The Believers (1987)

In all fairness, I went into seeing The Believers with a glimmer of hope. A fervent horror fan, I looked forward to seeing a rare intellectual thriller. All the pieces were in place - a good cast (led by a usually stellar Martin Sheen), a renowned director (John Schlesinger) & the story of a police psychologist trying to pick up the pieces after his wife's premature & accidental death who gets involved, along with his son, in some occultish freakishness.

So where did The Believers go wrong? About halfway through, when Sheen's lonely Dad inexplicably & unbelievably takes up with the loopy landlady across the street (Helen Shaver). Not only is this an unwanted distraction to the plot, but the relationship moves WAY too quickly to be taken seriously in a 2-hour horror movie.

There are some scary moments, one coming within the first 5 minutes of the film, but the film loses its momentum as the discovery of what all this voodoo madness is all about unfolds. Like The Serpent & The Rainbow, logic & reason effortlessly give way to dark idols & poisoned dart silliness. The film's ominous conclusion tries too hard & becomes almost laughable.

Sheen is solid, but spends more than half the movie screaming at, to or for his son (another never-to-be-seen-again child actor who is 10 times more annoying than cute, making you wish that the bad guys eat him up before Martin starts filming Wall Street). Shaver sleepwalks through her thankless role, tho she's involved in one of the film's creepiest moments. A good supporting cast, including Robert Loggia, Richard Masur & a young Jimmy Smits are wasted.

Ultimately, The Believers is ambitious, but this voodoo doo-doo doesn't give you much to believe. 5 out of 10.

Fmovies: Wow is this movie dumb! You will hate the superstitious Latin characters they have running around yelling and carrying on in over the top Latin accents. Sheen is a concerned father and police detective investigation some child murders in NYC. These murders are linked to a voodoo/santoria type religion that seems to be 'believed' by an unbelievably big underground community in New York City! A scary black guy with albino contacts lurks around scaring the bejesus out of the increasingly frightened latins who can only speak broken English, shriek and writhe in increasing desperation for Sheen/someone/anyone to listen to them and their need for pro-tect-C-own. There are bizarre suicides, deaths, mind control trances (at just a glance), animal sacrifices, oh, and other European American believers who wear suits and ride around in limousines who are apparently in charge of this 'religion'. I also left out a kidnapping, curses, electrocutions, and Sheen's character's rebellious, uncontrollable little kid who is constantly in danger and behaves not unlike he's suddenly had a bad reaction to angel dust!

A good director John Schlesinger ("Midnight cowboy" , "Marathon man") plus good actor Martin Sheen ("Apocalypse now") plus interesting subject - voo doo. This is one promising combination , isn't it ? Unfortunately the ending result is rather bad.

Martin Sheen gives a good performance. The movie does give you a some knowledge about voo doo. There are some nice thrilling scenes (the beginning , the ending , the scene with the snakes and the scene with the bees). Those are the good things in this movie.

The movie isn't unfortunately scary . It isn't horrifying enough just to insert images of bloody headless chicken corpses and African tribes performing silly dance rituals. The movie can't decide if it wants to have supernatural elements in it or to be a thriller. "The believers" is also too long and have too many sub plots. There is also too much soap opera in a movie that should be scary and dark. There is no tension or atmosphere and aside from Sheen the acting isn't anything special. The dialogues are forgettable and the screenplay is rather bad convoluted.

Alan Parker's "Harry Angel" is far superior to "The Believers". It's dark , scary , has good performances and interesting story. "The Believers" is not a complete waste of time , however it is overlong, slightly pretentious with a flat detective story. There are some good elements here , however it is a disappointment. I give it 4/10.

The Believers fmovies. What happens when an acclaimed A-listed director like John Schlesinger ("Midnight Cowboy", "Marathon Man") and an acclaimed A-listed actor like Martin Sheen ("Apocalypse Now", "Badlands") decide together to cash in on the contemporary popular trend of making a religiously themed horror movie? Sadly – but predictably – this results in a pretentious, dreadfully overlong and ridiculous piece of melodramatic soap-opera schlock! Back in the era of pioneering cinema, there were a handful of titles – "I walked with a Zombie" and "White Zombie" to name just two – that put forward the theme of voodoo as something uniquely macabre and nightmarish, but ever since the 1980's, many directors mistakenly assume that it is horrifying enough just to insert images of bloody headless chicken corpses and African tribes performing silly dance rituals. Schlesinger makes the exact same mistake and, atop of that, also adds far too many family drama sub plots and redundant detective elements. The opening sequences are supposed to be tragic and heart-wrenching but (and maybe it's just me?) I found them quite imbecilic and banal. Police psychiatrist Cal Jamison loses his wife in a far-fetched kitchen accident – malfunctioning coffee machines and spilled milk do not go well together – and moves to the center of New York with his 7-year-old son. What follows is an irritating series of clichéd situations, since daddy falls in love with the new landlady but obviously doesn't want to neglect his traumatized little boy. Meanwhile, his job also drags him into a spider web of intrigues regarding the Santerío-religion. This strange religion worships African spirits in the shape of Christian Gods (or something like it, I don't know) and has quite a few of influential disciples in NY. The lives of innocent young boys are sacrificed in favor of obnoxious rich adults and, because he sticks his nose too much in the voodoo business, Jamison's own son is suddenly in danger as well. Unlike Alan Parker in the superior "Angel Heart", John Schlesinger didn't have the balls to show any controversial themes or shocking images. However, if you happen to fancy tedious and confusing dialogs, dull sentimental interludes, a complete lack of atmosphere or tension and weak performances from usually reliable actors (besides Sheen also Robert Loggia, Harris Yulin and Jimmy Smits), then you absolutely must see "The Believers". I'm required to admit there are two memorable highlights as well, though. There's one marvelous, but misfit, scene with eerie little spiders crawling out of a woman's jaw and also the casting of Malick Bowens as the sinister voodoo priest. His evil stare was the only thing preventing me to stop watching this garbage before it was actually finished.

Covering the subject of cults, religion, Santeria or other beliefs is always intriguing and educational. The acting especially by Martin Sheen as N.Y. psychiatrist Cal, is very good.

Cal loses his wife in a tragic accident, and returns to New York City where he is a psychiatric consultant for N.Y.P.D. There are some excellent scenes with Jimmy Smits, as an affected officer who goes mad, and Robert Loggia, as a veteran cop who is also affected by the "Believers", and their group.

Harris Yulin is menacing and fits the bill as leader of an 80's group, ostensibly just a charity group, until Sheen uncovers something much worse.

The end is rather abrupt and predictable, but the acting is first-rate (especially for Sheen) and this is worth a viewing. The theme alone has many possibilities, the ignorance and unawareness of how many different religions actually exist, and are in practice all over the world. 9/10.

Martin Sheen is in top form in this one and I don't know why it isn't considered one of the better horror movies. I was a kid when I saw this so it had a better effect on me then but I recently saw it on cable and really dug it. Also recommended is the classic Serpent and the Rainbow.