A former minister, Katherine Winter (Hilary Swank of Million Dollar Baby, Core, Boys Don’t Cry) believes that the only real miracle is that people believe in miracles. Her husband and daughter were killed while the family was on a humanitarian mission in Africa. Tribal superstition that they brought bad luck led to their deaths. Not a drop of rain fell for a year.  

Katherine loses her faith and quits the ministry. Now she is a teaching professor and her new mission is to prove that what people think are miracles is just bunk. In traveling around the world she has proved that 48 commonly believed “miracles” all were explained away with science.

A river turns red in Haven, Louisiana and Katherine travels there to provide an explanation. We later learn that her mission is more sinister then the townspeople wanting an explanation. She soon learns it’s the real deal of the biblical plaques playing out and she must kill the young girl Loren (AnnaSophia Robb from Because of Winn Dixie), who is believed to be the reincarnation of Satan. Only an ordained minister can kill Satan. Normally, we’d consider this a spoiler but it’s in the film’s trailer, for all to see.  

The small town’s schoolteacher, Doug Blackwell (David Morrissey) seeks Katherine’s help with a series of strange biblical events, plagues, believed to be sent by God. Katherine and her partner Ben (Idris Elba of Daddy’s Little Girls, 28 Weeks Later) find that this 49^th miracle may be the real thing.

It was after Loren’s brother died, a first born boy, that the river turned red. The water is tested and it’s determined to be the blood equivalent of more than 300,000 people. Throw in some raining frogs (e.g., Magnolia) and a locust attack (Nowhere in Africa) and you know that something otherworldly is going on. 

Releasing the film the day before Good Friday is a marketing ploy that should help the box office receipts. Those who have a solid understanding of the plagues from the Bible will more easily follow and understand the plot of the film. Another fifteen minutes longer and the story may have been more engaging, as the various plaques would not have seemed somewhat rushed. But a few minutes less of a plague is a good thing. 

Although billed as a horror film, this is more a religious thriller. The depiction of the Deep South is somewhat strange, in that Haven is a town that, other than its swamp setting, would fit better in the movie The Stepford Wives.  

Swank changes her butch sexuality for more traditional feminism in this film. It comes across well with Elba, Morrissey and her imagination. It’s the question of her imagination or reality that relates to the ending that sets up a possible sequel. We liked the film but could only get engaged to a point. Much of what makes the film entertaining would be gone in a sequel.