The Remaining (2014)

(In French, On Cable TV, October 2020) While I think that there’s a good movie to be made with the idea of the Rapture as a prelude to horror, this good movie is definitely not The Remaining. The first of its problems is budget; the second of its problem is taking any of it seriously. The setup does have an admirable simplicity to it, as guests to a wedding are horrified to see some of them getting the ultimate upgrade of being uploaded into the Rapture. If you remember your wackadoodle fundamentalist theology, this means a Time of Troubles for the rest of us, and so the remaining characters are soon engulfed into extreme weather and demons sent to torment the unworthy. This really isn’t the only horror film to deal with religious themes, but it’s one of the rare ones to seemingly believe in what nonsense it’s spouting. When the Rapture rejects the faithful based on factors as dumb as dancing to hip-hop music, it’s perfectly all right to look askance at writer-director-producer Casey La Scala and ask, “Really? Are you that dumb or targeting idiots who are actually that dumb?” Considering that kind of attitude, it’s no wonder if the rest of the film is painfully stupid. (Also: how can you make a horror film feel scary when being carried to heaven is said to be the desirable fate?) To that, you can add the production difficulties on operating on a very low budget: While some scenes carry their point home, a lot of the rest is just unconvincing, with equally awkward actors, staging and cinematography. Once you’re past the first few minutes, there’s less and less to The Remaining worth a recommendation. Unless you’re trying to see what a Christian-targeted horror movie would look like, in which case you won’t wonder twice.