Cult films seem to be making somewhat of a comeback in the direct to DVD market. When I say cult I don’t mean in a cult status, however I mean films involving cults. Some of the best well know cult films are Children of the Corn, The Wicker Man, Temple of Doom, there has always been a history of films involving cults and the evil things about them. Such is the case with this film, Believers.
Believers is about a group of people whom have a hideout in the desert, they are lead by a guy who is simply known as The Teacher. They believe that the end of the world is near and that only they know the way to get off the planet in time to avoid being destroyed by God. The story pretty much starts out when two Paramedics respond to call in the desert. When they get there they find a young girl crying over her mothers dead body. The paramedics know they can save her and begin to work on her right away. However a group of men with guns pull up in a pick-up truck and take the paramedics hostage and bring them back to their underground lair in the desert. There the men are held hostage and are having the beliefs of the cult forced upon them. now the two men must try to get out of the compound alive before the cult perform their bizarre experiments on them.
The script for Believers kind of came off like a direct for television film. I’m not sure if this film was intended to be for TV or not, but it does come off as a sci-fi original film or something that might make it’s debut on cable. However according to my research this film was in fact made to be a direct to DVD film. The script does not allow for much character development except for the two main characters. The cult members and the cult itself and what’s really going on is not really revealed in detail and we’re kind of left hanging at the end to the point where I felt the script left it up to us as a viewer to use our imagination as to what the cult was really up too. The story is also hard to follow. There is a lot that’s trying to be explained all at once in this film, that it does get very confusing. Many of it has to do with the beliefs of the cult and what they are trying to accomplish. There are a lot of things within the script that are left unexplained and we’re left to wonder what’s going on.
The acting in the film is alright. I really can’t say that there was anything good or bad about the performances in this film, and the same goes with the direction. Nothing great, but nothing bad either. So pretty much the overall acting and directing are alright. The production value for the film was also just OK. For a film that had a budget of one point eight million dollars I kind of expected there would be more elaborate sets; especially with the cults underground lair. Pretty much all the locations were shot on location instead of in a studio. There really was not a lot in terms of special make up effects or CGI. We do get a few death scenes and some beatings here and there, but nothing over the top and gory. There is some CGI in the film that looks alright, but it’s in the last shot of the film.
Overall, Believers does not fall into the category of being a classic cult film like the movies I mentioned above. It does try to come off as a film that takes it’s story from the Heaven’s Gate cult, and that point in history seems to be where the writers got their idea for this film from. For fans of films like Children of the Corn or The Wicker Man, this is more of a toned down version. I think anyone who is into true stories of cults such as Heavens Gate or the Brach Dividends might look at this film as kind of a testament to cults of the likening. In a nutshell it was an alright film, but the overall plot and story behind the cult in the film is a bit confusing and most of what their about is left up to the viewer to decide.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
