THE PACT
DVD. eOne

It’s hard to decide quite what to make of The Pact, a film that tries very hard to be original, slick and provocative and fails mainly because of its on ambition. The end result is frustrating, not because the film is bad, but because it feels like it should’ve been so much more.

Nicolas McCarthy’s film is an expansion on a short film from last year – that short is included on the DVD but not on the screener I saw, so I can’t compare plot points, but this does seem to suffer from all the problems that come when you try to expand a short subject into a feature. In other words, there is a lot of padding of a very thin story going on here.

Caity Lotz plays Annie, returning to her former family home after her mother’s death. It’s a dysfunctional family unit stemming from an abusive childhood, and things get very strange when both her sister and cousin disappear after spending the night in the house. It soon becomes clear that there is a supernatural presence in the house, making itself known in a violent and shocking way. But the cause of the disappearances might be something more Earthly.

There are good ideas going on here, and McCarthy makes good use of technology – this is a ghost comfortable with communicating via mobile phone and laptop, and there’s an initial sense that this might be an American film following in the footsteps of J horror. But as the movie progresses, it starts to meander and eventually slip into cliché. It’s a pity. Because it’s trying very hard to do something different within the confines of the haunted house film, and Lotz makes for an interesting heroine – not particularly sympathetic, she nevertheless carries the drama almost single-handedly with skill.

This is certainly trying to be Serious horror. So it’s rather odd that Lotz is required to strip down to her panties before investigating spooky noises on more than on occasion, and is filmed from a cleavage-jiggling angle throughout the finale. This is something that has been noted by critics in a few films recently (Bereavement’s busty and tight-topped heroine is another film example), and it smack of hypocrisy. I’ve no problem with exploitation movies emphasising the physical attributes of the female stars – in fact I applaud it! - but when a film so clearly sees itself as above that sort of movie yet engages in this sort of cheap titillation (I wonder if Lotz’s character would’ve been required to do this if she was played by an actress with a less pert ass?), it leaves rather a bad taste.

On the whole though, The Pact is a passable, but never really gripping movie that certainly won’t bore you, but which might fade from your memory rather quickly. And I have no idea what the title is referring to…

DAVID FLINT

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