The Pact: movie review

Release date: 8th June 2012
Certificate: 15
Starring: Caity Lotz, Casper Van Dien, and Hayley Hudson
Director: Nicholas McCarthy

What's the story? Two sisters are trying to come to terms with their mother's death when a strange presence in their old family home surfaces. After a series of mysterious and gruesome disappearances, it comes down to one sister, Annie, to find out what's really going on...

What we thought: A slow starter in terms of narrative but, in all honesty, The Pact is one of the scariest, tension-building horror movies this side of the millennium. The brilliant twist at the end makes up for the lack of gripping story-line at the beginning of the movie.

The essential elements every good horror movie should include are there: a death, a ghostly appearance, a séance, a gruesome back-story that unravels throughout the film and a beautiful, blonde main character.

When Annie (Caity Lotz) arrives back at her childhood home after the death of her mother and the mysterious disappearance of her former-junkie elder sister, you know the excitement is about to begin.

Things begin to go bump in the night when Annie sets about trying to discover what happened to her sister, refusing to believe she had gone back to her drug-abusing ways.

After a ghostly knife scene and a distressed call to the police, who dismiss her as potentially insane, it falls to one kind police officer (Casper Van Dien) to look into Annie's case further.

But no-one, nope not even you, could predict the truth behind the disappearances.

Between the text-book creepy photographs and the blood-curdling screams (that actress Caity Lotz does oh so well) it is a simple script that might not keep some gripped.

Nicholas McCarthy's debut film is low-budget but fabulously enthralling. As both director and producer of The Pact, McCarthy has a brilliant knack of knowing exactly the shot that will crawl under the skin of his cautious audience.

Wear stable shoes to the showing of this movie, because you'll be on the edge of your seat the whole way through.