The Believers, director John Schlesinger’s (Marathon Man) finely crafted, modern-day supernatural thriller, stars Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now), Helen Shaver (Desert Hearts) and Robert Loggia (Scarface).

Following the tragic death of his wife, psychologist Cal Jamison (Sheen) and his young son Chris (Harley Cross, Someone to Watch Over Me) relocate from Minneapolis to New York City to start a new life. Enlisted by Lt. McTaggert (Loggia) to help solve a baffling suicide case involving voodoo, Cal soon finds himself in the middle of an investigation with ties to a Caribbean religious cult and a series of ritualistic murders that will place him and those he loves in grave danger.

The Believers, based on the Nicholas Conde novel The Religion, is written for the screen by Mark Frost (co-creator of Twin Peaks), photographed by Robby Müller (Paris, Texas) and co-stars Jimmy Smits (TV’s NYPD Blue), Harris Yulin (Another Woman), Richard Masur (The Thing), and Elizabeth Wilson (The Graduate).

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A police psychologist and his school-age son become embroiled in the machinations of a mysterious cult religion in this thriller from director John Schlesinger. After his wife is electrocuted in a freak accident, Dr. Cal Jamison (Martin Sheen) and his son, Chris (Harley Cross), move back to Manhattan, where Cal went to school. When not spending time with his son and surrogate extended family -- husband-and-wife anthropologists Kate (Elizabeth Wilson) and Dennis Maslow (Lee Richardson) -- Cal settles into his new job and romances his landlady, Jessica Halliday (Helen Shaver). Soon, though, a series of brutal murders of young children begins to take over Cal's life. Through the ravings of policeman Tom Lopez (Jimmy Smits), who believes the killers have supernatural power over him after stealing his badge, Cal learns of Santeria, a voodoo-like Latin American sect that mixes elements of Christianity and pagan mysticism. Although the religion turns out to have ties to some of the richest men in the city and even Cal's well-meaning maid seems to be a practitioner, he can't get any straight answers as to whether the cult is responsible for the murders. But after a sinister African shaman (Malick Bowens) places a curse on Jessica, Cal finally begins to understand the danger that faces him -- and his son. The Believers was very loosely adapted from Nicholas Conde's 1982 novel The Religion.