Cassie Grant is a young American traveling on foot in England who gets hit by a car. The driver invites her to stay at her large estate with her husband, an art historian researching a recently-uncovered church nearby. Cassie's apparent amnesia gives way to disturbing visions related to the church, and a group of individuals in the village who seem to have sinister motives.This early-2000s supernatural horror romp has been on my radar for years, but it took over a decade before I actually sat down to watch it. It feels very much like a product of its time-the early 2000s, when supernatural thrillers of this sort were very much en vogue. What's unfortunate about "The Gathering" is that it is conceptually a very intriguing film with an engaging premise. As much as it is by-the-numbers, the narrative did draw me in.Where the film falters is its tonal inconsistencies and pacing. The cinematography is quite gorgeous, with the English locales vividly captured with atmosperhic flair, but there is a choppiness to the proceedings that give it the feel of a made-for-TV movie. I have read that it was truncated, so it is possible that there is a fuller cut of the film somewhere, but the released version feels like it has missing components that would have developed the character relationships a bit better.Christina Ricci is solid as always, though her performance does feel floppy at times, and there is some dialogue that comes off contrived. Ioan Gruffudd plays the tall, dark & handsome stranger/quasi-love interest and is serviceable. Stephen Dillane and Kerry Fox are quite good as the husband and wife who take in the American traveler.In the end, "The Gathering" is a mildly fun popcorn horror movie that could have been much more than it was. Whether the result of sloppy writing or sloppy editing, it feels underdeveloped, and that is its main problem. If you enjoy by-the-numbers supernatural thrillers, though, it is quite entertaining. 6/10.

a lot of critics didn't like this. i thought it was pretty good. a little under developed and under nourished, but i heard it was edited by about ten minutes. those few minutes would have helped clarify the plot a little more. but as it was, i really liked the premise.it was about a group of cursed souls that witnessed the crucifixion of Christ and either did nothing but watch, or came to see the violence like some come to enjoy executions.this film really was a statement on the death penalty and our fascination with cruelty and our indifference to the suffering of others. those things may or may not damn us eternally, only God in Heaven knows these answers, but the speculation here is something to ponder. in all my years of living i have observed people to be either very cruel or very callous to the suffering of others. i see so much hardship and so little caring, it's very disturbing. many people know the stories, the woman in New York crying for help while people close their windows and do nothing. the soldiers in Afghanistan who went on a killing spree of innocent civilians recently,...need i go further? it's too depressing so lets not.do these things damn us? well, i happen to be a Baptist so maybe i'm not the right person to ask.this was a good film though. it had a lot more to say than a lot of critics would want you to think.

Christina Ricci stars as an American, Cassie, who is hit by a car belonging to the wife of a art restorer(...and investigator), Simon Kirkman(Stephen Dillane)who is currently working on a top-secret project regarding the restoration of a first century church buried under earth. This church, Simon discovers, was built by Joseph of Arimathea and features the faces of a gathering of on lookers who came to the crucifixion to simply watch out of idle curiosity. It is believed that the gathering were condemned(..by God?)to wander the centuries, forced to watch the same kind of horrifying acts of violence to victims as they had during Christ's crucifixion. Something in the town of Ashby Wake is going to happen and Cassie, who can not remember much about her past, has terrible premonitions regarding certain citizens suffering brutal fates. Cassie has taken to Simon's quiet son, Michael(Harry Forrester), almost mute thanks to the death of his beloved mother, and, after seeing a premonition of his own demise, sets out to stop the future act with the best of her ability. A rather imposing local mechanic, Argyle(Peter McNamara), Cassie discovers, was molested by his priest and certain drunken citizens as a child, and she believes he will be behind something seriously sinister, hoping to stop him before he carries it out. She meets a likable chap who lives nearby(..he tells her)named Dan(Ioan Gruffudd)and Cassie opens up to him about her troubling premonitions and he seems supportive, but is he really an avenger for her cause? And, how come Cassie escaped being seriously hurt after the car hit her to begin with? Can she save Michael and stop Argyle? To be honest I found the premise totally silly and couldn't take it seriously. But, it is a well-made thriller that builds over time, filling in the blanks, using Ricci as our guide, along with the priest(Simon Russell Beale) who makes some startling discoveries regarding familiar faces which show up during several various places "to watch" horrifying deaths calculated by a supreme being who forces the gathering to forever wander in time. The film, for a while, has two alternating stories, the restoration of Joseph's church and Cassie's attempts to stop a potential disaster, with them intersecting when the faces of the gathering become better known. But, for a long period of time, director Brian Gilbert and writer Anthony Horowitz maintain a heavy level of ambiguity, providing clues using premonitions, ominous faces, past memories detailing a disturbing truth which fuels the violent rampage at the end, and a heroine with several mysteries of her own which slowly unravel as the disturbing event draws near. The themes of fate and redemption are explored and Ricci's Cassie, through her amnesia, can perhaps change an event that's set to happen, unlike the gatherers who merely await in the background to watch it all unfold. It's quite an odd concept I found rather hard to swallow, but I'm pretty sure many will find it to be thought-provoking and intriguing. Like BLESS THE CHILD, not one of Christina Ricci's better known films, but might be entertaining for fans of spiritual thrillers.

This contains spoilers so do not read if you actually plan on watching this terrible, terrible film.Not often do I see a movie where I get more and more angry the longer I watch. The idiocy of the plot, the fact that all those that "gathered" to watch Christ die were all Caucasians, the secret church that has nothing to do with the plot at all, the gathering ghosts that are there to just "watch" but actually end up killing several people (Why? Are they Satanic now? There is no reason!), the forced message about second chances when the step-mom was just shot dead, this movie is terrible!You cannot (cannot!) photo-shop a swastika on the Statue of Liberty and use the concept to make a shocking thriller about how it's actually a secret Nazi missile silo, just like you cannot use JFK footage to try and convince an audience that the ghost of Caucasian Christ haters were at the assassination of Kennedy. But wait, this movie did just that!Ricci is as bad an actor as Reid in my book (yes, that bad) after watching this monstrosity. I feel like scratching the disc so no one else at Blockbuster will have the misfortune of sitting though this "exclusive."Do not see this movie, ever!