Dirtylogy
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
ActuallyGlimmer
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Stephanie
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Yvonne Jodi
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
Realrockerhalloween
Believers is a shocking sci-fi movie that blows knowing and the last man on earth away.Two paramedics are caught by a bizarre end of the world cult that takes them hostage and shows them miracles they never seen.The teacher was mesmerizing as he showed how numbers can unlock The secrets to life, bring The dead back and transform matter into different substances.Still it doesn't explain exactly how he can communicate telepathically or perform resurrection since it isn't shown.What makes it enjoyable, like children of the corn, is that you have to decide for yourself what are The differences between an organized religion and a cult. Even the bible says false prophets will come performing miracles and great signs to deceive the disbelieving. David questions the teacher and in the end escape not believing its all true as the doomsday cult are ready to transform for a new world. Victor is left behind under being convinced the world will be distorted and they are the only ones whip knows how to survive it. Drawing eerie similarities to the cult members who believed aliens were hiding on an asteroid.The overwhelming performs are amazing for a b film and had me convinced that these people could be under an hypnotic spell.Enjoy believers, it will leave you astounded.
trashgang
I had this flick already a few tiles in my hand but a few weeks ago i found it at a sale for only 2 euro's. The DVD sleeve made you guess, well this is going to be a ride to hell but it wasn't. There is a lot of talking in this flick and for me there was a bit too much of it. Another thing was that the main role played by Johnny Messner couldn't convince me. And if you have that as a problem then the movie doesn't work. Also, the voice of The Teacher made me think of Jigsaw from the Saw franchise. What was good was the fact that you can see how easily you can get into the believe of a cult. The ending was what I should call original and that was for many people the strongest part of it. I can't say that it is a horror or a science fiction, for me it was more a movie that made you think.
Lucien Lessard
Two paramedics, David (Johnny Messner) and Victor (Jon Huertas) received a emergency call to help a mysterious woman (Deanna Russo) and her daughter Libby (Saige Ryan Campbell) in a deserted area outside from a gas station. Once they arrived, they tired to save this woman until a bizarre group of people arrived with a truck. They find themselves being kidnapped and bring them to a isolated building. The two paramedics finds out, they have been kidnapped by the Quanta Group. Which this group are actually a strange group of cults. Which they are composed by Scientist, Philosophers and Mathematicians. Which is controlled by a man, who called himself "The Teacher" (Daniel Benzali). But David and Victor learns by the Quanta Group truly believes the end of the world is coming soon and they are preparing a mass suicide. While Victor is been seduced by this group. David tries to escape to from this cult with the help of Libby and saves his friend before it's too late.Directed by Daniel Myrick (Co-director of "The Blair Witch Project") made an fascinating, clever, low-budget thriller with hints of horror and science-fiction. Myrick certainly handles well the low-budget of the movie by giving good performances from his cast, creating genuine suspense and an creepy atmosphere in the story. For a Direct to DVD project, this has good qualities. The director certainly shows a lot of talent behind the camera. But the film does it's usual share of flaws, especially during the third act but Myrick certainly does take his time by making the movie works. I think, the viewers will find themselves intrigue by the premise and they also will be modestly entertained by the picture. It's certainly worth seeing. (*** ½/*****).
Jeff Stone (straker-1)
Great film! Some rather large plot holes that could have been easily avoided, if one were going to be honest, and at times the thing is frustratingly obscure and careless with logic. But Believers has a very creepy air, the acting is generally superb, and the ending is - if predictable a light year off - totally BRILLIANT. The movie plays like a very long episode of The Outer Limits (the 60s original, not the wretched colour revivals), and that's no bad thing. I suspect this movie played better outside of the US - American audiences tend to like everything explained with a minimum of ambiguity, and this movie has a very cavalier attitude towards plot information. Bad plot flaws damage the overall impact - the incredibly half-hearted search for the paramedics, the far too swift 'sex conversion' of the hero's buddy, the unexplained resurrection of a woman cult member, the badly answered question of why the paramedics needed to be kidnapped at all etc. But, ahhh, I've seen A-films that have made worse mistakes.Believers is most effective in the little details...the ever present loud speakers in the compound, constantly burbling propaganda you can only half hear, the glassy expressions on the faces of the cult members, the fact that these weird people are scary because they are NOT overtly evil. Perhaps more important is the fact that, like the Leader with the hero, the movie never tries to convince you to believe in what is happening...you can take it or leave it on one level or another. Comparisons with Jonestown are obvious, but the film's general tone owes a larger debt to the Aum Supreme Truth cult in Japan, with its' fetish for electronic devices and quasi-scientific esoterica, the usage of poison gas, and the idea that the charismatic leader holds a revealed "indisputable truth".Daniel Benzali is electrifying as 'The Teacher', creating a sort of Colonel Kurtz character. The Quanta Group's second in command, who appears at the start in the TV interview, and whose name eludes me, is also superb. Check out the deleted scenes on the DVD for moments featuring both men, both apparently improvised for the most part, that are better than anything kept in the movie. Puzzling omissions. The movie also contains one of the more chilling torture scenes in recent memory, in the shape of the electro-shock 'purging' of the hero. Devoid of gore, this scene is made frightening (for me at least) by the complete lack of emotion shown by the torturers. "It's for your own good" delivered in a weary monotone is far scarier than a truckload of Texas Chainsaw evil-chuckling over a victim.But *that* ending, a very erotic sex scene, the aforementioned EST torture moment, and a general air of weirdness and repressed hysteria, gives this film an edge. Well worth seeing.