Seemed like a distinct trope for a short while in the 2010's to have a man of the holy cloth as some avenging supernatural character rooting out the evils of the world. Some like 2011's "Priest" were based on graphic novels and so is this flat, heavy-handed and thoroughly insipid movie called "The Reverend." The idea is sort of promising but the delivery is threadbare at best.
In an idyllic English village that looks harmless, the new Reverend (Stuart Brennan) is holding court fast as there is an increasing number of churchgoers at his parish. Before such good news comes his way, a blonde woman standing in the rain, dressed in a slinky white outfit, pounds on his door. He helps her and then she bites him viciously on the neck. The moral is that even a man of the cloth should selectively choose who enters his parish. The Reverend clearly becomes a vampire, biting everyone on the neck including dogs! His mission as a righteous man, selected by God and the Devil, is to rid of the evil in this village. The evil comes from truly dispiriting characters like the owner of the village, the local pub barman, a despicable and foul-mouthed pimp, and a bizarre dominatrix who violently tortures her clients' crotches with live electrical wires!
"The Reverend" begins rather slowly and I started to be taken in by it, especially early dialogue scenes between the Reverend and the organist and the berated prostitute (Emily Booth) who holds screenings of black-and-white horror films at the pub! Yet this Book of Job adaptation never comes to fruition since this Reverend is not mad at God nor does he grapple with his piety - he just becomes a Dirty Harry enforcer of good triumphing over evil. The other problem is that the evil characters are so one-dimensionally violent and abusive and hateful that there is no one to latch onto - you just wait for them to be bitten, staked and finally erupt in flames. There are scorching cameos by Rutger Hauer and Doug Bradley and they are so vivid to watch that you wish the film was rewritten to focus on them.
