The Pact

More horror movies set in the 21st century ought to integrate technology into their scares as well as Nicholas McCarthy's The Pact.

When The Pact descends, finally, from suggestion to explication, the scares regrettably slink away.

In the end, like a lot of genre movies, this one pulls from different inspirations, and so weighs in, by turns, as overly predictable and satisfyingly recognizable (part of genre cinema's one-two punch).

It works hard, and the first half hour is textbook creepy, but the oldschool grab-bag of shocks struggles to jolt a dour script to life.

The Pact demonstrates both why people respond to horror and why it's so routinely scorned.

Lotz's grudging fortitude provides enough engagement to let you overlook the cracks in the film's facade, but when she cedes the screen to Casper Van Dien's thick-witted police detective, all you can see are the gaps.

Nicholas McCarthy's The Pact is a horror film developed from a short, and unfortunately it splits apart while being stretched out to feature length.

Tense, creepy, mysterious, and better than most horrors. Scarier also. Its holds your tension throughout; except for maybe that it could of ended 10 minutes earlier. The script could of been a bit fleshed out, and clues felt a little simplistic. Even so, I wish critics would of been a little nicer, because I find I difficult to find horrors worth watching, and this is one.

Summary: The Pact is spooky, well acted and just a bit slow. 78/100 [B] The Pact is an indie horror film directed by Nicholas McCarthy. It is a small flick and it has a decent running time, eighty-nine suspenseful and terrifying minutes. Moving on, it starts very well, the opening scene has lots of suspense and some lean scares. It delivers suspense, chills and a sense of anxiety. The movie boasts great performances by Haley Hudson and Caity Lotz, their performances were genuine and believable. Lotz and Hudson did a good job with their roles, but for me the star of the film is Hudson. She was terrific. Anyway, The Pact is such a good horror film that doesn't even need gore or violence to be good. It is a slow movie but it requires patience. The movie has enough blood and violence to satisfy discerning horror fans. Also, the special effects are surprisingly well done in spite of being a low-budget film. On the downside, the camera movements are annoying at times, the director wants to show you all, it's a very explicit movie, it shows you all the shadows and 'spectrums' with an unnecessary camera zoom, he thinks that you're blind or something. All those 'zoom' moments are so ineffective and not scary. I wish it could be more implicit. In addition, sometimes the camera moves stupidly and makes a scene funnier than scary, for example that scene in the trailer where Caity Lotz is attacked from behind by a ghost, was kinda funny. Leaving aside its flaws, I highly recommend it for horror fans. You can watch it online with some friends or rent it, it's a very spooky flick. The premise is intriguing, it has a good script and the performances are believable. Thumbs up for the loud-chilling screams, the excellent acting (Haley Hudson you were awesome) and the interesting premise of the film. Thumbs down for a few boring scenes, cliches of the genre and the crappy camera direction. In conclusion, it is a must see if you love the horror genre, I'm pretty sure that you'll love it. Just don't see it if you have very high expectations or if you think that it will be a masterpiece. The Pact is just a little horror gem. [B]

A decent ghost movie with a twist. Low budget but not totally cheap, with a few nice effects. Instead of just the usual jump scares, it delivers two or three genuinely chilling moments, and I mean literal chills down the spine and sudden goose bumps. A good ending too, but pretend the very last shot and the final song never happened, it's beyond cringy.

The Pact is a horror movie that's done in a way that makes it different to other horror movies at that time, and I'm talking about slow build up and suspense. The story is about a Nicole (Bruckner) and Annie (Lotz) reluctantly return to their childhood home to pay their last respects. While staying overnight in the house, the sisters sense a mysterious presence in their midst: noises startling them in the night, objects moving about, a fallen picture of an unknown woman posed next to their mother. Annie begins experiencing a series of intense and disturbing dreams visions that lead her to uncover something terrible about her mothers past that is finally revealing itself. Before seeing The Pact I looked at some of the reviews that the movie got and some was mostly positive, some alright but a lot of negative feedback from people who said the movie wasn't scary or even that well written. After seeing I can that the movie isn't flawless but it isn't bad as some pointed out, the movie dose have it's suspenseful moments and not the jump scare ****. The Pact is a slow burner horror film with some scenes that don't come off scary just more like trying to be scary, but there are scenes in this that do come off creepy and at least the movie has a sense of atmosphere so it will be easy to build up something. All the performances in the movie was solid, the director did a fine job directing, the movie is a bit slow at times and some scenes that could have been scary but came off not that scary could have been effective with a little more work into it. Overall The Pact is a okay horror movie that's worth checking out if your bored or it's a rainy day.

Worth the watch but nothing really that special, scares we're decent at best but only for the reason that music was turned up to 200% for every jumpscare.