Have you ever been to the movie theater and liked the film, but some idiots in the audience kinda spoiled everything? Because THE BELIEVER is a bit like that.
In general, I'd say that the premise and the twist aren't bad at all, the execution is solid and the pacing is good - not bad for a low-budget flick like this. But there are aspects that do their best to spoil the whole thing.
First, there is Sophie Kargman. While she does an alright job at being annoying and creepy, her mumbling delivery constantly drags you out of the movie, trying to understand what she's actually saying. It doesn't help that they apparently had no sound engineer on set, since almost all the dialogue sounds like a camera mic through too much denoiser. Honestly, the denoising is so bad that it swallows whole syllables at times. The dialogue editors even made a very audible mistake in the online video of Billy Zane giving a talk. Pretty amateurish, to be honest.
Then, there are incredibly stupid lines like "Logic is the guardian of faith" and similar pseudo-philosophical deepities. Actually, the first ten minutes were full of irrational babbling like that, making me think about aborting prematurely. Yes, pun intended.
But no, I pulled through, and once the film picks up some speed, it fares pretty well. And even if the jump scares fell flat for the most part, I still thought that at least the third act was quite compelling.
All in all, THE BELIEVER is a bit of a slow burner with a lot of a lot of pointless and stupid gum flapping in the beginning. The distracting dialogue issues are hurting the film a lot, but if you are a patient and yearning lover of the supernatural, you might find some enjoyment here.
In general, I'd say that the premise and the twist aren't bad at all, the execution is solid and the pacing is good - not bad for a low-budget flick like this. But there are aspects that do their best to spoil the whole thing.
First, there is Sophie Kargman. While she does an alright job at being annoying and creepy, her mumbling delivery constantly drags you out of the movie, trying to understand what she's actually saying. It doesn't help that they apparently had no sound engineer on set, since almost all the dialogue sounds like a camera mic through too much denoiser. Honestly, the denoising is so bad that it swallows whole syllables at times. The dialogue editors even made a very audible mistake in the online video of Billy Zane giving a talk. Pretty amateurish, to be honest.
Then, there are incredibly stupid lines like "Logic is the guardian of faith" and similar pseudo-philosophical deepities. Actually, the first ten minutes were full of irrational babbling like that, making me think about aborting prematurely. Yes, pun intended.
But no, I pulled through, and once the film picks up some speed, it fares pretty well. And even if the jump scares fell flat for the most part, I still thought that at least the third act was quite compelling.
All in all, THE BELIEVER is a bit of a slow burner with a lot of a lot of pointless and stupid gum flapping in the beginning. The distracting dialogue issues are hurting the film a lot, but if you are a patient and yearning lover of the supernatural, you might find some enjoyment here.