The Pact 2012
The Pact 2012…
The Pact is a 2012 American horror film written and directed by Nicholas McCarthy and starring Caity Lotz and Casper Van Dien. The film was made following the success of McCarthy’s short film of the same name which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The film follows Annie, whose mother has recently died, as she tries to discover what caused her sister, Nicole, and her cousin, Liz, to disappear. The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, opening to generally favourable reviews.
– Wikipedia
I watched this last night after hearing some good reviews for it. I understand the good reviews, I really do. But, I have to disagree with them. Though I don’t want to go full hate on this film, it isn’t a truly bad horror movie. But, it’s got some issues. There was a scene that is completely misleading and when you’re making a ghost story mystery movie, you can’t do that. Mysteries are to be solved and when the film lies to the audience that’s bad writing and just wrong. There was also some characters doing really stupid things. I hate that. It’s okay for a simple slasher film that’s all about a sex and body counts. But, this is supposed to be a serious story.
One really misleading scene involves a character leaving a camera on the floor while they are looking at something else. We see a wide shot of the camera and the room beyond it. Visible is the camera’s screen also showing the room beyond it. In the camera lens we see the ghost walking across the frame but in the actual room we see nothing. It’s a nice little effect but it’s misleading. That ghost, we later discover isn’t a ghost at all. There is a ghost in the film and it’s quite possible that what we saw was supposed to be the real ghost. I call bullshit on that theory because the ghost we see is the same skinny dude that later turns out to be a real person. The only real ghost in the movie is a young women who was murdered. Not the same thing we see through the camera lens.
At the start of the film we meet Nichole played by Agnes Bruckner. She seems slightly troubled but likable. Then in typical slasher horror movie fashion she goes from being likable and smart to a complete idiot. She’s believes she’s not alone in the house. There’s an open door down the hall. We can’t see into it, complete darkness. What does she do? She slowly walks down the hall and into the very dark room. It was out of character from what we had just been led to believe about her and it was so tragically stupid of her to do that. I’m a big guy, I can handle myself, I’ve been a cop, a bouncer and a bodyguard and I wouldn’t have walked into a dark room believing someone was in there. And, if I did, I would at least be armed with knife or a bat and the first thing I would have done is to have reached in and turn on the fucking light. Not Nicole, balls of steel this woman has. Spoiler Alert!!! It didn’t work out too well for her.
Hey let’s go down into the serial killers basement, wait what? The lights suddenly go out?!
This movie has a few decent creepy parts, I will give it that. It’s just that it had the potential to be great. I am so tired of seeing wasted potential. If you’re not too picky or if you’re just not that bright, you will probably like this movie. It wasn’t horrible. It just wasn’t good. I’ve seen worse, that’s for sure. But, I can’t call this good, I just can’t. The acting was decent. I thought Caity Lotz as Annie Barlow (Nicole’s sister) was really good. Casper Van Dien as Bill Creek was also good, again not the brightest of characters but his acting was good. So much going for this film and yet it failed. Oh and I have to mention the performance of Haley Hudson as Stevie. She was really good and I have to admit that I now have a crush on her. Sure, I’m almost old enough to be her father but true love knows no bounds.
There is a sequel, I hope to watch it today. I have some videos that I need to render for my day job so I plan to do some serious horror movie watching later this afternoon and evening.
Cast of Characters:
Caity Lotz as Annie Barlow
Casper Van Dien as Bill Creek
Agnes Bruckner as Nicole Barlow
Mark Steger as Charles (“Judas”)
Haley Hudson as Stevie
Kathleen Rose Perkins as Liz
Samuel Ball as Giles
Bo Barrett as Jesse
Dakota Bright as Eva
Jeffrey T Ferguson as Officer Benson
Rachael Kahne as waitress
Santiago Segura as dishwasher
Sam Zuckerman as County Clerk
Of course I had to include a photo of my new girlfriend. Don’t judge me.