THE PACT

The Pact (15)
Director: Nicholas McCarthy
Screenplay: Nicholas McCarthy
Stars: Caity Lotz, Casper van Dien
Some doors should never be opened

Obviously, The Pact isn't the greatest film ever made. Nor is it the greatest horror, or the greatest ghost film. But if you can get over that, you might find that you can have some fun with it.

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As a woman struggles to come to grips with her past in the wake of her mother's death, an unsettling presence emerges in her childhood home.



For a first time feature director, McCarthy does alright. There are some tight if unoriginal tension building elements based mainly on sound (breathing, kettles boiling etc.), his visuals are decent enough at setting up a sense of claustrophobia and the film does well to minimise dialogue (although given the quality of some of the lines that's a saving grace). It raises a few scares, has a taut if short third act with a solid twist and it's acted pretty well by everyone apart from Casper van Dien (but that's okay because we knew he couldn't act anyway).



Where The Pact fails to be anything other than mediocre is in the script and for that McCarthy is going to have to take responsibility. His protagonist sails through the narrative, never really doing anything for herself other than being a bit brave. The ghost solves most of her problems, presents solutions on a plate and even drags her out of harms way in the third act. Nor does Caity Lotz really ever plumb the depths of despair I would expect. Never is all really lost for her.



The story is short too. Perhaps 89 minutes in all but with a good amount of brooding, mood setting scenes in there. I imagine the screenplay barely tops 78 pages. The Pact was of course, a short before a feature - albeit it the former is only the first scene of the latter, yet at times it feels as though someone is stretching it too thin.

Why for example does a ghost haunt a Google Map of a random location (yes you read that right), so she can point at another location just around the corner? If you're a tech savvy ghost who can work a smartphone, surely you could just send a person to the venue you wished them to ultimately get to?



And the final shot is just bizarre and left me utterly confused. McCarthy has swapped logic for symmetry somewhere along the way.

But let's put that aside for a moment.



Here is a chap who makes short films and someone approaches him to make one into a feature. It's his chance and as a director at least he has passed a test. Expect to see McCarthy working again. The Pact has taken $1.4m in its opening weekend. Plot holes or not, for people hoping to make it in the business, there's some hope in there for us.