"Believers" is your very average end of the world/suicide cult movie if not for the fact that it was directed by Daniel Myrick, one half of the director duo behind "The Blair Witch Project", if only Mr. Myrick had used one half of his brain too then this might not have ended up such a total mess.
Obviously, the Hollywood producers didn't trust the film-making skills of the "Blair Witch" creators, since, they both have been virtually inactive in the new millennium so far. Still, it seems that Myrick had enough time on his hands to hatch a few cinematic eggs. Since last year, he was not only producing "Rest Stop" (which I kind of liked) but also directed another three feature length movies ("The Objective", "Solstice" and "The Strand"). Although, it remains to be seen whether they will make it beyond a straight-to-video release. As for "Believers" it pretty much follows the formula of "The Blair Witch Project", but while the twist in that movie consisted of surpassing our fear that the witch was real in "Believers" we are introduced to a bunch of frauds that in the very end... I really don't want to spoil it for you here, because the movie has not much else going for it than the twist ending, and even that twist is paper thin, almost as if Kevin Costner at the end of "Water World" had found out that he belonged to the latest Sea World attraction (no, it's actually not THAT bad). The story of "Believers" is about two paramedics who are on an emergency call to rescue a woman lying conveniently in front of a gas station, having some sort of a heart attack. Subsequently, David Vaughn and his partner Victor are abducted by a bunch of weirdos who take them inside an old bunker where their fellow cult members reside. I forgot the name of the cult, it's probably some Greek letter of the alphabet. From there on, it's pretty much business as usual. There's the sinister end of the world cult and it's mysterious cult leader, lots of teaching and indoctrination, members who try to escape but are caught (the woman with the heart attack and here little daughter), some attempted brainwashing of the paramedics, large gas canisters with the required bio-hazard warnings all over them and a lot of mumbo jumbo about numbers and how God can be found in science and such. The story arch, if you can call it that, largely consists of Vaughn's partner Victor having a spiritual crisis and slowly turning over to the dark side (hey, it's a character driven movie!). A lot of hokey acting is involved in that process and finally culminates in a scene where Victor gets to bang a hot cult member chick. Well, who can resist the power of love? Overall, this is a fairly weak effort to give a new spin on the old evil suicide cult story, which would have worked a lot better as a short movie instead of a feature length film. The material is too second rate and the actor's are too third rate to carry this anywhere but the nearest lowest price blockbuster bargain bin. There is too much focus on the twist ending and not enough substance to sustain it. In order for the twist to succeed the movie has to lull the audience into the belief, that there are religious fanatics at work here like we've seen them a thousand times on TV and congregating in the living room of our neighbor's house. The "show them something ordinary and at the end reveal that they have witnessed something extraordinary"-formula usually works better in the short form. Here, the cult's religion is not intriguing enough to merit any second thoughts as to whether their predictions about an imminent doomsday might actually be true and grounded in hard evidence. ***imminent spoiler ahead*** Finally, when that doomsday arrives - oops? did I spoil anything? - it's a mere afterthought to a poorly digested potpourri of religious fanaticism and spiritual sci-fi. Thus, it also confirms my impression upon viewing the "The Blair Witch Project", namely, that its strength comes from its fraudulent direction, since, there was no direction at all. Unfortunately, for Sánchez and Myrick that means that they will be forever condemned to have directed only one great movie, which is great only because it pretends not to have been directed at all. That might turn out to be the true curse of the Blair Witch.
Obviously, the Hollywood producers didn't trust the film-making skills of the "Blair Witch" creators, since, they both have been virtually inactive in the new millennium so far. Still, it seems that Myrick had enough time on his hands to hatch a few cinematic eggs. Since last year, he was not only producing "Rest Stop" (which I kind of liked) but also directed another three feature length movies ("The Objective", "Solstice" and "The Strand"). Although, it remains to be seen whether they will make it beyond a straight-to-video release. As for "Believers" it pretty much follows the formula of "The Blair Witch Project", but while the twist in that movie consisted of surpassing our fear that the witch was real in "Believers" we are introduced to a bunch of frauds that in the very end... I really don't want to spoil it for you here, because the movie has not much else going for it than the twist ending, and even that twist is paper thin, almost as if Kevin Costner at the end of "Water World" had found out that he belonged to the latest Sea World attraction (no, it's actually not THAT bad). The story of "Believers" is about two paramedics who are on an emergency call to rescue a woman lying conveniently in front of a gas station, having some sort of a heart attack. Subsequently, David Vaughn and his partner Victor are abducted by a bunch of weirdos who take them inside an old bunker where their fellow cult members reside. I forgot the name of the cult, it's probably some Greek letter of the alphabet. From there on, it's pretty much business as usual. There's the sinister end of the world cult and it's mysterious cult leader, lots of teaching and indoctrination, members who try to escape but are caught (the woman with the heart attack and here little daughter), some attempted brainwashing of the paramedics, large gas canisters with the required bio-hazard warnings all over them and a lot of mumbo jumbo about numbers and how God can be found in science and such. The story arch, if you can call it that, largely consists of Vaughn's partner Victor having a spiritual crisis and slowly turning over to the dark side (hey, it's a character driven movie!). A lot of hokey acting is involved in that process and finally culminates in a scene where Victor gets to bang a hot cult member chick. Well, who can resist the power of love? Overall, this is a fairly weak effort to give a new spin on the old evil suicide cult story, which would have worked a lot better as a short movie instead of a feature length film. The material is too second rate and the actor's are too third rate to carry this anywhere but the nearest lowest price blockbuster bargain bin. There is too much focus on the twist ending and not enough substance to sustain it. In order for the twist to succeed the movie has to lull the audience into the belief, that there are religious fanatics at work here like we've seen them a thousand times on TV and congregating in the living room of our neighbor's house. The "show them something ordinary and at the end reveal that they have witnessed something extraordinary"-formula usually works better in the short form. Here, the cult's religion is not intriguing enough to merit any second thoughts as to whether their predictions about an imminent doomsday might actually be true and grounded in hard evidence. ***imminent spoiler ahead*** Finally, when that doomsday arrives - oops? did I spoil anything? - it's a mere afterthought to a poorly digested potpourri of religious fanaticism and spiritual sci-fi. Thus, it also confirms my impression upon viewing the "The Blair Witch Project", namely, that its strength comes from its fraudulent direction, since, there was no direction at all. Unfortunately, for Sánchez and Myrick that means that they will be forever condemned to have directed only one great movie, which is great only because it pretends not to have been directed at all. That might turn out to be the true curse of the Blair Witch.