist but I don't mind films with religious context e.g. The Exorcist, The Omen, etc because those aren't preaching i.e. they're not subconsciously saying you MUST believe in God, or else. I saw them as being good story's inspired by a fictional book. With The Remaining, though, the underlying message did come across as a bit preachy in the telling of the Rapture i.e. believers are "saved" yet non-believers are left on Earth to live out their sinful life.
Which brings me to another reason on why I didn't enjoy this film and that is I found it to be contradictory. For instance, non-believer's aren't "taken" yet as soon as they suddenly claim faith they're accepted by God and are "taken". I can't see how a non-believer can suddenly change their beliefs in an instant like that and are suddenly treated as if they have been faithful all their lives. It just doesn't make sense no matter what spin religious people put on it.
Even taking the religious context out of it, it's still just not a very good film. The beginning was pretty promising, but it just ended up being a pretty stop/start movie because there are parts where you think it will pick up for it to only just shudder to a stop again. As for the film's anti-climactic ending, well, that just capped it off for me.
One thing I will say is that the special & visual effects are very decent, and I did enjoy the demonic figures. It's just a pity we didn't see more of them, or that there wasn't more suspense throughout the film.
The Remaining isn't a hideous movie, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're maybe one of the "believers".
I'm an atheist but I don't mind films with religious context e.g. The Exorcist, The Omen, etc because those aren't preaching i.e. they're not subconsciously saying you MUST believe in God, or else. I saw them as being good story's inspired by a fictional book. With The Remaining, though, the underlying message did come across as a bit preachy in the telling of the Rapture i.e. believers are "saved" yet non-believers are left on Earth to live out their sinful life.
Which brings me to another reason on why I didn't enjoy this film and that is I found it to be contradictory. For instance, non-believer's aren't "taken" yet as soon as they suddenly claim faith they're accepted by God and are "taken". I can't see how a non-believer can suddenly change their beliefs in an instant like that and are suddenly treated as if they have been faithful all their lives. It just doesn't make sense no matter what spin religious people put on it.
Even taking the religious context out of it, it's still just not a very good film. The beginning was pretty promising, but it just ended up being a pretty stop/start movie because there are parts where you think it will pick up for it to only just shudder to a stop again. As for the film's anti-climactic ending, well, that just capped it off for me.
One thing I will say is that the special & visual effects are very decent, and I did enjoy the demonic figures. It's just a pity we didn't see more of them, or that there wasn't more suspense throughout the film.
The Remaining isn't a hideous movie, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're maybe one of the "believers".