The Reckoning

Not very impressed with this.

A woman is accused of witchcraft while struggling in the aftermath of her husband committing suicide.

This story, setting and effects need some work. I assume this is a film that had a smaller budget but some of the small things that bugged me didn't seem like they would've been too much of an expense. Let's start with how incredibly clean this supposed plague infested town was. Sure, there were some corpses here and there and there were rats but the streets were clean, the establishments were clean and it just totally lacked realism. Where were the wagon and horse worn, muddy streets? Where was the hay, dirt and come to think of it why were the rats so clean? Why was our main actress's face always impeccable? I'm sorry but I just take issue with these things. On terms of all it lacked in this regard, it seemed more like I was watching a stage play.

The effects were CGI stuff and, well, you could tell it.

I wanted to like this so much more but it just fell really short of being worth a lot of investment. The only thing that makes me give it 3 Stars is the fact that I have seen worse.

I.don't know where the so called critics get their eyes from this was a brilliant movie absolutely loved it great acting good story and a good Friday night movie to share with friends.

I had virtually no idea what I sat down to watch, as I happened to get the opportunity to watch the 2020 movie "The Reckoning". But the movie's cover had some appeal to it, and since I hadn't already seen the movie, of course I managed to find the time to do so.

Well, "The Reckoning" definitely had potential to be something unique and interesting, yet amazingly enough then writers Neil Marshall, Charlotte Kirk and Edward Evers-Swindell managed to produce only a lukewarm script that offered little in terms of a storyline that ensorcelled the audience. Sure, "The Reckoning" is watchable, but it is a very bland and highly forgettable movie.

The storyline in "The Reckoning" was one that had so much to offer, yet the writers failed entirely to seize the material readily available within hands reach and let director Neil Marshall bring something truly worthwhile to the screen. The end result is a very mediocre movie about alleged witchery and plague set during the year of 1665.

Visually, then "The Reckoning" wasn't lacking anything. There were a great many sets, scenes, props and costumes, which definitely helped to build a world set in 1665. But the lack of an interesting and captivating storyline just made it all seem so futile.

The characters in the movie had lots of potential to be grown and nurtured into full-fledged characters with many aspects to them, but again, the writers were just not delivering where it mattered. And this resulted in most of the characters coming off on the screen as being superficial and rather one-dimensional characters.

Now, it should be said that acting in the movie was actually fairly good, especially when taking into consideration the severe limitations imposed on the actors and actresses by a lack of proper script and having half-written characters to work with. It should be mentioned that Charlotte Kirk (playing Grace Haverstock), Sean Pertwee (playing John Moorcroft) and Steven Waddington (playing Squire Pendleton) definitely put on great performances, just a shame it was done within such a mediocre movie.

While I managed to sit through the entire movie, this movie was not one that rang overly entertaining, nor is it a movie that I would recommend you rushing out to get a copy of - because it just wasn't that good. My rating of the movie settles on a very mediocre and bland five out of ten stars.

This is an ok film, certainly not a 1/10! I really like Neil Marshall films, The Descent, Doomsday, Dog Soldiers, you can always feel the common directorial style.

It's not a patch on these but it's still reasonable and definitely worth a watch. Sean Pertwee as the witchfinder is terrific, let's face it he's always consistently good.

You could say this is a bit of a modern day reboot of The Witchfinder General with Vincent Price. The lead actress is pretty good, as is pretty much the whole cast. I won't say too much, just watch it and enjoy it.

Maybe it's because the majority of the cast are relatively unknown, that this film doesn't get the recognition it deserves...but this film is solid. I totally understand that we all perceive movies differently...but giving this movie a 1/10 is just bizarre!

It looks and sounds great...in fact, the score is amazing. Even the music for the closing credits is excellent! A strong female lead and a good supporting cast.

The only issue I have is that for a film set in the 1600's, sometimes the actors say things/behave in a way that's straight out of the 21st century! I won't spoil it and say what these things were, but they certainly seem out of place...and if you're really watching, you'll notice it too.

Overall I really enjoyed it. I'm not really a fan of films set in medieval times, but this and 'A Knight's Tale' are certainly mould breakers.