A couple of 2007 films that didn’t get much attention but were at least entertaining and at best something more are The Reaping and Next. Both are available on DVD (info here and here) and HD DVD (info here and here), and I recommend giving them a look.

The Reaping was the best new horror-gothic film I’ve seen since the first Saw film, which, alas, isn’t saying a lot. Like Saw, The Reaping had a strong foundation in something other than shock and gore. (And even the first Saw film was self-contradictory in the logic of its central premise, which The Reaping isn’t.)

The things that are most interesting about The Reaping are the use of religious imagery and ideas to put a strong causal foundation behind the events of the story, the use of gothic atmosphere and of suspense techniques as opposed to straightforward piling on of violence or psychological torment or both, the creation of a mystery element with the inclusion of a couple of nice twists, and the mostly understated performances.

In addition, the film actually touches on some serious issues, partcicularly the theological problem of how a good and all-powerful God can allow death and pain to occur. All of these elements compensate greatly for the fact that several plot points are recycled from previous films.

The Reaping owes at least as much to Val Lewton as to Halloween, and that makes it more satisfying than the general run of horror films of recent years.

Although based on a Philip K. Dick story ("The Golden Man"), Next is clearly very loosely so based, and is weak on intellectual content and even weaker on elementary logic. But like nearly all Nicolas Cage action films, it’s a lot of fun and clearly has a good heart behind it.

(And it should be noted that the original Philip K. Dick story is quite weird and probably wouldn’t make a very appealing movie if filmed accurately—see description here.) 

In Next, Cage plays a man who can see two minutes into his own future and can hence know the immediate consequences of any action he might take. It’s a typically clever Philip K. Dick concept, and it plays out in characteristically paranoid Dick fashion, with issues of individual rights versus the common good at the center.

That’s good and interesting, but the filmmakers’ choice to put millions of lives at stake, by having a planned nuclear terror attack at the center of the story, is a mistake, I think. It takes the whole thing much too far into cartoon territory, whereas what the story really needs is to be reined in toward recognizable realities. Instead of 24, the model should have been something like Memento.

Even so, the movie is good, clean fun, as noted, and Cage gives a typically engaging performance, as does leading lady Jessica Biel. It’s not great philosophy or even impelled by elementary logic, but it’s a charming and innocent diversion, and the issue of individual rights versus the common good is always relevant and worth thinking about.