Customer Reviews

Believers (Unrated Edition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Whilst browsing through the video store, deciding what to choose as my new release movie for the night I took a gamble and picked this film just for the sake of it and now I have no regrets. I thought the film missed a few things but it kept me in enough suspense to keep me watching and I was very satisfied with the ending. You won't be disappointed with this one people...give it a try.

I really liked this movie. Every time a group like this pops up, in the back of my mind I always have a nagging question. "What if they're right?" This movie sort of approaches the movie from that standpoint. It's rather unique... I guarantee you, you have never seen anything like this... It's a must see!!

I am a huge fan of The Blair Witch Project. I've been following Ed and Dan (the 2 creators) for the last few years and i'm very pleased they are releasing movies again. Ed's 2006 "Altered" was creepy no doubt, but a bit too gory for my tastes. Dan's movie, Believers, is much more minimal. The storyline is kinda refreshing in the sense that the movie doesn't actually revolve around some kinf of ghost or monster. The acting is decent, but the footage quality is rather murkey. All in all this is probably the best straight-to-DVD horror movie i've seen all year. The ending is rather impressive too.

Having picked up this movie in a bargain bin, the thing that sold me on the movie was it was made by one of the people who did The Blair Witch Project. Getting it home, I popped it in my DVD player and began watching the movie. I expected the worst. Lo and behold, it turned out to be a pretty dadgummed good movie(especially one that was released straight-to-DVD). See, the movie is about two paramedics that answer a call from a young girl whose mother has lost consciousness in a deserted area. They soon find out answering that call was a big mistake. Kidnapped and locked in an isolated building by a doomsday cult, one of the paramedics tries to discover the truth behind a secret cult and their beliefs. Therein, the other paramedic's beliefs are challenged and the line between religion and scientific thinking are crossed. Both must find a way to escape, but only one does. The Believers explores the manipulative measures some cults use to take advantage of those who are lost. What surprised me was the ending. I really wasn't expecting it, honestly. Do I recommend it? Most definitely. It's the best Straight-to-DVD movie I've seen in quite sometime. I'll admit, it's a strange film but one that kept my attention til the very end.

First off, I was disappointed with The Blair Witch Project. Not so with Believers. Daniel Myrick did a great job portraying the mindset of the cult leader and his followers, as well as the two paramedics who found themselves held captive. The movie gets four stars because of the character development.

As for the storyline, it was what I expected, regardless of the twist at the very end. This movie relies on psychological horror to keep viewers glued. Will the paramedics get out of the compound alive? Will they be able to rescue the little girl who called them to rescue her mother?

I'll remember "The Teacher" for a long time. He wasn't the crazy UFO/rapture type, but more methodical and chilling. You'll have to watch the movie to see what I'm talking about.

A couple of Paramedics get called onto a scene by a little girl to help her mother that has gone into a cardiac arrest. Only they are interrupted by a group of whacko's who refuse to let them treat her, the whacko's then kidnap them, and take them to there cult hide away where they meet a man who calls himself "The Teacher" who dribbles on about them all going to be taken to a new world on the other side of the universe because the end of the world is coming.

The acting and story are pretty good, but why I rate this movie low is because of the unsatisfying ending of the whole thing. There was a lot left unexplained and why go for a realistic approach just to blow the end end of the movie with such fictional bulldust?

However, least this time the films maker didn't try to con you into believing the story was true just to sell a low budget movie, least he had a budget for this one to hire an entire film crew to make a proper movie..... it just needed a much better ending imo.

This movie had good performances along with a believable story line that could have been ripped from today's headlines and kept me interested from start to finish. And I loved the twist ending, it was straight out of the Twilight Zone!

If you're going to watch the movie, you don't need to read a review with plot spoilers. So let me set you up for it. Daniel Myrick was involved w. The Blair Witch Project. He directed this film. Personally I didnt care much for BWP; the grainy handheld camera thing to give the appearance of a documentary was an interesting idea but there was way too much camera-motion for me, and the plot seemed a little lame. Let me assure you this is a much stronger film. It has some of the same elements: grainy film quality, frequently dim lighting, a lot of viewing monitoring-camera images and things like that. However there is no presense of it being a "documentary"; this is a straight-up fictional film. Really I wouldn't describe it exactly as a "horror" movie, although it's close. I found it more like a suspense film in which I was more interested in what was coming next, but not actually scared. Nor is it a particularly violent film. There's no depiction of actual murder or dismemberment, nor any unbelievably "occult" phenomena. It's a GREAT portrayal of cult mentality, but as the film unfolds the main question is--what's going to turn out real and what's unreal? Ie the cult has this notion the world is about to end and they alone have the formula to escape in time and propagate humanity on another world. Of course, just like the real "Heaven's Gate" cult, escaping the end of the world usually means escaping your life too--ie, group suicide. But the leader has an uncanny ability to know things about other people, and purportedly the "cult" has mathematicians and scientists, and their explanation for their knowledge is all based on mathematics. So-are they RIGHT, or are they just another whacko group with a charismatic leader? And will they take down the 2 paramedics who get trapped unwittingly in their facilty by unhappy circumstance, or will they escape alive? That's the basic dramatic tension of the film. The acting is pretty good, the filming pretty good, the storyline good, and as long as you view it expecting just a suspenseful fictional story I think you'll be very pleased. Why the "unrated" rating? Im just guessing the studio first planned to release it in theatre with an "R" rating, but ended up throwing it straight to DVD without an official rating. Actually it's more tame than many "R" films. PS there are many subtle and semi-subtle allusions in the film-like a swipe at Scientology right at the beginning, or the name of the second-in-command, "Io". Sounds like Greek mythology, or the name of a moon, right? Well in binary code that's the number 2, and he's the number 2 man of this organization. Lots of little things like that, not all of which an audience will even catch going on. Not much in the way of special features, but a few nice extended/deleted scenes. Enjoy!

This movie will leave you with unanswered questions. I would like to know how the woman the died came back to life. I would like to know if she re-died later in the film, and if so how? I would like to know how no one seemed to know the cult existed. Someone had to...how did they get members? At the end...there seems to have been a family change...was it leagal? How did that happen? I COULD GO ON>>>

It's cool for a rental or a cheap purchase...but it will leave you empty. And it's not as scary as people say. And you can see the Heaven's gate influence...to even some of the images of the leader are similar to Applewhite.

A VERY Strange & Predictable Film, that even a strong cast could not save. Instead of buying this go out and buy "Murder One" where you can see Daniel Benzali really strut his stuff in a believeable way.