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Too much of everything

Redundant and unnecessary.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Ok, I'm currently watching this on Comet Channel... I don't know what's supposed to be scary about this. I'm about half-way through and finding it very hard to force myself to watch any further. It's slow-paced, exaggerated, with too may scenes of just people blabbering on about things we don't see. Plot points just jump around, the tone is inconsistent as hell. It's often silly and the overacting is the only thing that elicited any emotion from me aside from boredom. It often throws in symbolism no one outside of whatever this belief system is would understand in the least. As such, there's no impact. There's no dread or tension when we have no clue why spooky music plays in response to a kid dropping a cowrie shell. What the heck? I suppose people who believe in this nonsense in reality find it frightening. For those who live in the 'real' world, it's just dull and dumb.

Co-producer / director John Schlesinger of "Midnight Cowboy" fame is at the helm of this interesting film that takes a look into the religion of Santeria. Martin Sheen plays Cal Jamison, a police psychiatrist who moves with his young son Chris (Harley Cross) from Minnesota to New York after a horrible accident involving his wife. Soon they find that the terror isn't over as they get mixed up with various members of a cult that believes in the sacrifice of children.As in any film of this kind, it does get fascinating to see characters partake in rituals and utilize assorted items. The story is based on a novel by Nicholas Conde, condensed here by Mark Frost of 'Twin Peaks' fame, and it's fairly meaty stuff that runs close to two hours. It gets appropriately surreal, and while it may not always make absolute sense, that isn't such a bad thing in a film of this kind.The cast is above average and quite convincing. Supporting Sheen are the lovely, under-rated Helen Shaver, and old pros such as Robert Loggia, Lee Richardson, Elizabeth Wilson, Harris Yulin, and Richard Masur. Jimmy Smits has a great, memorable, small but pivotal part as a detective who's part of the puzzle; he's found flying off the handle after being discovered at a murder scene. Also appearing are the excellent Raul Davila and the striking Malick Bowens; co-star Carla Pinza, who plays Carmen the housekeeper, was also the films' cultural adviser.Despite a deliberate pace, this story just draws the viewer right in with its weird atmosphere, attention to detail, and its sense of doom and gloom. After a while, one has to wonder if there is anyone that Cal can trust. The characters are compelling; it's refreshing that our hero is flawed and not perfect. For one thing, he's prone to nasty outbursts.The special effects are generally good, especially when insects emerge from a sore on a persons' face. The music by J. Peter Robinson is likewise good. The finale is well executed on impressive sets by Simon Holland and the cinematography is the work of the great Robby Muller.Worth a look overall; the finale would seem to be setting up a sequel but no sequel ever got made. For another look at Santeria, check out the 1972 film "The Possession of Joel Delaney".Seven out of 10.

I was expecting some horror to be sure, I just was not expecting a full blown horror movie with some supernatural stuff thrown in to boot. I was more expecting a serious thriller dealing with cults or something. The movie seems to have a plot device similar to a Dean Koontz book I have heard about in that a cult is out to get the child of a man whose wife dies in a rather unpleasant way right at the beginning of the movie. The cult is sort of on the voodoo side of things and the movie has them doing things in their power to not only to sacrifice the guy's son, but to get him to do it. Add a bit more to it and you have yourself a really good horror movie. There still is a bit to much thriller and drama in it to be a really good horror movie though and I have never been wild about Martin Sheen. I actually always enjoyed watching his son's movies more. So in the end you get a movie that seems to not quite know what it really wants to be, but it had enough horror elements in it for me to overall enjoy.

Voodoo is quite an interesting topic, and as such there are many movies on the topic, many of which are very good; which means that all the movies based on voodoo generally have a lot to live up to. The Believers benefits from a good cast, a reputable director and an obviously sizable budget - but unfortunately, it doesn't amount to a sum of it's parts, mostly due to the fact that a lot of it plays out rather slowly and is quite boring - which is fairly surprising considering that director John Schlesinger was the man behind classic thrillers such as Marathon Man. The film is based on a book by Nicholas Conde and focuses on a widowed father named Cal Jamison who takes his son to live in Manhattan. Cal gets a job with the New York Police Department as a psychiatrist for troubled police officers. It's on his first call out, to help save a suicidal police officer that he comes into contact with a strange cult that has skinned a child alive. From there, the film focuses on a series of strange and eerie events that all seem to focus on the people around the lead character...The main problem with this movie is undoubtedly the length of it - the director obviously assumed that there was enough material to fill the nearly two hour running time, but unfortunately that isn't the case and the result is a film with a lot of dull moments. The lead role is taken by Martin Sheen who does a good job of fleshing out his character and getting the audience behind him. This, however, is not matched by the plot - which doesn't ever do enough to get the audience fully behind it, which is a shame as there are plenty of good ideas going on in it. The film can easily be compared to the likes of Angel Heart and Rosemary's Baby - but clearly it is not even nearly on the same level as the aforementioned classics. To its credit, the film does not flinch too much when it comes to showing blood and gore - skinned kids and spiders crawling out of a woman's cheek are among the highlights. Overall, The Believers is not a complete dead loss by any means; but it's not a great film either and I wouldn't recommend anyone goes out of their way to see it.