If the Bible is to be taken literally, then Jesus will someday return to Earth to transport his followers to Heaven, while those who rejected him will be left behind to endure seven years of tribulation. If the events in “The Remaining” are to be believed, then the rapture and the torture that follows will resemble a badly made horror movie.
“The Remaining” is only 87 minutes long, which is far shorter than the seven years of torment foretold in Scripture, but that doesn’t make it less painful to suffer.
The movie follows five friends who set out to survive after half the guests at a wedding fall over dead. Skylar and Dan are the newlyweds, while Tommy, Jack, and Allison round out the closely-knit circle. Jack and Allison are dating, although Tommy loves Allison, which proves to be a problem because he and Jack are best buds.
After the rapture occurs, a trumpet sounds, followed by a horrendous hail storm. The tempest triggers the memory of Skylar, who grew up in church and heard sermons about the end of days. As she and her friends dodge skull-sized chunks of ice, she explains the details of the rapture, prompting one of her friends to ask why she’s still there.
“You’re a good person!” he shouts. “Why didn’t you get taken, too?”
“Because being good won’t get you into Heaven!” she screams. “You have to believe!”
And therein lies one of the problems with “The Remaining”: the script was fashioned not to tell a compelling story or produce a sense of dread, but to create opportunities for the filmmakers to insert Sunday School lessons about faith in God and salvation.
For example, as night falls, the friends make their way to another church, believing it to be a safe haven. A man of the cloth opens the door. Someone asks him why he’s still around. “Because I didn’t have a relationship with God,” he says. I can almost hear the scoffs of unbelievers who’d been duped into seeing the movie by its trailer, followed by the shuffling of feet toward the exit. In that scenario, only believers would be left behind.
Worse, the filmmakers take considerable liberties with the source material. Although it’s been a while since I’ve read The Book of Revelation, I don’t recall anything about demons slaughtering those who “get saved” after the rapture.
This brings up another issue with “The Remaining”: If you’re trying to spread what you believe to be truth, why would you encrust it with a bunch of hooey? How are nonbelievers going to know where the nonsense ends and the Gospel begins? I say this not because I want faith-based movies to adhere to a particular doctrine but because all films should have internal integrity.
“The Remaining” has none. In its most absurd sequence, people at a shelter have a “come to Jesus” moment, and then demons swoop in to kill them. This doesn’t stop some in the panicked crowd from proclaiming their newfound allegiance to God, though.
“The Remaining” doesn’t even work as a monster movie. While the acting and directing are passable, a limited budget must have kept the filmmakers from actually showing the demons. Other than a few glimpses of a spiked tail and a shadow or two, the creatures never appear in detail. To make up for what we don’t see, director Casey La Scala tried to rack up scares by saturating the soundtrack with ear-shattering thumps, bangs, and crashes. Even events that would make only slight noises in the real world produce deafening sounds.
Film can be a compelling medium for exploring the nature of any faith. But preachy writing and low-rent moviemaking render “The Remaining” nearly unwatchable. If Jesus had a grave, I believe he’d be turning over in it.
One star out of four. Rated PG-13 for terror, violence, and destruction.