Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Better Late Then Never

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

After being continually kicked out of boarding schools, Ben (Ricky Mabe) is sent to live with his stern Grandfather in a small town. While there, no one is interested in him with the exception of a girl named Kathrine (Elisha Cuthbert).Really, the only thing going for this film is the cast. Ben Gazzara is always a joy, even if he serves no real purpose in this movie (his role could have been filled by anyone). The real treat is Elisha Cuthbert. There is no way that anyone would have thought within a very short time she would become a sex symbol thanks to "The Girl Next Door" (2004).The story and everything else is rather bland, and seems like it was made for TV, possibly for young adults or children. You probably will forget you ever watched it within days.

"Believe" is somewhat decent, if a completely non-threatening horror film.**SPOILERS**Expelled from school, teenage Ben Stiles, (Ricky Mabe) is sent off to live with his grandfather Jason, (Jan Rubes) on his estate. Reprimanded for pulling his pranks, he meets neighbor Katherine Winslow, (Elisha Cuthbert) and helps her to get even with some local goons. When he gets word of their transgressions, he immediately bans them from hanging out together. As they defy the orders and continue on seeing each other, they come across a possible ghost on the property. Initially dismissed as another prank, the two decide to investigate it more. Finding that there's a reason for the haunting and work together to help the ghost get what they want.The Good News: This one here wasn't all that terrible. The fact remains that there's still some really good stuff in here when it gets to the horror attempts. The main source of fun is the excellent haunted house sequence. It's pretty inventive and creative, really goes all-out and contains some great spots that are a real joy to watch. The fact that the setting itself is really great makes it all the better, since making it work in a really lame house would be a real challenge. The only other fact that works for the film is the fact that there's some great back-story for the ghost. This here is a really creepy tale and doesn't really seem like a cliché at all. This could be a real life occurrence and winds up being one of the best things about the film. It even manages to stay watchable all the way through. There's no dull spots, it stays moving along and doesn't really stop for much. This is a pretty easy watch and isn't very taxing at all. If this is the style that's pleasurable, it can be a great time.The Bad News: This here doesn't have very many flaws. Most of what's wrong with this one is tied up simply in it's rating. There's not a whole lot of tension that can be created with such a rating. This can't get any suspense or anything really spooky or creepy that will offend it's target audiences. This can't be bothered with the real juicy details with most of the normal versions on display, and that makes for some really slow-burning times. There's hardly any scares involved as it tries to go for the family approach and doesn't even come close to doing anything about it. This failing is pretty much the only thing wrong with the film, as the rating will negate what real horror films should do.The Final Verdict: While not exactly a sterling example of the genre, it's a pretty decent film overall. Really only for those who enjoy the more light and harmless horror affairs, while those who need scares, brutality, sleaze or anything more traditional horror films have are well advised to leave this one alone.Rated PG: Mild Violence

First off, the person who commented on this movie first was wrong. The movie is about Benjamin Stiles not Thad Stiles. Thad is only in the movie for a very short time, and he plays Ben's father. It's Benjamin played by Ricky Mabe who goes to live with his grandfather who he barely knows. I just wanted to clear that up. Ok...so my review....This movie was weak, weak, weak. The premise of the entire film was completely unoriginal. A ghost pops up near some big mansion, and it turns out to be the ghost of someone very close to the family in the mansion. I have seen that movie a million times with a million different titles. The acting is horrible. It seemed as tho the director got together a few people off the street who had no acting experience and made them star in his movie. The only good thing I can say about this movie is that it's shot very nicely. It has a really great look to it, and the cinematography is well done. I know it is aimed at children, but I only figured that out after seeing it. The box in the rental store made it look like a horror film for adults, not some tame ghost story you could show on the Disney Channel. Other than the overall atmosphere the film has, the only other redeeming quality if the beautiful Elisha Cuthbert who played Katherine, and did probably the best acting job in the entire film. The movie is not a horror film as the box implies, but instead a kid's ghost story that could be very watchable by children, but no other age groups. The acting and unoriginal story will be enough to keep anyone over the age of 12 away from this movie.

Director Robert Tinnell makes "family films," and he makes them well. He has a way of exploring important issues, such as familial communication, trust and loss, by coalescing emotions into a series of subtly potent moments. Oh, and he also loves monster movies. A life-long fan of classic (and not so classic-Believe features two scenes inspired by the 1941 Bela Lugosi Monogrammer The Invisible Ghost!) horror cinema, Tinnell turned his earlier Frankenstein and Me (1996) into a touching homage to growing up with monster movies. So for those of us with children ourselves (or for the monster movie-loving child in all of us), Tinnell makes our kind of movies. And Believe is his even more polished attempt to put some fright (and insight) into family fare. "I wanted to make a film where Hardy Boys meet the Wuthering Heights, and I hope that's what I did," explained Tinnell (who also concocted the film's story line). Indeed he did, with a touch of Val Lewton thrown in for good measure.Believe centers on Ben Stiles (Ricky Mabe), the 14-year-old son of a diplomat, whose absentee parents have put him in a succession of boarding schools. Ben has a very unusual way to liven things up-he stages elaborate fright gags to scare his fellow pupils. After his latest stunt gets him expelled, he's sent to stay with his estranged grandfather (Jan Rubes), a reserved and imposing man who lives in a large, forbidding mansion. As the two try to establish some sort of relationship, Ben comes to realize that the estate is haunted by the ghost of a young woman-something the grandfather refuses to discuss. With the help of a recently orphaned girl named Katherine (Elisha Cuthbert), Ben attempts to unravel the mystery, leading to a confrontation between his grandfather and Katherine's great uncle (Ben Gazzara) over tragic events that transpired long ago and have affected their lives ever since.Tinnell fills his film with nice eerie touches; shots of a shadow on a wall, leaves rustling in the wind, and shafts of illuminating moonlight (not to mention some evocative, prowling camerawork) generate an uneasy atmosphere."My goal in this one was really to find out if I can scare people," explained Tinnell. "I'm not a guy who runs away from that label; if you point and say 'he's a horror filmmaker,' I say great. So my goal was to prove I could do that."But there's more to Tinnell's movie than just scaring young 'uns. "My other goal was to do something that would provide an entry level horror film for kids, with a positive message. And again, there's been a theme that's run through all four of my films pretty much: communication, the family. And I thought what better way to demonstrate how just not talking to one another, the damage it does to families. And I really do believe in that." Believe is really a story of families and relationships and the importance of communication-with an engrossing ghost yarn to hang these ten-gallon emotional hats on.Don't be put off by Believe's so-called target audience. "It's primarily for kids from, say, eight to fourteen-primarily," admits Tinnell. "But I like to think that children of all ages, from eight to eighty, can enjoy this film. I think the best family films-this is not a children's film, obviously-I think the best family films are the ones in which the parents are sitting and watching with the kids, which is what they should be doing anyway, but don't.. I think that it works for all ages." Indeed it does.Tinnell's heart (and, given the finished product, head) is in the right place. "I'm not going to condescend to the kids," emphasizes the director. "They deserve a good scare. Nowadays if they want to see any kind of contemporary horror, there's so much misogyny and just gratuitous bloodletting-and it's just not scary and there's no real supernaturalism. I just wanted to make a film that if I was 12 I would have loved.In the movie, Ben explains why he stages his terror tricks by observing, "People like to be scared." Yes they do, and here Tinnell has offered up his own fright frolic, with some important ideas and involving sentiments thrown in for good measure. Aimed at those monster movie lovers who've grown up and had kids of their own (as well as those who've never really grown up at all), Believe is a sometimes scary, often affecting and always entertaining movie for the whole family. And that is a rare commodity these days.