Laserdisc Title: "THE BELIEVERS"
Edition: Fullscreen Edition (Single Disc)
Directed By: John Schlesinger
Starring: Martin Sheen, Helen Shaver, Robert Loggia, Richard Masur, Harley Cross
Special Features: ---none---
Production / Year: 1987 Orion Pictures Corporation
Running Time: 114 Minutes / Color
Audio Format: Hi-Fi Dolby Stereo, CX Encoded
Video Format: NTSC, CLV (Extended Play)
Miscellaneous Features: Rated R, Closed Captioned
Distributed By: HBO Video
Catalog / Spine Number: IDHBO 0034
Genre: Horror / Fantasy / Thriller

IMPORTANT: This is a 12-inch Diameter Laserdisc, which is NOT the same as DVD and cannot be played on a DVD player!

Cosmetic Condition:
Disc (s): Very Good - Few very light to very minor hairline surface swirls or very light fingerprint marks
Jacket: Very Good - Normal shelf wear, creases, light scuffs, OOP punch hole, slightly worn-out corners or edges but no obvious signs of spines splitting

Synopsis:

John Schlesinger's The Believers, a kind of voodoo twist on Rosemary's Baby, is a horror movie where the echoes of otherworldly menace set the tone of terror, but the real evil comes from the hearts of humans. Recently widowed psychologist Martin Sheen moves to New York with his emotionally fragile son, and they become entwined in an underground cult that practices ritual sacrifice of children. Schlesinger is more interested in the human tale of loss and healing and the desperation of a grieving father fighting to protect his only child from a barbarous cabal. He favors mood and menace over spectacular splashes of horror, and even those moments of occult attack are directed with a sly sense of ambiguity. Though overlong and short on moments of genuine terror, this is a rare horror movie grounded in the palpable and powerful emotions of its characters.

True, it might have helped feed the frenzy of anti-Wiccan, look behind every repressed childhood memory for pentagrams and blood chalices evidence in numerous '80s court cases, but as cinema, it is a very powerful, scary flick. One can only empathize with what the parents, played by Helen Shaver and Martin Sheen, go through, in the course of the movie. Both are highly convincing in their parts and the script doesn't venture into the banal or the ridiculous, so we the audience are caught up in their dilemma. They are powerless over the forces of darkness, and it is that feeling of hopelessness and dread, which really digs deep into the viewer's psyche, particularly if one is a parent, him/herself.

It's an accumulative "you are there," "imagine yourself in their shoes" experiment in terror. The result is one of the best horror films of the decade.

To give away anything in the way of plot would be a huge disservice to potential viewers. Suffice it to say that the acting is uniformly excellent. You're in the hands of a director who knows how and when to build suspense. At no point do you have to strain to willingly suspend disbelief. Shades of "Rosemary's Baby," but no wholesale lifting. Certainly a lot more believable than "Eyes Wide Shut" in the Devil Worshipping scenes. Belongs in every horror afficianado's collection.

THIS IS NOT A DVD!!! THIS IS A 12" LASERDISC AND WILL NOT PLAY IN A DVD PLAYER


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