Purely Joyful Movie!

A Brilliant Conflict

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

***SPOILERS*** Far out movie involving some dozen person who were present at Jesus' Crucifixion who like someone rushing to an accident were there to get entertained not to feel any sorrow for the man suffering on the cross. As were told these heartless individuals were dammed to roam the earth forever to observe tragedies, like floods earthquakes wars and assassination, until the end of time. The latest tragedy that the dozen were slated to observe was the little English town of Ashley Wake's car mechanic known as "Crazy Fred" Argyle,Peter MacNamara,flip his lid and go on a killing spree gunning down everyone in town who abused him. That's when "Crazy Fred" was a little boy at the town's Catholic Church's orphanage where he was repeatedly gang raped by a number of townspeople that included the priest in charge!It's American tourist Cassie Grant, Christina Ricci, who by losing her memory in her getting hit by a car while hitch hiking to town who in fact saves the day by stopping "Crazy Fred", who after he murdered some half dozen people, from doing far more damage or killing then he already did.***SPOILER*** It in fact was Cassie who was one of the dozen or so people who were part of the gathering at Jesus' Crucifixion who were there to entertain themselves who in the end stopped all this carnage from happening at the cost of her own life!Along the way Cassie got friendly with the Kirkman's whom Marion Kirkman, Kerry Fox, hit her with her car that caused Cassie to lose her memory. It's in Cassie losing her memory that in the end made her a better person by eliminating the guilt complex she had in what she was involved in some 2,000 years ago in her insensitivity towards Jesus' Crucifixion.***SPOILERS*** Interesting up to a point but halfway through the film gets so confusing that those who are there to observe the impending tragedy, of "Crazy Fred" going nuts, actually start participating in it like the clean cut and charming local homeboy Dan Blakely,Ioan Gruffudd. It's Dan who goes out of his way and does some murdering on his own. As for Cassie she in the end gets rewarded for her good deed in saving young Michael Krikman's, Harry Forrester, life whom "Crazy Fred" who had it in for him in feeling that Michael was the reincarnation of the Catholic Priest who was responsible in molesting him when he was 12 years old!

This movie is about as bad as it gets. I'm not sure why there are so many decent reviews. The entire premise is goofy. Somehow it's supposed to be based on Christianity, but the whole concept of the watchers being damned is completely antithetical to Christianity. "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.." ring a bell? The script was terribly written. Scene after scene has basic boring dialog with no depth or emotion. Scenes that defied logic and at the same time were predictable....wait, that IS impressive. Like the car crash scene. Did no one see that coming from a mile away? But at the same time ridiculous because no one even attempts to slow down when a car flips over in the middle of the road? Christina Ricci's acting is HORRIBLE. She managed to muster a complete absence of emotion or believability in almost every scene.Much of the story was just nonsensical. Why would you let a total stranger with amnesia live with you and take unsupervised care of your kids almost immediately? Why doesn't Ricci try to find out who she is? She just seems content to live in perfect strangers' home. Why were people acting like they weren't alarmed by the killer? Didn't they know they had wronged him? Once guy certainly did because he told him he didn't touch him as he begged for his life. Why did the killer want to kill the boy? Was anybody else wondering why it was OK to have the people who helped Christina push the car with the bomb around the corner blown up when the car bomb went off? Thanks for killing us, Ricci! Why bury the church if it does nothing to stem future tragedies? Because there's simply a sculpture depicting the gatherers? Why did the gatherer guy kill somebody to make sure an event happens when he himself says that there's no use trying to stop anything because events can't be changed? Where in the secret decoder ring does it say if Ricci saves someone from being killed she's no longer damned? Why don't he rest of the Gatherers just save somebody and set themselves free? What happens to Christina Ricci's character in the end - does she go to heaven? Wander on earth? Who knows? Why can the boy only see her? How does she take human form again after she's been shot and killed? I'm jumping around I know, but there was just so much lameness I can't name it all.The music in the movie is sooo over dramatic as well. It gives a feeling this huge plot is building, but no plot builds - no climax, nothing. Just a steady stream of booooorrrinnng. I'm sorry, I just couldn't take any of this movie seriously.I don't totally recommend against watching the moving, however. It's actually fun to see how much absurdity you can find while watching it. Really, watch it, but watch it with Mystery Science Theater in mind.

Although The Gathering is not my favorite biblical horror film, this movie was really entertaining. Christina Ricci acted fabulously, of course, and all the lines and scenes were edgy and new. I really loved how when there would be something that is supposed to be creepy or scary, they would not play stupid irritating music. They would just let it happen without any rhythms or beats, and I found that interesting and respectable. The twist I would say is really awesome. I would have never suspected it, and it came without warning which really blew my mind. The lines are good, and I might say some material was sleezy, cheesy, and cheap, but for the most of this movie the dialogue was steady. I had never heard anything about this movie when I first watched it, and now I consider a very good movie. I own it and plan on watching it again real soon.

I found my copy of "The Gathering" in a shop in Amsterdam (as the movie was not available in the U.K. at the time) and was truly excited by the prospect of finally watching it comfortably sat at home. Why? Because of the quite exciting premise of course! A church from the 1st century depicting the crucifixion through an unusual angle (from behind) is uncovered in the English West country. Simultaneously, Cassie Grant, an American drifter gets hit by a car and looses her memory. Settling down temporally with the car driver, her husband and two children, Cassie is assaulted by a series of visions and nightmares while being quite obviously watched by strangers; strangers bearing strong resemblance to the bas-reliefs on the walls of the newly uncovered church. Soon, Cassie discovers that those strangers are The Gathering, willing witnesses of the human tragedies and miseries… Now how's that for promising? And sadly that is where the excitement ends, pretty much.Where "The Gathering" could have benefited from a more punchy direction, Brian Gilbert, obviously inexperienced in the genre, blandly illustrates his script without much of a spark of passion for its interesting concept. The results turns what could have been an exciting and unique horror movie into a somewhat run of the mill supernatural thriller (as directors like to call their films when embarrassed by the "horror" tag). Anne Dudley's score is pretty decent although flirting too much with Jerry Goldsmith's partition for "Basic Instinct" at times.The whole cast is doing a pretty good job except for Christina Ricci and there lies the main problem. The movie would have definitely benefited from being an all around British production rather than a simple vehicle for its lead actress. Therefore, exit any possibility of subversive or challenging ideas (and considering its original concept there could have been plenty) since the movie is just and ONLY a commercial venture. In that respect, the final scene where Christina's redeeming her character through that "little-girl-that-once-witnessed-something-terrible" little story is down right ridicule. Actually, it wouldn't have been that terrible if she had seemed to care about it at all. But Ricci SO obviously doesn't that it quickly becomes embarrassing watching her insipid performance all throughout. Either that or she's actually not that a good actress.