Laurence Lerman

Behind the Believers
July 5, 2007

The made-for-DVD horror flick Believers was a produced in a whirlwind 15-day film shoot, and director Daniel Myrick, co-creator of The Blair Witch Project, and star Johnny Messner are quite proud of the final product. Warner Home Video bows Believers, the third installment of its Raw Feed label, this fourth quarter. Believers follows the inner-workings of a cult  which is preparing for the end of the world.

“It was a very, very low budget, but we did our best to make it look like we spent a lot more money than we had,” said Myrick during a Q&A following a June 21 screening of the film at Minnesota’s Solstice Film Festival. “We used a desktop system – all of the effects were done on a Mac. It was pretty much a down and dirty approach.”

Myrick added, “Hats off to the actors who nailed it in 2 or 3 takes. We had to shoot 8 or 9 pages a day, so you have to get it done.”

Messner learned something new about himself during the project. Initially, he thought the subject of cults was interesting but something that doesn’t seriously impact him.

“We can be manipulated,” he admits. “I personally am an alpha male, and I never thought that I could be manipulated. But we have moments in life, where someone can suck you in.”

Myrick hopes that Believers viewers are similarly transformed, where they understand that cults are relevant to their current lives.

“You might have a perception of what cults are, but this turns it on its head,” said Myrick. “One person’s cult might be another person’s religion might be another person’s football team. I wanted to play around with all that a little bit.”—Susanne Ault

Posted by Laurence Lerman on July 5, 2007 | Comments (0)