recommended

Awesome Movie

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I just bought it for the reason that Ricci was in it. Somehow she has a special face to act in this kind of flicks. But not every flick she's in it is that good. She does deliver good acting but the story is a bit too unbelievable. Of course it's about the supernatural but some things made me yawn. This must be flick 13412476673656 about Christianity and the mystery surrounding it. But for me it failed somehow due the lack of horror in it. It's just a story, nothing more nothing less. If you can't take gore or blood then this is surely one for you but for the geeks I wouldn't 'gather' with your friends to watch it. The surely would damn you. It's one to watch with the family on a Saturday night kids allowed. At the end you could better go watch The Omen or Stigmata or something like that. Or if the kids are still awake, The Craft. Sorry, Christina Ricci, I invocate you to do better in an "after.life".

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.

This horror film deals with a church that is buried beneath the earth and it has a scene which depicts Jesus Christ being hung on a cross and their is a large crowd of people who just simply watch and do nothing to try to prevent this murder. Cassie Grant, (Christina Ricci) who is driving her car and runs into a young girl named Marion Kirkman, (Kerry Fox) and Cassie takes care of Marion who has amnesia and cannot remember just who she is. As the film progresses, Marion begins to see many people in the local town who just stare at her and she becomes very close friends with Cassie Grant's children and begins to see that these children are in grave danger from these people who just wander all around and simply just staring and watching every move that they make. There is a deep meaning to this film and it is not just an ordinary horror film but deals with a religious Bible story.

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.