The Pact (2012)

(aka Family Ties: The Movie)
Release Date: On VOD now, In Theaters July 6th.
Country: USA
Written and Directed by: Nicholas McCarthy.
Starring: Caity Lotz, Casper Van Dien, Agnes Bruckner and Haley Hudson.

Since it has an awesome poster, we assumed that The Pact would suck, because that generally tends to be the rule... my oh my, how we were wrong.

This is easily the creepiest movie of 2012 so far, by far.

She had pokies going on throughout the entire movie.

When their Mother dies, Annie and her Sister Nichole are left to pick up the pieces. Annie doesn't want anything to do with the funeral because her Mother was an abusive bitch, but out of love for her Sister, she agrees to come home and give her a hand with the arrangements. When she arrives at her Mother's house the next day, Nichole is gone. At that point, Annie should have left too.

That is NOT the front door.

Annie's Cousin Liz stays the night with her after the funeral because Annie doesn't want to be alone in the home of her childhood abuse, and because Liz has Nichole's daughter, whom she probably wants to be rid of. I mean hey, it's not her kid, so she has every right to want to give her back. They assume that Nichole is off on some crack binge somewhere, though when Liz goes missing in the middle of the night, Annie begins to have suspicions... which are quickly confirmed by a ghost beating her ass. Seriously, like a brawl.

Let's fight.

Annie goes to the Police, but they are useless, so she eventually goes to see a creepy blind chick named Stevie that she went to High School with, who was rumored to have some sort of supernatural affinity. Stevie goes and gives Annie's Mom's house the once over, and says "screw this, I'm not staying here!" which leaves Annie alone to unravel the mystery of her Sister's and Cousin's disappearance, the ghost, and a serial killer, all on her own. Oh yeah, there's a serial killer too.

When the creepy, blind seer says it's time to go, then it's time to go!

From the opening sequence, The Pact pulled us in and didn't ever let us go. The premise was great, and mixing the story of a serial killer with some effective paranormal elements worked perfectly. The atmosphere was eerie and tense throughout, and the scares were effective. There was one instance of a musical cue/jump scare early on, but that sort of trickery wasn't repeated or resorted to to drive the movie.

For the record, the entire cast did a great job here, but Caity Lotz carried this baby on her back. She may have played it a bit over dramatic here and there, but for the most part she felt real, and made us feel for her. The part where she uses the Ouija Board and her reaction to her first answer illustrates it perfectly; it was genuine and exactly what most people would have done if that had been them.

Yeah, at the point where the upside-down crucifix slides across the hand made Ouija Board on the floor to answer my question in an abrupt way, I'm out of there.

We've Gotta give writer/director Nicholas McCarthy credit here; he crafted his first full length feature into a great little sleeper hit. There were parts in the early going that felt fairly formulaic, but once it got going, it was a smooth ride for us. There were a few critics out there that found The Pact less effective that we did, and ultimately dismissible, but we just don't get that; the movie is by no means perfect, but it absolutely works.

*BEWARE- This section do be spoiler-ish. We would like to have a few of the more ambiguous plot elements cleared up for us. For instance, what exactly was this pact that gives the movie it's title, and who was it between? We have a pretty good idea what it involved (siblings and silence) but it could have been something else as well. Also, was the brother a ghost or alive. The answer is most likely alive, but there were things that happened that could definitely be proof of him being a spirit of some sort. Also, was he Uncle and Daddy? And what was with the end? Just a dream or was there something more to it? None of these questions spoiled the movie for us at all, but we just hate not knowing for sure. We're selfish like that.

We're not sure either, Caity.

There were a couple of good-n-gory stabbings and a shooting, but aside from that, the rest of the movie was blood free... aside from the corpses and decapitated heads of course... and the glass in the foot... alright, it had a decent amount of blood and gore.

There was no nudity, but we did get a whole lot of footage of Caity Lotz running around in a tight tank top and boy shirts, which pleased us none the less. There was so much cleavage going on through this thing, that we sometimes found ourselves forgetting what just happened plot-wise. We don't mind rewinding though.

She even rides her motorcycle in her undies. Now that's class.

The entire opening sequence has to get the nod here, because it was played perfectly. The sequence in which Caity Lotz goes flying and sliding around the house was great too, as was Casper Van Dien's "big scene." Good to see him back in a solid flick for a change.

It was kinda like she was doing a crazy ballet or an energy charged Flashdance.

The Pact gets a solid B+ because it was a great little flick, and it's been a while since we've seen a smaller horror movie that genuinely gave us the creeps. It's great to see a movie like this getting a theatrical release, even if it is a limited one. You need to go see it if it plays near you, or check it out on VOD now, because it's easily one of the best of the year thus far, and one of the most genuinely creepy movies of the past few years.

It's been a while since we've seen Agnes Bruckner in a movie, and it felt good. As for Caity Lotz, well she gets her own special little post below...