After the death of her mother and mysterious disappearance of her sister, Annie (Caity Lotz) returns to the house where she spent her troubled childhood and before long starts noticing strange things going on. When an old friend comes to stay and also goes missing, Annie decides to investigate what happened in her past which may be causing the disturbances.
The Pact is an intermittently effective horror film, occasionally finding a spooky atmosphere and some genuine jump scares to go long with it. But succumbing too often to the tired tropes and cliches mainstream horror has sadly become know for over the last few years, it fails to add up to anything beyond yet another haunted house horror.
A saving grace is Caity Lotz who is solid in the lead role, convincingly portraying her fear and dread throughout (key to any horror film of this type). It doesn’t help that she constantly brings to mind a far superior Elizabeth Olsen in another recent and weirdly similar horror movie, Silent House, but she makes for a decently compelling lead to at least somewhat carry the film through its lazier and clunkier moments (of which there are many).
There’s a mystery at the centre of the horror that smacks of the American remake of The Ring, but it doesn’t have the time to devote to that aspect or the originality to make it satisfying. The end reveal is, while not altogether unsurprising, rather nonsensical, requiring a few too many leaps in logic to work. So instead of leading to the presumably intended light bulb moment for the audience it just comes off as a bit silly.
As a Friday night DVD watch The Pact should suffice just fine, with a handful of competent scares, a watchable lead and a handle on much needed atmosphere from time to time. But there just isn’t enough of that to make up the 90-odd minute runtime, silliness overtaking things as it goes on. And a weak and frustrating ending leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
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The Pact is released in UK cinemas on June 8th.