London-born Idris Elba (28 Weeks Later, American Gangster) plays assistant to Hilary Swank in supernatural chiller The Reaping. Their work takes them into America's south, where a series of plagues has led to locals believeing they are victims of God's wrath.

What was it like working on a project with devout religious themes and direct biblical connotations…

I’m a spiritual person, and the majority of the crew were definitely religious. We were shooting in Louisiana, the heart of the Bible belt, so there was an intense atmosphere for all involved. You know, plagues, disasters, physical acts of God… the whole concept was quite intense for some people.

There was a widespread feeling that what was being filmed could happen in real-life?

Absolutely. A lot of people already want to compare what’s going on in our world today to what was written in the [Book of] Revelations. Whether you believe in that or not, the parallels with what’s going on now is uncanny, especially in the way that human beings are reacting and interacting with each other.

I guess I should ask you about the old-fashioned film curses – religiously-minded ‘horror’ films are allegedly notorious for them. The Reaping technically went further than that…

Well, ironically we were shooting this film before and during Hurricane Katrina, and we were in that part of the world. The irony just kills me. [Pauses] What happened, it opened our minds and intensified what we’re doing. An act of God like that, you just don’t see it very often, or even at all. It devastated us. It devastated the all the world over, and here we were making a film about plagues and God’s anger raining down in a particular form. You can’t describe how moving it was.

Were there direct consequences of the tragedy on set?

80-percent of the crew were from that way and some of them had lost their homes, I mean completely lost their homes, and all of a sudden, they had to question their own faith in God. It was no longer just a film set, it was the only means for some people to rebuild their lives. You know, making some money after losing so much. It intensified everything, made us more focused and thankful for being alive. It wasn’t a happy place.

And then you had to return to a zombie-plagued London for 28 Weeks Later…

Yeah, it was really nice to get home. I loved working on that. 28 Weeks Later is a great film, a great film, trust me.