This is that rare thing, a genuinely scary contemporary American horror thriller film. Psychologist (Martin Sheen) loses his wife in a tragic accident, later he and his son move to a new location. The gruesome murders of young boys are discovered by authorities (Martin Sheen) is called in when at one of the murder scenes a young very distraught latino cop (Jimmy Smits) is found rambling and praying in Spanish it is learned that something he knows is scaring him and making him fear for his life after discovering that the murdered boys were sacrifices used by a murderous demonic voodoo cult.Although a thriller, and a disturbing one at that, this is also a meditation on how people who are searching or in need of something outside of their regular lives, can be easily sucked into dangerous ideology. It can be terrorism, racism, or anarchism; here, it is a religious cult. This film takes the viewer into the mysterious world of "Santeria", which is a rich and colorful religion that is a blend of Afro-Cuban Religion combined with traditional Catholic religious beliefs. Many of the Catholic European saints are matched with native animals or values. The religion is fascinating though the film is for the most part drama, it is without question a Primer on the subject. The ending is improbable, to say the least, but if you're interested in a movie with a lot of twists and turns, this one is fun to watch. Be warned, however, that its basic premise is flawed, and the film casts a serious and unwarranted slur on the religion of Santería.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Although a thriller, and a disturbing one at that, this is also a meditation on how people who are searching or in need of something outside of their regular lives, can be easily sucked into dangerous ideology. It can be terrorism, racism, or anarchism; here, it is a religious cult. Robert Loggia and Martin Sheen are a Police Lieuetenant and a Psychotherapist, respectively, who investigate when an NYPD detective goes off the rails after finding the body of an eight year old boy on a sacrificial altar. The deeper they go, the more personal it gets, until Sheen's own eight year old son, played by Harley Cross, is caught up in the affair.

Cal Jamison (Martin Sheen) loses his wife in an accidental electrocution. He moves with his son Chris to NYC as a psychiatrist for the police department. Jessica Halliday (Helen Shaver) is their landlady. His lawyer Marty Wertheimer (Richard Masur) wants to sue the coffeemaker company. Lt. McTaggert (Robert Loggia) investigates a child murder with disturbed undercover cop Tom Lopez (Jimmy Smits) at the scene. Lopez is convinced that some unknown group will kill him and tries to shoot himself. Cal is called in to investigate the voodoo murder. Palo (Malick Bowens) is the ever present voodoo evil. Cal's housekeeper tries to protect the family with her good voodoo.The use of religion is going to anger some people and color some reviews. I guess almost any movie can cause offense if taken that way. It starts off as a crime thriller. It seems to go slowly but methodically. Then it turns more towards horror and it's quite effective. There are some good voodoo horrors. The two hours running time is a little long but it's got some good creepy scares.

Martin Sheen plays police psychologist Cal Jamison, who moves to New York with his young son after the sudden accidental death of his wife(vividly shown early on!) He soon is called into a case involving voodoo cult rituals involving the death of chickens, but soon discovers that they want to escalate things with sacrificing children, which will include his own son... Helen Shaver plays his potential love interest, who also becomes a target by the cult.Mediocre thriller has a sensational opening, but soon becomes overly convoluted and unbelievable, though the actors are fine, and director John Schlesinger does create some effective atmosphere, the problems are too many to overcome.