
After the death of his wife, police psychiatrist Cal Jamison moves to New York. There he has to help in the investigation of the murder of two youths, who seem to have been immolated during a cult ritual. Jamison believes it's been Voodoo and, ignoring the warnings of his housekeeper, enters the scenery and soon gets under their influence. They try to get him to sacrifice his own son.... (Full plot summary below)
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After the death of his wife, police psychiatrist Cal Jamison moves to New York. There he has to help in the investigation of the murder of two youths, who seem to have been immolated during a cult ritual. Jamison believes it's been Voodoo and, ignoring the warnings of his housekeeper, enters the scenery and soon gets under their influence. They try to get him to sacrifice his own son.
Leave your thoughts about The Believers.
| United Press InternationalCathy BurkeAt heart, The Believers is a remake of Rosemary's Baby with none of the wit and twice as much gore. |
| Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonGood as much of John Schlesinger’s The Believers is--and it’s one of the better-produced, more exciting and intelligent thrillers of the year--it’s hard to keep from wondering, as you watch, why he wanted to do it in the first place. |
| Needcoffee.comWidgett WallsNot as creepy as the book, but hey, it'll do in a pinch. |
| The Associated PressBob ThomasA bizarre, occult thriller about the implications of religious faith. And, though it doesn't expand upon its shock tactics as much as it would like to or make its theological points, the movie's dread atmosphere begins to seep into your head. |
| Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumAll in all, an entertaining (if ideologically incoherent) response to the valorization of greed in our midst, with lots of Rambo-esque violence thrown in, as well as an unusually protracted slugfest between ex-wrestler Roddy Piper and costar Keith David. |
| Chicago TribuneGene SiskelJohn Schlesinger, who directed Midnight Cowboy and Marathon Man, knows how to weave edge-of-the-seat tension. But Mark Frost's screenplay, based on Nicholas Conde's occult mystery novel The Religion, is a haphazard affair of implausibility and pseudo-Voodoo. |
| Tampa Bay TimesHal LipperAn awesomely silly, tasteless and half-witted movie. |
| USA TodayMike ClarkThe plot for They Live is full of black holes, the acting is wretched, the effects are second-rate. In fact, the whole thing is so preposterous it makes "V" look like "Masterpiece Theatre." [5 Nov 1988] |
| The New York TimesVincent CanbyAn absurd, especially cheerless movie about child-sacrificing devil-worshippers who've slipped out of Africa and, via East Harlem, have come down into midtown Manhattan to infiltrate the ranks of the white establishment. In addition to everything else that's wrong, The Believers is more than a little bit racist. |
| User ReviewCarlos FGenuinely frightning and spooky. Martin Sheen and Robert Loggia are excellent. |