MOVIE REVIEW: Rapture

While house hunting, a couple ends up stranded in a remote location of central California when their car and everything electronic suddenly dies. Teaming up with some strangers they meet along the way, they begin walking through a nightmare landscape as UFO objects begin to appear in the sky, using electrical bolts to kill every human they can find. The terror is increased when they realize that there are unidentifiable beings by the hundreds also walking around targeting people, and a strange new disease that seems to eat flesh quickly killing everything it touches. As they watch their world go insane, one of them becomes convinced that the apocalypse, as predicted in the Bible, has come, and starts trying to convert the others, much to the chagrin of those who prefer a more logical solution to the events around them.

Released in 2014 to streaming platforms and onto DVD, and with a cast of lesser-known actors, this is mainly a character study about disparate beliefs coming together in a time of disaster. Something of a horror film, with some violence, gore, and scary scenes, this is not for younger children. Whether or not the events depicted are indeed supposed to be the long-awaited rapture that Christians have been predicting for two millennia is not clear. The only thing that is clear is the absolute dedication and devotion to their particular ideologies that these people hold to. Sometimes these can bring courage and peace, other times despair and rage. However, the end makes clear which one is still available when all other hope has proven to be in vain.