When another paranormal/haunted house film like this inevitably comes out, although I'd say it's probably my favourite genre, I will probably just switch off because hey, it's all been done before, right?
And at first glance this film essentially follows the formula for a horror flick we've seen verging on too many times now.
1. People return to the family home for one reason or another. (Usually a dead relative)
2. Shit starts going down, but people don't believe each other.
3. All too convenient Google search results.
4. Main character finds out all is not what it seems.
5. Let's call in a psychic!
6. Big ass showdown with whatever this thing is.
7. BUT OMG IT'S NOT OVER OTHERWISE HOW WOULD WE GET A SEQUEL!!1!
Don't get me wrong though, this film does it well.
It's also worth mentioning how long it took me to figure out which sister was which in this film. First we follow Nicole, who by the way I still don't know what happened to as we never really hear much, if anything, from her for the rest of the film. Then we seemingly switch to Annie without a word, and because they look so similar (which is great casting for sisters but puh-lease don't expect me to know who's who when you change without warning!) for me at least, it took like 5-10 minutes for me to realise we weren't following the same person any more.
While, at least at the beginning, this film does definitely play up the typical haunted house "oh my god my kitchen ware is suddenly on the floor and who is that behind you" schtick and a whoooole load of jump scares to boot (and don't say they didn't get you too okay, they're fucking scary!) they're bloody well done.
What I could never get to grips with this film though is simply the title.
Unless I'm just that fucking slow and I completely missed something; there was never any actual mentioning of a "pact" between anyone.
Was it a pact between Annie and Nicole's mother and her brother because she was technically harbouring a murderer in the basement of the family home?
Was it to do with the fact that he killed her friend whilst on a killing spree?
Or was something incestual going on and is Annie's uncle actually her dad?
Or is this a case of something being missed out or misconstrued from the original short film. But personally having never seen the short, I couldn't say. All I know is it feels like there's something missing from an other wise surprisingly underrated film.
Props as well have to go to Caity Lotz (Arrow, The Machine, to name just two) who plays Annie for basically carrying this film alone. The vast majority of The Pact is her alone or having to vibe off only one other person. Having never even heard of her before this film, I'm immensely impressed.
Overall though I would say this film is definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the haunted house genre. Or even if you're not actually it's well rounded and tense as fuck.
While this film sounds cliché as all hell on paper, in practice, it's anything but.
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Also I know because this is my first proper review or w/e I'm not gonna get loads of views so yeah, thanks for reading, and if for some crazy reason you wanna see more from me and have a movie you'd want me to talk about just drop a comment :))))))
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