[Belivers]
Plot:Two paramedics David and Victor answer an emergency call in the rural outlands of southern California. They arrive to find an unconscious woman named Rebecca and her terrified daughter Libby at a lonely gas station. Libby tells them her and her mom are on the run from a cult known as THE QUANTA GROUP led by a man the members call "The Teacher".

As David and Victor are in the process of trying to save them both, a group of strangely tattooed men pull up in a truck and kidnap them all at gunpoint. They are then driven to a remote facility where they learn they have been abducted by a doomsday cult that is in its final preparations to "transfer" into the next life.

Cast: Johnny Messner, Elizabeth Bogush, John Farley, Daniel Benzali, Deanna Russo, Marty Papazian, Carolyn Hennesy, Joe Howard, Jon Huertas, Cullen G. Chambers, John Wesley, Rif Hutton, Michael Gregory, Saige Ryan Campbell, June Angela, Jeri Lynn Ryan, Michael Childers, Dig Wayne, Erik Passoja, Andrew Elvis Miller, Brian Lally, Charles Hirsch, Jordan Dang, Christopher May, Nino Aldi, Richard Soto, Natalie Salins, Renda Pettis, Michael Folkerds.

My Thoughts:Interesting film which is lacking.

Review:The crazy cult genre isn't one that's explored in many horror movies. If you think about the most memorable crazy cult horror films, or horror films involving psychotic cults..you could probably count them on one hand. Daniel Myrick's "Believers" is a film that goes down the crazy cult road with it's plot, dealing with two paramedics, Vick (Jon Huertas), and David (Johnny Messner) who arrive at a call to try and save an unconscious womans life. Only soon to be kidnapped at gunpoint by a group of people dressed in white, who are later revealed to be members of a doomsday cult of sorts called "The Quanta Group".

This group is led by a man called "The Teacher", and they are preparing to leave earth in Jim Jones fashion, before some major catastrophic event strikes. This totally sucks for both Vick and David, particularly David since he just learned prior to going out on said call that his wife was pregnant. Taken in with them is a little girl, the daughter of the unconscious woman, and who also seems to be the only normal member of this otherwise brainwashed cult. "Believers" doesn't add anything new to the killer cultists genre, but it does present some in-depth and pretty creepy insight into how cults and other like-minded organizations work.

The film really suceeds in exploring the way a cult feeds a person ideas and then slowly breaks them down into buying into their overall concept, even if it's a completely ludicrous one such as assisted suicide. Myrick, who wrote and directed the movie also does a great job of keeping the mystery surrouding the cults leader, as we don't see much of him early on except for a few scenes of him directing things from a control room somewhere in the Quanta groups headquarters. Speaking of which, Myrick certainly fell into the cliche zone with the cults HQ, as with most cults their base of operations is a gated bunker guarded by people who dress alike, act alike, and wield shotguns.

For once I'd like to see a movie where one of these cults hides out in a place similar to the posh hideouts of some of the James Bond villains. I didn't get my wish this time around, but oh well..maybe next time. To add to the cliche-dom Myrick also decided to toss in that odd gas station attendant who "knows what's going on" wink, wink. However...despite the cliches here and there, "Believers" does manage answer that age old question, "How does one turn a bathroom stall into a holding cell for prisoners?" "Believers" suffers alot from focusing on one part of it's story too long though.

You would think that two missing EMT's, one of which who's married with a baby on the way would garner alot of attention and people searching for them. Instead the only person that even bothers to take it upon themselves to look for them is their boss. Another issue with this film is how easily one of the main characters gets sucked into buying what the cult is selling. While it was a really weird scene, I didn't truly believe it would be that easy to get someone "culted", so to speak. The performances however do manage to carry the film pretty well, Messner and Huertas have a very good on-screen chemistry, and as a viewer you really believe these two characters have a great friendship.

Myrick saves his best for last though, which shouldn't come as a surprise considering this is a guy who gave us one of the best twist endings ever in "Book Of Shadows:Blairwitch 2", and to a lesser extent "The Blairwitch Project". "Believers" really throws you for a loop with one ending which suggests everything you expected to happen, followed by a "gotcha" finale which comes totally out of leftfield. "Believers" doesn't offer up much in terms of non-stop thrills, scares, or action...but it is a very smart film that succeeds in it's strong performances, intriguing plot, in-depth look into the world of a cult, and twist ending.

Positives:Great performances by Messner and Huertas. A scary in-depth look into the world of cultism. Twist ending of epic proportions.

Negatives:Spotty areas of the film where things drag or get boring. The supporting cast outside of Huertas and Messner was mostly lacking talent.

Overall:A film that really falls in the middle.





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