The Revival

The Revival

Year: 2018

Runtime: 85 min

Language: English

Director: Jennifer Gerber

Echo Score: 65
DramaRomance

In a community deeply rooted in faith and tradition, a Baptist preacher finds himself drawn to a captivating young drifter. Their forbidden romance blossoms in secret, defying societal expectations and stirring intense emotions. As their passion grows, it threatens to unravel the established order and expose them to judgment.

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Timeline & Setting – The Revival (2018)

Explore the full timeline and setting of The Revival (2018). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Location

Hot Springs, Arkansas, Emmanuel Baptist Church, Eli's father's cabin

The story unfolds in Hot Springs, a small Southern town in Arkansas where church life dominates the weekly rhythm. It centers on Emmanuel Baptist and Eli’s inherited congregation, a community drawn to revival rhetoric and public sermons. The action also moves to a remote cabin in the woods, a quiet retreat that exposes the private life behind the pulpit. The town’s religious social scene is punctuated by a local radio presence that amplifies the revival.

🏛️ Small-town church 🏞️ Hot Springs Arkansas 🕯️ Religious community

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 19:57

Main Characters – The Revival (2018)

Meet the key characters of The Revival (2018), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Daniel (Zachary Booth)

A hungry drifter who arrives at Eli’s church seeking shelter and connection. He is drawn to Eli, and their bond becomes complicated by his hidden sexuality and his domestic vulnerability. He secretly cooks meth, shows resilience in the face of rejection, and ultimately reveals his feelings, testing the boundaries of faith and desire.

💔 Hidden longing 🧭 Vulnerability 🧪 Meth connection

Eli (David Rysdahl)

A preacher struggling with faith, desire, and alcohol. He shifts from a steady pulpit approach to flamboyant revivalism to mobilize his flock, even as personal secrets threaten to undo him. His willingness to “heal” others in public reveals how power and performance can blend with genuine faith.

🔥 Ambition 🕯️ Faith under pressure

June (Lucy Faust)

Eli’s pregnant wife who navigates betrayal with quiet strength. She becomes a catalyst for confrontation, ultimately revealing a photograph that exposes the affair and sets the stage for the revival’s chaotic fallout. She embodies loyalty, suspicion, and resolve in the face of a collapsing marriage.

🔎 Suspicion 🫂 Loyalty 🧼 Clean up mess

Trevor (Raymond McAnally)

Eli’s friend and a recovering alcoholic who champions the Revival as a way to save his church. He is ambitious but haunted by sobriety struggles, and his actions—from promoting the event to brutal intervention—reveal a willingness to cross lines for the sake of tradition and control.

🌀 Manipulation 🧭 Sobriety fight

Jimmy (Stephen Ellis)

A parishioner torn by forbidden attraction to his cousin Missy. He observes and contributes to the tension around sexuality within the church, acting as a foil to Eli’s attempts to choreograph the community’s feelings. His presence underscores a moral murkiness beneath the surface.

💭 Forbidden attraction 🧩 Moral ambiguity

Radio Preacher (David Carl)

A figure of public faith who exemplifies the media-driven revival culture—the man who programs and promotes the event on the airwaves, highlighting how public religion can influence private lives.

📻 Media influence 🎙️ Public faith

Missy (Kathleen Suit)

Jimmy’s cousin and a young woman who crosses paths with the church’s tensions over desire and belonging. She ends up entangled in the community’s sexual dynamics and finds herself navigating a new, complicated social orbit by the end.

💫 Oscillating love 🫂 Family ties

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 19:57

Major Themes – The Revival (2018)

Explore the central themes of The Revival (2018), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

🔥 Power

The revival becomes a tool for control, with Eli leveraging spectacle and crowd size to stabilize a failing church. Trevor and the board’s involvement show how religious authority can bend to financial pressure and public perception. The pursuit of growth leads to ethical compromise, blurring sermons with performance. The consequence is a town-wide escalation of conflicts built on manipulated belief.

💔 Secrets

Hidden desires and concealed identities drive the story’s tension. Eli’s emotional pull toward Daniel tests his loyalty to June and his vows, while Daniel’s sexuality and vulnerability expose fractures in the faith community. The couple’s secrecy becomes a badge of power and a source of personal ruin when exposed. The revelation reshapes who is trusted and who is kept at arm’s length.

🪵 Destruction

A literal and figurative fire consumes the cabin where Daniel and Eli's relationship unfolds, mirroring the blaze of public judgment that follows. The town’s anger boils over as violence and intimidation escalate—Daniel is brutalized, and Eli’s actions spiral toward self-destruction. The church’s celebration of healing collapses into chaos, leaving a community reeling from the wreckage.

Last Updated: October 03, 2025 at 19:57

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The Revival Summary

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The Revival Summary

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The Revival Timeline

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The Revival Spoiler-Free Summary

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