The teenagers friends Elizabeth (Kelly Carmichael), her brother Jeremy (Chase Carpenter), Jessica (Jessica Stewart), Rick (Paul Geffre) and the hothead Trey (John Patrick Jordan) have a car wreck caused by a sworn of insects. They wake up in the infirmary of the Marquez Academy, a school for troubled youths. Meanwhile, the also teenager Trina (Marianne Bennett) is drowned by a man dressing a monk cloak in a river in the woods. Her uncle and tutor Daniel (Richard Anthony Crenna) comes to the town nearby the Marquez Academy looking for his niece, and the sheriff tells him that she was found dead and eaten by coyotes in the previous night. Daniel feels that the local fears the Marquez Academy and do not give any information about the place, and he goes to the school, where he meets the headmaster Santiago (Osman Soykut) and his assistant Francis (Bridget Moore). Daniel decides to investigate the school and is informed by the voodoo priest Miss Lorita (Tessla A. Walters) that Santiago and Francis are followers of a cult brought by the slave Erzulie, protecting and worshiping two evil Hudu gods called Amanda (Erin Byron) and Zander (Brian Sheridan) that uses blood shed for resurrection and eternal life. Daniel returns to the school where he discloses the truth about the evil place.
"One of Them" has good special effects but unfortunately a terrible screenplay, lines, acting and soundtrack. The beginning of the story is absolutely confused, without any previous development of the characters or situations, and only after fifteen minutes running time it is possible to begin to understand the plot. There are many characters, and some actors and actresses are hams. There are some lines that make this film unintentionally funny in some moments. The situation of Daniel is incoherent, since his niece is left in a school for troubled youths, and only when she vanishes, he seeks information about the place where she was living. The objectives of the pointless cult and the evil Amanda and Zander in transforming people in "one of them" is never clear. My vote is four.
Yitle (Brazil): "Os Escolhidos" ("The Chosen")