Pretty Good

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I watch a lot of horror movies and it takes a lot to scare me. If you are afraid of ghosts and haunted houses and if you watch this one alone, with all the lights out, it will scare you.

This ultra low budget film turned out to be a very freaky and very well made demonic/haunting mystery thriller, with some genuinely frightening scenes. The film has an incredible amount of detail given the low budget. The acting was very good and the film continuously had a haunting feel to it, with the focus being a cupboard down the hall. It was interesting as Annie (Caity Lotz) investigated the mystery herself, as the police did not believe her and thought she had something to do with her sister's disappearance. She discovers her mother had a brother, who she didn't know about, and that the brother might be the serial killer Judas, who is still haunting the house.The film doesn't really give closure as to what happened to her sister, but given the other characters' fate, we can only assume she suffered the same fate. I can't really connect the film's title to anything in the film, though, so not sure why it is called 'The Pact'.

"The Pact" is one of those films I've had a mild interest in but never really gave much thought to for whatever reason. A low-budget horror release based on the short film of the same name, the film seemingly has a lot going for it thanks to mild critical praise and plenty of positive fan reviews that proclaim it a sharp and terrifying excursion into the unknown. And while I do confess there is a lot of fun to be had with the film... I just can't help but feel it's a wholly mediocre experience in the end. It has a few good jolts and a handful of entertaining twists and turns, but it's quite a pedestrian affair. There's not much new here to be seen, and what is presented is often a slave to cliché and not all that interesting. And as a result... I don't really think it's particularly good or compelling.Annie Barlow (Caity Lotz) reluctantly returns home to attend the funeral of estranged mother. However, the already dreary event has taken an even darker turn... Annie's sister Nicole (Agnes Bruckner) has evidently gone missing and she is haunted by increasingly disturbing presences and dreams while inside of her childhood home. Soon enough, it becomes clear that something sinister is at play... and it may be connected to an old, unsolved murder case involving a figure known as the "Judas Killer."Written and directed by Nicholas McCarthy, there certainly is a decent amount to enjoy in the proceedings of "The Pact." The story takes a few fascinating twists and turns throughout its run-time and thanks to a relatively fast pace, you're never left overtly bored at any time. Combined with decent cinematography (at least for it's $400,000 budget) and some genuinely eerie set design, McCarthy's production is just competent enough that I cannot wholly dismiss the film or objectively say it is particularly terrible.What I can say, though... it's sub-par. Quite sub-par.From the first minute, the film feels quite uneasy with itself, and it has a tendency to meander on sometimes uninteresting sequences in an attempt at atmosphere-building. This would be admirable, but the film doesn't do much with the material outside of the most predictable of clichés... and even then, it doesn't do them particularly well. The second you see a character web-chatting with another, you know the person on the other end is going to ask "Whose that behind you?" The second the camera settles on a creepy door in the distance, you know it's going to slowly creak open and then cut to a shot of our lead looking frightened. The second the audio goes quiet, you know it's going to suddenly punctuate the scene with a loud crash. It's just so predictable as to lose all impact, and the film really only "got to me" in moments that were too few and far between to really leave me genuinely frightened.I also found the performances unanimously uninspired and dull. Particularly our lead Lotz, who is trying her hardest to play a tough-girl with a chip on her shoulder, but can't even come close to feeling real. I hate to say it... but I actually cringed a few times while watching her. And I'm not one to usually do that. It's all the more confusing because I actually quite like Lotz in other works I've seen her in... she's just dreadfully miscast here. Supporting roles by the likes of Bruckner and even Casper Van Dien seem well-cast but under-utilized and unable to do much with the material provided. And everyone comes across as just cookie-cutters of characters we've seen done far better in other, similarly far better films.McCarthy's visual guidance of the film left a lot to be desired for me, and it's just so textbook I couldn't find myself invested. Maybe it's just me... but it felt like just about every single shot in the film (at least in the first half) was exactly the same. Just long, smooth stedi-cam shots that follow the characters for a few moments, before letting them leave frame and cutting to the next long, smooth stedi- cam shot that followed them for a few moments before letting them leave frame. To me, it just screams "lack of thought." And even more, I felt his script was lacking and didn't have any common sense to it. Characters behave in typical "stupid mode" as is usual with horror films (one scene in the first fifteen minutes where Annie explores the house at night in particular had me laughing at just how ridiculously stupid she came across), there are some really jarring jumps in the tonality and genre at key points, and the focus seems to be a little troubled.Still, I can't say I didn't have a bit of a good time watching it. Maybe it's because the film was predominately a low-profile release, but I can forgive some of its faults. It's not really a terrible film. Just a mildly enjoyable but incredibly troubled one. That said... I can't forgive enough that I would go out of my way to recommend it. I would just suggest skipping it unless you're very intrigued by the premise. If you think this looks like the best horror film of the past decade, you might get some fun out of it. But in my mind, there are enough other, far better horror films out there. This is just sort- of a forgettable affair. You'd be better off checking out "Insidious", "The Babadook", "The Changeling" or "Session 9" for films with a similar tone that are executed with far more quality and style.I give "The Pact" a slightly below average 4 out of 10.

A sleeper hit in 2012, "The Pact" directed by Nicholas McCarthy melds many common horror themes into one thoroughly haunting and creepy movie. Actress Caity Lotz, who looks a lot like Lindsay Lohan but with out the baggage, plays Annie, who comes back home to attend the funeral of her estranged mother only to find the house she grew up in is still hiding secrets.The film opens with Annie's sister, a recovering drug addict, already at the house and Skyping with her daughter. The next day as Annie arrives (on a motorcycle) her sister is nowhere to be found. Thinking she is just on another bender, Annie doesn't put much thought into it. The house itself just has an altogether uneasy feel to it with its over abundance of religious artifacts and of course it's old and creaky doors and floorboards. There are also times when Annie is roaming around in the dark investigating noises. All these scenes feel necessary to build the suspense of the scenes to come and really don't feel forced like many other films do. After her mothers funeral Annie meets up with her cousin, who is looking after her little niece. They end up staying overnight at the house but vanish when Annie comes looking for them in the morning.When Annie suffers a frightening incident of her own at the house she goes to the police and enlists the help of Officer Creek to further investigate. What they find is quite disturbing and tries to offer some explanation as to what's been going on. Annie does some investigating on her own and with some ghostly help unearths some troubling family history. She also gets some help from Stevie a girl she knew from high school, who just happens to be blind, and a medium, and looks extremely pale. Weird I know but just go with it. With the help of some supernatural forces Annie must deal with the very real threat that lives within the houses walls. "The Pact" is well made for its budget, even if we've seen some of this stuff before. The story is well structured and thought out, with some wonderfully creepy characters and tense feeling throughout.