Mommy, the daughter will ask innocently, far away from his mother: who's that behind you? The young mom whose least of problems now is the shitty connection; her mother just has died and this bugged reception she is getting via skype finally concludes her life: shit. The young mom, a bit startled, will take a quick look to learn what her daughter tries to ask her about. There's no one. But perhaps there is, someone. Certainly, though, there is something in there, in the dark and creepy room, with enough force to drag the young mom inside. No trace of the young mother is left. This is what you can expect from the movie 'The Pact', an occasionally scary low-budget horror with resilient authentic fright. It has some issues but enough to keep you fidgeting as if automatic.
"Thoroughly enjoyable, the movie lurks between the premises of being directed with undeniable strength and grit, and being lousily written."
In 'The Pact', I may repeat myself, two sisters have to return to their childhood home to pay their final respects for their mother who just passed away. The first to come is Nicole (Agnes Bruckner, 'Blood and Chocolate'), and in her first night, she disappears with no trace. Her sister, Annie (Caity Lotz), will eventually find out that she is missing and soon her sister will go look for her. Annie thinks that something has to be going on, something has to be. She tries to investigate about the disappearance of her sister by seeking the help of a cop named Creek (Casper Van Dien).
Their trial to the answer they want to be found leads them to a theory: supernatural things have to do something with Nicole's disappearance. Good, they've already a tag name for it, "supernatural". Well, you can't put a blame on Annie. She's experiencing it herself, noise starts to strangely resonate, as if a living horror story is being told: she be the bitch who is in danger, and now, this very moment, be the horror movie many people are enjoying too much. She ends up seeking the help of a supernatural expert; an almost anorexic maybe-related-to-the-corpse-bride Stevie (Haley Hudson). Stevie reveals that something she can't handle is doing this. Very convenient. Annie, left with nothing to do (to keep the story going, yeah?) but to solve the mystery of her sister's disappearance, take life-and-death measures to end this once and for all.
Well-directed and well-acted, 'The Pact' instantly went above my standards. It's not a stand-alone turn on if the movie were stuffed with good actors who generously presented good acting, there should be more. Lotz is very striking, with solid sets of skill in the acting department that generated even greater volume of fright. Haley Hudson is already creepy, without even saying a word...and she's not even the villain. This isn't enough though. Two actors blowing me away. Not yet. Impress me. Seriously, 'The Pact' did. Debuting director Nicholas McCarthy spends the money well, pulling off default horror conventions and produce fresh-feel terrifying moments held with tight grips of suspense. McCarthy is obviously a good director.
Screenplay? Not so much. McCarthy apparently borrowed a lot of elements in many different horror films. Strange noises, entities getting physical, Ouija board? 'Paranormal Activity' is the closest to describe the tension that 'The Pact' sets out, and 'John Carter' is the closest to describe its confusion. Like the Disney giga-live action, 'The Pact' is too busy of itself to answer too many questions leaving the audience understand nothing of what it wants us to understand. McCarthy is obviously not your most original writer, not the best automatically. This is his first film, though, and honestly I like to see what he can do in the future.
'The Pact' is the kind of like "good news and bad news" thing. Good news: it's tightly creepy. Bad news: it's dizzying. I didn't understand a thing. Strangely, though, I had my eyes covering my face, like a child, honestly, once throughout the ninety minutes of the film.
GRADE: B+ (TRIVIA: My first movie to watch on Amazon MovieRent! Go check out movies there too!)
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