The Reverend
The Reverend
| 03 August 2011 (USA)
The Reverend Trailers

Fresh from seminary school, a new Reverend embarks on his first parish: A small, low-maintenance chapel based in the idyllic setting of a quiet country village. While on the surface the village seems to be a peaceful parish, with perfect residents, soon it becomes apparent that something more sinister lurks beneath the façade of a local businessman. On a wet, cold night, a mysterious girl visits the Reverend at the chapel. She is welcomed in warmly, but soon it becomes apparent that her visit is not for sanctuary but to deliver a message, a message in the form of a deep, bloody bite... Awoken with an unknown, uncontrollable thirst, the confused Reverend can't find any evidence of the girl from the night before. With nothing but his thirst and memory of the bite, the Reverend embarks on a mandate to clean up the village and the neighboring estate...by preaching or feasting.

Reviews
Dorathen Better Late Then Never
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Flow 3 on a scale of 1 to ten is low right? I won't grade it a 2 but surely nothing more than 3 and I'll give you all the info you need: the camera work is amateur and cheap; the acting is seriously bad from half the characters at least, especially that Steven Seagal lookalike; the effects are somewhat acceptable, few, nothing pretentious, nothing spectacular; the plot itself, bad; even Rutger Hauer's appearance was nothing more than a Shakespearian rap battle.I'm telling you, don't get impressed by other positive reviews, as they are either fake or coming from people who seriously have little contact with horror. It is a very weak movie that will annoy, disappoint and let down everyone standing in front of it for a view. Pass it, if you that much into modern religious horror movies try either "Heretic" tho it is also quite bad but not as this one or "The borderlands", the last one being the found footage type and much better in my opinion. Then again, keep in mind, much better than a 3, is not much either.I'm gonna leave you with a warning, careful with this one, the chances that you might actually enjoy it or consider it a good time waster are very close to an "impossible!".
kittenkongshow Saw This in Poundland and the idea of Rutger Hauer in a Low budget looking British Horror intrigued me enough to give it a try.He's in the opening scene only, Playing The Devil...The film proper (as it were) is the story of the titled rev and his Job like trial of faith.While it has it's flaws (Shane Ritchie being a MAJOR one his acting is painful and his main scene goes on FAR to long) This is an interesting take on a Vampire film.It works best if you watch it as a Pilot for a never made TV show for me.Worth a look at the right price.
Paul Magne Haakonsen For a vampire movie then "The Reverend" is different from many other vampire movies. And as such, that is an interesting take on the vampire mythology. However, as far as enjoyment goes, then "The Reverend" was a drag and really uneventful.The story is about a young reverend (played by Stuart Brennan) who just started his work in a new town. He is savagely attacked by a seductive woman vampire and ends up becoming a vampire himself. Armed with his faith in God and his newfound thirst for blood, the reverend sets out to clean out all the bad seeds in the town.Storywise, then "The Reverend" was really, really boring. Sure, this was an alternate take on an otherwise stereotypical vampire genre. And it was a bold approach and take on the genre, I will say that much. But ultimately it was a take that didn't fully manifested itself in any possible enjoyable way, and the story seemed rather irrelevant and pointless.Initially, I picked this up because of Rutger Hauer and Doug Bradley - which was a bad mistake on my behalf, because they were only in the movie very briefly, and wouldn't even qualify as having supporting roles. They were cameo appearances. But I guess their names are used to lure in viewers - and I supposed it works; at least I got suckered in.I will say that the acting in the movie was good, especially given that this movie is driven by the story and the dialogue and not by the action. However, it focused too much on the story and dialogue, and that somehow turned the movie into a drag - because it trotted on at a dull, mind-numbingly slow pace, which drains the will to watch the movie slowly away.If you enjoy vampire movies and want to see something new to the genre, then give "The Reverend" a go. Who knows, it might just be what you have been looking for. Personally, I was bored out of my mind with this movie and found it a really difficult struggle just to sit through the movie to the end of it.
SkeeLo_Fan Stuart Brennan stars as The Reverend, a young man of the cloth, fresh from seminary school, he is assigned to his first parish in a small village in the country. On the surface the village seems peaceful, but there's a dark criminal underbelly, all ran by Harold Hicks (Hassan). One night, The Reverend is bitten by a vampire and he is turned into a bloodthirsty fiend himself. However, instead of using his powers for evil, he uses them to do God's work and clean up the village... by preaching to the churchgoers or by feasting on the criminal muck.The Reverend is based on a graphic novel of the same name and is unlike other vampire movies. Here, The Reverend vampire is a good guy and it's the humans that are the evil. In a way, The Reverend is like a superhero. Furthermore, there's no vampire clichés like crosses and garlic, as The Reverend uses the cross as his ally. The Reverend is also indebted to the Western. It might be set in rural Britain, but it wears its spaghetti influence on its sleeve; The Reverend is the hero who enters the corrupt town and clears out the scum while a blues guitar soundtracks his mission. Stuart Brennan is great as our unlikely action hero and steals the show. Tamer Hassan is Tamer Hassan like we've seen him before, albeit with a quaint country dress code. When you need an intimidating villain in a low budget British film though... Tamer is your man. I'd love to see him get a chance on a bigger movie. Emily Booth is both a pleasure and a disappointment; she's as beautiful as ever and her performance shows that she can act outside of splat-stick, sleaze ball trash. It's a different role for her and it's nice to see her try something new and do a good job, but she plays a prostitute and doesn't show her marvellous assets. Some boobs would have been awesome. Rutger Hauer and Doug Bradley on the other hand are nice to see, but they're only small cameos. Rutger is the main name being used to market this, so if you buy it for him then you might be let down as he's only in the prologue.There is some gore here to satisfy your thirst for the red stuff, and there's some pretty cool fight scenes. It does focus more on story over action though. Many reviews are criticising this already. To many this will be a turkey but it's not bad at all. By no means is it great, but it's an enjoyable way to pass 2 hours. The ambition perhaps outstretched the budget, but it's pretty decent considering it was shoestring. Overall, it's not perfect but it's worth checking out.