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.

What happens when an acclaimed A-listed director like John Schlesinger ("Midnight Cowboy", "Marathon Man") and an acclaimed A-listed actor like Martin Sheen ("Apocalypse Now", "Badlands") decide together to cash in on the contemporary popular trend of making a religiously themed horror movie? Sadly – but predictably – this results in a pretentious, dreadfully overlong and ridiculous piece of melodramatic soap-opera schlock! Back in the era of pioneering cinema, there were a handful of titles – "I walked with a Zombie" and "White Zombie" to name just two – that put forward the theme of voodoo as something uniquely macabre and nightmarish, but ever since the 1980's, many directors mistakenly assume that it is horrifying enough just to insert images of bloody headless chicken corpses and African tribes performing silly dance rituals. Schlesinger makes the exact same mistake and, atop of that, also adds far too many family drama sub plots and redundant detective elements. The opening sequences are supposed to be tragic and heart-wrenching but (and maybe it's just me?) I found them quite imbecilic and banal. Police psychiatrist Cal Jamison loses his wife in a far-fetched kitchen accident – malfunctioning coffee machines and spilled milk do not go well together – and moves to the center of New York with his 7-year-old son. What follows is an irritating series of clichéd situations, since daddy falls in love with the new landlady but obviously doesn't want to neglect his traumatized little boy. Meanwhile, his job also drags him into a spider web of intrigues regarding the Santerío-religion. This strange religion worships African spirits in the shape of Christian Gods (or something like it, I don't know) and has quite a few of influential disciples in NY. The lives of innocent young boys are sacrificed in favor of obnoxious rich adults and, because he sticks his nose too much in the voodoo business, Jamison's own son is suddenly in danger as well. Unlike Alan Parker in the superior "Angel Heart", John Schlesinger didn't have the balls to show any controversial themes or shocking images. However, if you happen to fancy tedious and confusing dialogs, dull sentimental interludes, a complete lack of atmosphere or tension and weak performances from usually reliable actors (besides Sheen also Robert Loggia, Harris Yulin and Jimmy Smits), then you absolutely must see "The Believers". I'm required to admit there are two memorable highlights as well, though. There's one marvelous, but misfit, scene with eerie little spiders crawling out of a woman's jaw and also the casting of Malick Bowens as the sinister voodoo priest. His evil stare was the only thing preventing me to stop watching this garbage before it was actually finished.

I read the complaints from some of the reviews for this film on this web site and they are absolutely and completely ignorant. I'm sure these are the same people that gave "Independence Day" nine stars. Do any of these critics know how difficult it is to write screenplays let alone adapt a novel into one. This film is a wonderfully done artistic creation that relies on true acting, wonderful cinematography, excellent direction, and great screen writing. This is a quality voodoo horror film for intelligent viewers that need more than pointless deaths and nudity. Wonderfully done creation.

Covering the subject of cults, religion, Santeria or other beliefs is always intriguing and educational. The acting especially by Martin Sheen as N.Y. psychiatrist Cal, is very good.Cal loses his wife in a tragic accident, and returns to New York City where he is a psychiatric consultant for N.Y.P.D. There are some excellent scenes with Jimmy Smits, as an affected officer who goes mad, and Robert Loggia, as a veteran cop who is also affected by the "Believers", and their group.Harris Yulin is menacing and fits the bill as leader of an 80's group, ostensibly just a charity group, until Sheen uncovers something much worse.The end is rather abrupt and predictable, but the acting is first-rate (especially for Sheen) and this is worth a viewing. The theme alone has many possibilities, the ignorance and unawareness of how many different religions actually exist, and are in practice all over the world. 9/10.