Watch The Gathering For Free

Absolutely the worst movie.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

If you're of a certain age, you may remember Miss Kitty's name. She was a real New Yorker who was viciously attacked and killed on the street in the 1960s while dozens of bystanders watched and did nothing. Kitty gave her life for a concept that now appears in thousands of psychology textbooks, known as "bystander apathy." It's the cornerstone of this movie, except they've ramped up the crimes to include Jesus, John Kennedy, an anonymous lynching victim, etc. Apparently, it's the same folks who turn up at all these horrible events, time after time, and do nothing but gawk. And now we've got photographic evidence to prove it.This is the tantalizing premise of The Gathering and it's more than you get it most horror films. That's part of the problem (and maybe why the film went direct to DVD). It's too classy for horror and too horrific for class. It's full (arguably too full) of startle/shock effects. They seem to come from a different universe as the stunning settings filmed on the Isle of Man. Too many horror clichés for all this old English countryside. As many reviewers lamented, the DVD version is nearly 10 min shorter than an existing theatrical print. Moreover, much of that 10 mins consists of a sex scene involving the luscious Ms. Ricci. Although the red-blooded male part of me protests that cut, I wonder if some judicious trimming didn't ultimately help the final product. The only outright stupidity in the script occurs midway when one of the priests brings the film's core premise (the idea that the same people, appear as gawkers over and over again), to a Bishop's Council. Instead of dismissing the idea as lunacy (and thus strengthening its power for the audience), the Bishop says, in essence, "Yeah, yeah, everybody knows that." Huh? They do? Then I guess this movie ain't so clever after all.But I still like it, and apparently more than most reviewers around here.

***SPOILERS*** Far out movie involving some dozen person who were present at Jesus' Crucifixion who like someone rushing to an accident were there to get entertained not to feel any sorrow for the man suffering on the cross. As were told these heartless individuals were dammed to roam the earth forever to observe tragedies, like floods earthquakes wars and assassination, until the end of time. The latest tragedy that the dozen were slated to observe was the little English town of Ashley Wake's car mechanic known as "Crazy Fred" Argyle,Peter MacNamara,flip his lid and go on a killing spree gunning down everyone in town who abused him. That's when "Crazy Fred" was a little boy at the town's Catholic Church's orphanage where he was repeatedly gang raped by a number of townspeople that included the priest in charge!It's American tourist Cassie Grant, Christina Ricci, who by losing her memory in her getting hit by a car while hitch hiking to town who in fact saves the day by stopping "Crazy Fred", who after he murdered some half dozen people, from doing far more damage or killing then he already did.***SPOILER*** It in fact was Cassie who was one of the dozen or so people who were part of the gathering at Jesus' Crucifixion who were there to entertain themselves who in the end stopped all this carnage from happening at the cost of her own life!Along the way Cassie got friendly with the Kirkman's whom Marion Kirkman, Kerry Fox, hit her with her car that caused Cassie to lose her memory. It's in Cassie losing her memory that in the end made her a better person by eliminating the guilt complex she had in what she was involved in some 2,000 years ago in her insensitivity towards Jesus' Crucifixion.***SPOILERS*** Interesting up to a point but halfway through the film gets so confusing that those who are there to observe the impending tragedy, of "Crazy Fred" going nuts, actually start participating in it like the clean cut and charming local homeboy Dan Blakely,Ioan Gruffudd. It's Dan who goes out of his way and does some murdering on his own. As for Cassie she in the end gets rewarded for her good deed in saving young Michael Krikman's, Harry Forrester, life whom "Crazy Fred" who had it in for him in feeling that Michael was the reincarnation of the Catholic Priest who was responsible in molesting him when he was 12 years old!

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.

I only got this one because it came free when I bought "The Mist" on DVD. I am sure glad I never bought it. I thought about it at one time, but I have never been much of a Christina Ricci fan and she is the star of this one. Unfortunately, her scenes drag the movie down, not that she is bad, but for me the most interesting scenes involved the discovery of the church. The story has a girl hit by a step mum with her kid in the car. The woman grateful the girl is okay lets her stay with her and her husband in their rather big house. The husband is a researcher of some sorts looking at the remains of the church mentioned above. There is something different about said church. There are also mysterious people showing up in town that seemingly know Ricci's character. A rather good death at the beginning of the film and a few premonition scenes like one would find in the movie "The Sixth Sense" scattered throughout the movie. Then at the end a couple of more deaths and the startling revelation which I had figured out a bit before the end. Did not really startle me. So not much horror, not much tension, a mystery that really was not to hard to figure out and the pacing was a bit slow with needless plot points. However, someone else may well think this movie is great, just not my taste.