The Remaining (2014/Sony Blu-ray)

Picture: B+ Sound: B+ Extras: C Film: C

After The Rapture There Are Fates Worse Than Death...

Casey La Scala's The Remaining is kind of a grab bag of several other stronger films mixed into one mediocre film. Films like Chronicle, War of the Worlds, and Left Behind (though stronger than the former) immediately come to mind. The biggest question is that if you are going to go for a subject this deep then why not make it more controversial and make it R-rated with Clive Barker-style terror? Is the purpose of this film to ultimately scare teenagers into being more Christian? Regardless, as long as you don't look too deep into it, The Remaining is a decent one-time watch but ultimately defies logic and a strong enough screenplay to make it memorable.

Skylar and Dan are happily celebrating their wedding when suddenly Skylar's Christian parents are raptured, leaving their daughter and her new husband behind. She and Dan must find shelter from the new, extreme weather as well as from several winged demons that are keen on making Skylar and Dan their prey. They manage to take shelter in a nearby church along with several others remaining, where they re-examine their lives and personal faith in Jesus Christ, in the wake of remaining in earth as it enters the seven-years of Tribulation.

The film starts out with a wedding that is captured partial found footage style and partial traditional filmmaking, that is interrupted by mostly everyone in attended dropping dead with clear blue eyes (as if their soul has been sucked out of them) which makes for an interesting scene. Soon after they are running through a city that is crumbling beneath them as if they were on the set of a Roland Emmerich film or Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. The special effects are surprisingly not terrible and the production design is so so. All in all though, there is an overwhelming lack of style in shot composition that would benefit from a stronger director.

Parts of the film remind me of The Walking Dead with mediocre actors struggling for survival and the truth constantly in question. The highlight of the film is a creepy scene that takes place in a church basement where several survivors are shot in night vision as above them they hear pounding and intense sounds. One of the survivors opens the door and gets sucked out of it into a dark hallway. For the most part though, the Demons are barely shown and when they are - usually have weird tentacles.

Johnny Pacar as Tommy, Shaun Sipos, Bryan Dechart, Italia Ricci as Allison with Alexa Vega as Skylar - who is the biggest name in the film. While none of these no name actors are necessarily terrible, the film could have benefited from a cameo or two to make it more interesting.

When it comes to sound and picture quality, the disc is up to high standards with a 1080p high definition transfer and an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The sound mix is pretty decent too with a lossless DTS-HD (MA) Master Audio 5.1 mix that is clean and loud throughout and doesn't disappoint.

The only supplements on the disc are Deleted Scenes and a making of documentary.

- James Harland Lockhart V

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