"The Remaining" UK DVD review

A group of wedding guests are forced to deal with a disaster of biblical proportions, in Casey La Scala’s “The Remaining”, which is out now on DVD and VOD here in the UK from Sony Pictures.

 

Whilst celebrating a friends wedding, the happy couple’s day gets plunged into total chaos, when over half the guests just suddenly drop dead. Rushing outside to look for help, they find whatever’s struck the party down, isn’t confined to their group. As they’re greeted by the sight of mass car pile ups and aeroplanes falling out of the sky.

 

But this is only just the start of their problems. Trying to find one of their missing friends, they suddenly get hit with freak lightning and hailstorms, as well as earthquakes and various other freak weather conditions.

 

Taking refuge inside a Church, it turns out the reason for these events is more biblical than scientific, as they discover the Rapture has occurred and Judgement day is upon them and for those still alive on Earth, the worst is yet to come….

 

Now, being a militant atheist I always have a hard time sitting through films that are based on biblical myths. On the one hand, the film was a very effective disaster movie, centring on what a group of survivors try to do in the wake of an unthinkable global catastrophe (which just happens to be the rapture). But on the other, the film does get a little preachy, particularly towards the end, which didn’t sit well with me. Indeed, this has lead to other critics accusing this of being a thinly veiled christian propaganda movie.

 

If you can put the biblical stuff to one side and treat this as a work of fiction (which, lets face it, it is) it is actually quite a good post apocalyptic thriller and features quite a good cast, including Alex Varga (Machete Kills),  Shaun Sipos (Texas Chainsaw 3D) and John Pyper-Ferguson (TVs Burn Notice, Caprica, The Last Ship). But many might be put off by the overtly religious sub-plot.

 

The DVD comes with a making-of feature, containing behind the scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew and a deleted scene as extras and is available now from Sony Pictures.
 

Buy the UK DVD from Amazon.co.uk