Double Negative fulfilled legendary vfx supervisor Richard Yuricich's mandate to be as photorealistic as possible for The Reaping. All images © 2007 Warner Bros. Ent. Inc. Courtesy of Double Negative. 

According to the Biblical tale of Exodus, God inflicted 10 plagues upon the Egyptians with a wave of the staff of Aaron or Moses. For London-based effects house Double Negative, recreating two of those plagues in present day for the Warner Bros.' horror film The Reaping (opening April 6) took considerably more time and effort.

Producer Joel Silver and director Stephen Hopkins signed on Richard Yuricich -- a visual-effects legend who worked on such ground-breaking films as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running and Blade Runner -- to supervise the visual effects work on the film.

Double Negative vfx producer Steve Garrad had worked with Yuricich on the first two Mission: Impossible films, as well as an aborted Danny Boyle project called 3000 Degrees. Garrad says Yuricich's mandate was to be as photorealistic as possible. "Richard's approach is completely driven by how would you actually photograph the event," he says. "For him, the desired imagery drives which software solution is chosen, not vice versa," he says.

Double Negative won the job of working on the locust swarm and the river of blood sequences after producing a test of the locusts using a particle-based approach.  

Double Negative won the job of working on the locust swarm and the river of blood sequences after producing a test of the locusts using a particle-based approach. Garrad says they decided to stick with particles instead of upgrading to an artificial intelligence simulation to save time on the film's original schedule, which targeted a summer 2006 release.