1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Analysis

4. Release
    Controversy  Critical response 

5. References
    Notes 

6. External links

• Martin Sheen
• Helen Shaver
• Robert Loggia
• Richard Masur
• Harley Cross
• Jimmy Smits

Plot

The film opens to the death scene of Lisa Jamison (Janet-Laine Green). She is electrocuted when she touches a malfunctioning coffeemaker while standing barefoot in a pool of spilled milk.^[3] Following the accidental death of his wife by electrocution in Minneapolis, psychologist Cal Jamison (Martin Sheen) moves to New York City with his son Chris (Harley Cross). He finds employment as a police psychologist for the New York City Police Department. One of his patients is officer Tom Lopez, who worked undercover in infiltrating a cult and now lives in fear of the cultists.^[4]

The City soon experiences a series of brutal, ritualistic child murders, supposedly committed by members of an Hispanic cult practicing a malevolent version of brujería. The paranoid ramblings of Lopez start seeming relevant to the case. The film soon starts hinting at a conspiracy involving affluent New Yorkers, such as businessman Robert Calder. Things take a turn for the worse when the cult targets Chris Jamison.^[5]

Cast

• Martin Sheen as Cal Jamison
• Helen Shaver as Jessica Halliday
• Harley Cross as Chris Jamison
• Robert Loggia as Lieutenant Sean McTaggert
• Jimmy Smits as Tom Lopez
• Malick Bowens as Palo
• Elizabeth Wilson as Kate Maslow
• Harris Yulin as Robert Calder
• Lee Richardson as Dennis Maslow
• Richard Masur as Marty Wertheimer
• Carla Pinza as Carmen Ruiz
• Janet-Laine Green as Lisa Jamison
• Raúl Dávila as Oscar Sezine
• Geoffrey Kellett as Paramedic

Analysis

Barna William Donovan notes that there were several Satanic-themed Hollywood films in the 1970s. Citing as examples The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen film series (1976-1991). But he also noted that Hollywood seemed to have lost interest in the subject by the 1980s. He cites The Believers as one of only two noteworthy films about Devil worship created in the 1980s, the other one being Angel Heart (1987). Though he notes that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) also touched on the similar subject of a demon-worshiping cult, which abducts children and offers human sacrifices.^[6]

He points out that Angel Heart was a period piece set in the 1940s, and so fantastic that it limited its connections to the contemporary world of the 1980s "and its fundamentalist paranoias", while The Believers was set in that contemporary world. The villains were not, however, worshipers of the Judeo-Christian Satan. Instead they were practitioners of Santería, the legitimate Afro-Caribbean religion depicted in the film as "a cult of evil that condones human sacrifice".^[6] Neither film approached the subject of the 1980s hysteria over Satanic ritual abuse, a conspiracy theory which generated sensationalist headlines in this decade. Donovan concludes that Hollywood distanced itself from the subject matter, probably because child sexual abuse was deemed an unfit subject for popcorn entertainment.^[6]

According to John Kenneth Muir, the message of the film is that yuppies would do anything for success, including calling upon dark gods.^[7] Muir points similarities to The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972), as both films fear ethnicity. For example, in The Believers, a cleaning woman working for the Jamisons tries to protect Chris by using a benevolent version of Santeria. Cal fails to distinguish between good and evil magic and treats her as a threat.^[8] The film depicts Manhattan as a place where alien cultures merge and the Christian white man has reasons to fear the pagans, who may come for his children. As such, it plays on a fear for the ethic, racial, and religious Other.^[9]

The film is more typical of its decade in the negative depiction of the upper class of New York City. The cultists turn out to be members of this social class which literally sacrifice their children in exchange for "fame, wealth, and power". Their success and upward mobility is based not on business acumen, but their practice of Santeria. Muir sees this as a literal interpretation of a familiar phrase, voodoo economics.^[13]

Muir notes a few similarities with Rosemary's Baby (1968). An evil cult is depicted as active in a modern city, hiding in plain sight. And a couple of limousine liberal friends of the Jamisons are revealed to be cultists in their own right.^[14]

For Muir, the highlight of the film involves the depiction of a voodoo-like curse. Jessica Halliday (Helen Shaver) accidentally leaves her compact in a bathroom while snooping around in Calder's office. By the time she retrieves it, it has become a cursed item. While using it, something "gets under her beautiful skin". It manifests as a boil, which gets progressively redder and more inflamed. Finally it swells to capacity, and spiders start emerging from the boil's interior.^[15]

Release

Controversy

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Believers holds an approval rating of 31%, based on 16 reviews, and an average rating of 4.6/10.^[17]

However, not all reviews of the film were negative.

Hal Hinson from The Washington Post gave the film a mostly positive review, writing, "The Believers is a 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."^[20] Author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, calling it "Gripping", and "genuinely frightening".{{sfn|Maltin|2012|pp=108}} Brett Gallman from Oh, the Horror praised the film, writing, "While The Believers feels familiar on a surface level, its use of Santeria mythology and Schlesinger's deft blend of suspense and graphic shocks provide enough flavor to separate it from the flock."^[21]

References

• {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Donovan|first=Barna William|title=Conspiracy Films: A Tour of Dark Places in the American Conscious|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJkhqU1IXHAC&pg=PA130|date=10 January 2014|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-8615-1}}
• {{citation | last=Garcia | first=Guy| title=The Believers: Cult Murders in Mexico | year=1989 | publisher=Rolling Stone Press| url =https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/the-believers-19890629}}
• {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Ebert|first=Roger|title=I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwXuJCuQ6q4C&pg=PA37|date=5 February 2013|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|isbn=978-0-7407-9248-9}}
• {{cite book|ref=harv|last1=Maltin|first1=Leonard|last2=Carson|first2=Darwyn|title=Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lx2OtgAACAAJ|year=2012|publisher=Signet|isbn=978-0-451-23774-3}}
• {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Muir|first=John Kenneth|title=Horror Films of the 1980s|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VJ1vcmaOd7wC&pg=PA559|date=28 July 2010|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-5501-0}}
• {{cite book|ref=harv|last1=Olupona|first1=Jacob Kẹhinde|last2=Rey|first2=Terry|title=Òrìşà Devotion as World Religion: The Globalization of Yorùbá Religious Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QlW3ZMxrCKMC&pg=PA366|year=2008|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-22464-6}}

Notes

External links

• {{AFI film|57550|The Believers}}
• {{Amg movie|4730|The Believers}}
• {{IMDb title|0092632|The Believers}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|the_believers_1987|The Believers}}

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