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The Believers | Year: 1987 Classification: Horror Directed: - John Schlesinger Actors/Actresses: - Martin Sheen A pretty good movie, but not about Santeria "The Believers" is going to offend a lot of people, and with good reason. The movie portends to be about the "cult" of Santeria and the dangers it poses to non-believers; what the movie shows has little or nothing to do with Santeria. To give credit where it is due, one of the characters, on viewing the carnage, says that this is not Santeria, it's brujeria, which is Spanish for witchcraft; it's closer to the mark, but even brujeria, as far as I have read, doesn't make a practice out of the ritual sacrifice of small children. Santeria itself is a hardly a cult; it's a religion practiced or believed in by more than 100 million people in the Americas (it's closely related to Voodoo in Haiti and Candomble in Brazil); it's a syncretism between the Yoruba gods and the Roman Catholic saints, and it does not involve shedding human blood. That said, "The Believers" is an intriguing film about a police psychiatrist who comes to New York City with his small son after the death of his wife in a freak accident. He is called by the NYPD after one of their own apparently goes berserk, raving about "they" have his badge and "they" can get anyone. "They" turn out to be a group of lunatics who think they can take over society through their own twisted version of what they call Santeria, once they have achieved the ritual slaughter of three small boys by the summer solstice. They have already killed two; guess whom they are targeting as the third? There's a lot of blood and gore as the cult proves very adept at inducing everyone who gets in their way to commit unpleasant forms of suicide; the psychiatrist finds to his horror that one of his own in-laws is deeply involved in the cult after having sacrified his own young son, and after managing to rescue his child from being the cult's third sacrifice, the psychiatrist leaves New York behind and retreats to the country, only to find that Santeria has followed him. The ending is improbable, to say the least, but if you're interested in a movie with a lot of twists and turns, this one is fun to watch. Be warned, however, that its basic premise is flawed, and the film casts a serious and unwarranted slur on the religion of Santeria. Very Disturbing, Especially if You Have Children John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Day of the Locust) delivers yet again in this suspenseful, hair raisingly chilling account of Devil Worship. True, it might have helped feed the frenzy of anti-Wiccan, look behind every repressed childhood memory for pentagrams and blood chalices evidence in numerous '80s court cases, but as cinema, it is a very powerful, scary flick. One can only empathize with what the parents, played by Helen Shaver and Martin Sheen, go through, in the course of the movie. Both are highly convincing in their parts and the script doesn't venture into the banal or the ridiculous, so we the audience are caught up in their dilemma. They are powerless over the forces of darkness, and it is that feeling of hopelessness and dread, which really digs deep into the viewer's psyche, particularly if one is a parent, him/herself. It's an acuumulative "you are there," "imagine yourself in their shoes" experiment in terror. The result is one of the best horror films of the decade. To give away anything in the way of plot would be a huge disservice to potential viewers. Suffice it to say that the acting is uniformly excellent. You're in the hands of a director who knows how and when to build suspense. At no point do you have to strain to willingly suspend disbelief. Shades of "Rosemary's Baby," but no wholesale lifting. Certainly a lot more believable than "Eyes Wide Shut" in the Devil Worshipping scenes. Belongs in every horror afficianado's collection. BEK Believable!!! I loved this movie. I found it to be very well researched for it's content of Santeria and Brujeria. As someone who grew up around these religions I appreciated the authenticity. This was a scary, suspenseful and edge-of-your-seat, very well made movie. It's like that saying, sometimes real life is scarier than fiction. Although, this is not one of those "based on a true story" type of movie, this movie was true to life in a lot of ways. Its' content reflected upon 2 very old religions that are very much alive and well in the U.S. and other parts of the world today. Never underestimate the power of mind and intention (for good or bad) or the power of the universe. Buy The Believers at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Believers Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Believers This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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