Believers (2007)

You won't be disappointed!

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

As one reviewer said before me, it's a low budget, not horror but more like thriller-sci-fi movie with average towards good acting.Also there are some non-logical scenes and moves but the overall impression of the film is good.The main theme and plot is actually a good and interesting idea... a cult religion (on the other hand contrary) based on mathematics and scientific proof that leads people to a better place. Movie would be by far better if it had more budget and effects, nevertheless it's interesting enough.The end of the movie is a quite surprise!

I didn't have high hopes for this movie after seeing the two previous and awful offerings from Raw Feed. But this one is actually very good. We start by watching a TV interview of a member of a cult called Quanta Group who explains to some foolish and silly interviewer what the group is all about. And he sure seems brainwashed although nice and soft-spoke.Next we meet a group of paramedics in a fire station. One of them just finds out that he's going to be a father when a call comes in and he and his friend have to answer it.They arrive at a public phone near an old gas station where a woman is lying on the ground and her young daughter immediately warns the paramedics to hurry up because "they are coming." The woman goes into cardiac arrest and as the paramedics are about to resuscitate her heart and notice that she has numbers tattooed all over her chest, a bunch of crazies wielding rifles arrive in an old truck. In the dispute that follows, one of the paramedics is shot in the shoulder and in the end all four are kidnapped by these people.They are taken to some underground facility, where megaphones constantly play some type of speech/mantra. The woman is taken away and the three others are places in restrooms stalls where the walls are completely covered in mathematical written. Eventually our paramedics are taken to a room and told by the same cult member who did the interview what they are all about and wants them to join the group. Later, the leader of the group called the Teacher, played fantastically by Daniel Benzali, speaks to them and takes their questions via mic and speakers.The woman is healed with by touch of hands of the other cult members and the shot paramedic is more open to what they have to say than the soon-to-be-dad. Eventually, the woman will convert the shot one. While the other one stays a skeptic till the end.What is the cult all about: the Teacher has discovered or been given the Formula, which represents undeniable truth. It warns of impending doom and that the group cannot be left behind. They will leave this sphere and after some event for which they are all preparing will be transported to some other level of existence.Eventually, the inevitable event, for which they are preparing and which we anticipate happens: all the cult members go in a freezer room and open gas containers. But some of our characters will be outside of the freezer and survive this.A month later we meet the survivors again on a regular morning. But something is going on outside, everyone in the neighborhood goes out to see what is happening. And it is a very interesting and surprising turn of events.This move is very good. The acting by Johnny Messner, Daniel Benzali, the main cult members, and the little girl Saige Ryan Campbell is outstanding. One can see the budget limitation in the sets and the lack of action, but despite this movie going at a slower pace, it is captivating enough to keep your attention. The script is surprisingly smart: there's mention of transcendent states of consciousness, time, theoretical physics, ontology, etc. I would have to watch it again to see if it the worldview of the cult is entirely coherent or not. It didn't seem like it was. But there's some very interesting and intelligent material here. Also, there are some great Special Features on the DVD. Not the usual annoying 5 minute cast interviews mixed with 15 minutes of movie scenes. Rather we have extended part of the movie, that I think could been added to the original film. There is an extended interview of the cult member, a monologue of the teacher, a description of the facility, a fascinating mathematical explanation of what they believe in, and a forensic report of the investigation by the police the morning after the cult takes part in the event.

Is that a weird freaky cultist being interviewed on the telly? Welcome to the world of Believers.It has to be said that this film isn't bad but… it isn't great either.After the early introduction of a TV interview the action moves to the County Fire Department, the fire chief telling one of our heroes, Victor, to, "eat his own lunch" – obviously a problem in this fire house. Acting at the beginning is of numerous types of wood. Fortunately Victor and Dave (two of the less wooden ones) get sent off to deal with a woman who fainted.I don't really know the structure of County Fire Departments in the US but do they really do ambulance work? Here they find a mother and daughter (the best actor in the film) the mother having tattoos that Victor notes "Never seen tattoo's like that before", possibly because they were drawn on with a marker.Then suddenly the evil garage owner has rung the cultists and they turn up and take them captive. Why the garage owner waited until now to contact them and why the cultists take them with them is unknown, but take them they do.We then enter the conversion phase where they try and convince them, indeed this is the main part of the movie.Oh I forgot Victor is shot. Not terminally.Dave makes some abysmally weak attempts to test the wire mesh and you wonder why he doesn't brace himself against the wall and kick it through. You also wonder why he doesn't use the cistern lid. (Carefully removed in the other cells).We go back to the girls mother who goes through full conversion while the cultists complain that her daughter shouldn't be here (erm… put her somewhere else).Then back to Dave, Victor a completely unconcerned Fire Chief, even though his men have been missing for ages and the obligatory Dave's wife ringing him to find out where he is shot. You wonder how long the emergency services are going to wait before reacting. I also thought emergency vehicles had tracers.Dave continues to fail to note he has a cistern lid to use as a weapon. Victor's strong faith seems to be put to the test with the merest nod of his history being revealed and the viewer is possibly left a bit perplexed by why they might be watching this.As the Chief comes to find his men the garage attendant uses a monkey wrench to disable the radio – which part of this cult of elite scientists did he belong to – and then takes out the chief who manages to miss a huge fire vehicle in a garage at point blank range for longer than any normal human.The big cheese finally talks to Dave and Victor to reveal Victor trained as a priest. Victor is alarmed and wonders how he knew as he has not told anyone. I assume the church keep records.On return to the cells Dave fails to use the cistern lid again and then tells them to stitch Victor's bullet wound – a puncture wound shouldn't be stitched.Victor then falls for the old conversion by sex routine (the girls mother and general titillation for some watching) and Dave finally after another pathetic attempt to break from his cell finally does what the audience wants and uses the cistern lid. Hooray.Rebecca (mother) sure fire conversion seems to be failing (possibly being used as a sex tool by these great minds) and I began to ask exactly why the cult needed her and her daughter back.However they make an escape, Dave and Libby (daughter) and drive the ambulance for what seems a few yards, driving onto a dirt track – why not stay on the road? – to find a view over the city. Again weren't they miles out and hard to find. The four wheel drive vehicle then gets stuck in dirt. Well they had to be captured somehow! The leader (called "Teacher") who initially said he couldn't see anyone due to infection is suddenly out amongst his people and tells Dave that they, "Don't kill" ending his rant with the fact that he'll "see he (Dave) is put to sleep." Vic's sexual exploits have obviously taken their toll as he is now in a wheelchair and has had the fastest tattoo (cult symbol on back of neck that represents their individualism in the universe – or it's just a Greek letter!) obviously that marker again.They escape, except Victor who can't break the conditioning – no wonder he failed as a priest. They had to really and social services leave Libby in Dave's care, because you would wouldn't you? The ending is good, I want to know which film they nicked the special effect from and all in all the films not bad.Music and direction are more than adequate but someone should have looked into the continuity and filed off all the sharp edges that didn't make sense.You're always limited by your budget and they used it well and the end product is enjoyable but by no means perfect.

The paramedics David Vaughn (Johnny Messner) and Victor (Jon Huertas) receive an emergency call from the girl Libby (Saige Ryan Campbell) in a remote gas station. While trying to save her mother Deborah (Elizabeth Godush), they are abducted by members of the sect Quanta Group, composed by scientists, philosophers and mathematicians that foresee the end of the world after a meteor shower. Their leader The Teacher (Daniel Benzali) converts Vic to his cult, but the reluctant David resists and faces a weird mystery."Believers" is an above average B-movie with a very intriguing story, but also flawed since there are some points that are not well-explained or developed. The greatest flaw is the lack of a reasonable explanation why David and Vic are kidnapped in the gas station. It would be certainly easier to leave the paramedics inside the firemen's ambulance on the road, the same way they did with their boss. How Deborah was resurrected and how The Teachers knew personal details of the lives of David and Vic is open, but may be well explained with the fire in the sky in the last scene meaning that The Teacher was really a powerful entity. I understand that the formula was the deadly gas, but it is not clear. I am a fan of original and low-budget movies, and in the end I liked this refreshing story. The direction and the acting are great, and I believe there are some unfair reviews in IMDb, probably from users that like commercial and easy to understand movies. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Fórmula Fatal" ("Fatal Formula")