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The Problem with Believers - Some Thoughts about a Horror Movie

It’s October again.  Wow how the year disappears.  But October means monster / horror movies. Actually, I watch scary movies all throughout the year, but in October I like to try to write a little bit about them.  I have in the past tried to watch and then write about one every day of the month, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do that much this year.  Still, I’ll get up as many as I can.

Last night I watched the 1987 film The Believers starring Martin Sheen, Helen Shaver, Robert Loggia, and Jimmy Smits.  The Believers was based on the 1982 novel The Religion by Nicholas Conde. It’s not the greatest movie ever made – it’s not even the greatest horror movie ever made – but it’s not a terrible movie, even if Rodger Ebert hated, hated, hated it (Ebert, 36 – 38).

The film concerns police psychologist, Cal Jamison (Sheen), who, after the recent death of his wife, has returned to New York City with his son.  He soon finds himself involved with the investigation of a series of ritualistic murders of children linked to an Afro-Cuban cult brujeria “witchcraft” - with strong similarities to Santeria.  The movie is more of a thriller than a horror film – but it does have a bit of a Rosemary’s Baby kind of twist toward the end.

The Believers is part of that “satanic panic” that gripped the United States in the 80s – an irrational fear that Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) was happening in every city and every town across America.  But in The Belivers it’s not Satanism, but Santeria (or something like Santeria) that is to be feared.

Even if I disagree with him about the quality of The Believers, one of Ebert’s complaints about the movie is valid:  “Every voodoo[i] movie that has ever been made has depicted bloodthirsty cults of savagely sadistic murderers vengefully thirsting for innocent blood (Ebert, 37)

There is some attempt in The Believers to separate the authentic practice of Santeria –which does involve animal, but not human, sacrifice – from the ritualistic murders being committed by this Santeria like cult, but the distinction isn’t drawn very well and for those already predisposed to see evil in every stranger’s face, this movie would likely confirm their suspicions. 

On the other hand – the evil in this film isn’t the savage, benighted immigrants practicing a heathen religion – it is the seemingly decent, rich, white folks who have, in an act of cultural appropriation created a horrifically literal expression of the 80s “voodoo economics,” sacrificing their children for the promise of wealth and power and fame (Muir, 559).

As I watched this film I was reminded of something that Reza Aslan said in a recent interview on CNN.  When asked if Islam promotes violence, he answered: “Islam doesn't promote violence or peace. Islam is just a religion, and like every religion in the world, it depends on what you bring to it. If you're a violent person, your Islam, your Judaism, your Christianity, your Hinduism is going to be violent. There are Buddhist -- marauding Buddhist monks in Myanmar slaughtering women and children. Does Buddhism promote violence? Of course not. People are violent or peaceful. And that depends on their politics, their social world, the way that they see their communities, the way they see themselves.”  (transcript here)

Ebert, Roger, I Hated, Hated, Hated this Movie, Kansas City, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2000.

Muir, John Kenneth, Horror Films of the 1980s, Jefferson City, North Carolina, McFarland and Co. Publishing, Inc. 2007.

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[i] Voodoo (or more accurately Vodou or Vodoun) and Santeria are similar in many respects, and are often confused, but they are different and separate religions.

Biblical Limericks: Yom Kippur

Now do not be silly or flip or
profane, but today we must skip o’er
food, sex, and leather shoes,
for this is how we Jews
keep and commemorate Yom Kippur.

Leviticus 16: 29, 23: 27


Yom Kippur begins tomorrow at sundown.  I post this limerick today because it's silly  and I wouldn't want that silliness to mar the solemnity of that holiest day of the Jewish year.  

Newton Courthouse

Some time ago my brother left me an odd little lens - n Super Albinar 80 - 205mm zoom lens.  I've not found a lot of information about this particular brand online.  It was made in Korea. Nevertheless, I did order an adapter ring so that I could fit it to my Canon T4i camera body.






It's not the fanciest lens.  But it's decent, and produces some pretty good pictures. This is the Newton, Iowa court house building from about three blocks away.
Newton Capital by Jeff Carter on 500px

I'm not a Bastard this Week, But I still Need Work

  

Last week, after returning home from my English Composition class, I wrote a little bit about how I had to be a cruel, heartless bastard in the peer editing process of one of our assignments.  And in so doing, I revealed something of my own need for a cruel, heartless bastard to edit my work…  Feel free to mock me, if you would like to do so.

This week’s peer editing session was altogether different.  We were required to have our essays examined by another classmate. I didn’t have to mark up every. single. sentence. of the paper I read tonight- which came as some relief to me.  I really don’t want everyone in the class to think I’m a jerk.

But what really amused me about tonight’s session was the way that my partner and I gave polar advice to each other.  His paper was strong in detail and expression, had some few problems with mechanics, but was a good beginning to a powerful emotional essay.  But when it came time for his “universal reflections” (for our essays are to include both personal and universal reflections) it was as if this fine emotionally compelling narrative came to a screaming halt so he could say, “I think the world should learn X, Y, and Z from my experience.”   (I’m paraphrasing, of course, but you get the idea…)

“Is there,” I asked him, “a way to weave these reflections in more seamlessly?” 

Conversely, when he finished reading my paper he said, “The universal reflections are in there, but they’re so blended in, it’s hard to separate them.”

And he’s right.