Caity Lotz first came to my attention when she played ass-kicking Officer Kirsten Landry in MTV's horror mockumentary series Death Valley. The series is a parody of the COPS-style shows that follow law enforcement round as they do their jobs. Death Valley was slightly different. Instead of chasing bad guys, the members of the UTF (Undead Task Force) pursued vampires, werewolves and zombies. It was brilliant and I was gutted when MTV decided not to renew it for a second series. Lotz not only performed all her own stunts on the show but has a background in dance, stunt-doubling and martial arts and before becoming an actress, was a member of a girl group that had top ten hits in Germany. A talented young woman, I kept my eye on The Pact when I heard that she had been cast in it and I watched as it debuted at Sundance and was picked up for distribution. Having expected it to go straight to DVD, I was delighted to hear that not only would it be coming to the cinemas but that I had been invited to a preview screening. Brilliant!
The film begins with Nicole (Agnes Bruckner) at her childhood home, planning her mother's funeral and arguing with her sister over the phone. Her sister doesn't plan on coming to the funeral because of the way their mother treated them when they were younger. Nicole hangs up and skypes their cousin Liz (Kathleen Rose Perkins) to speak to her daughter, Eva (Dakota Bright). Eva sees someone behind Nicole and Nicole enters a darkened room. Annie (Caity Lotz) arrives at the house and finds that Nicole has vanished. Liz hasn't heard from her either and they speculate that as a former drug addict, Nicole has perhaps fallen off the wagon. Annie goes to sleep in her old room but is awoken by strange goings on.
The next day, after her mother's funeral, Annie meets up with Liz and Eva. There's still no word from Nicole and they go back to the house. That night, Annie dreams about the house, about a shadowy figure in it and her phone suddenly delivers her an address. When she wakes to go to the bathroom, Annie thinks she sees someone and investigates. What she finds is that Liz has disappeared. Suddenly, she is violently thrown around the living room by an invisible force and she runs from the house, re-entering to rescue Eva. Annie turns to the police, telling her story to detective Bill Creek (Casper Van Dien). He is unhelpful but after a series of ghost-filled dreams, mysterious addresses appearing on her phone and finding a room in the house that she had never seen before, she visits Stevie (Haley Hudson), a frail young psychic. Whatever the presence is in the house, it's pissed off and it's somehow connected to Annie's mother.
The Pact starts very well. It's creepy and has a good atmosphere and there are even a couple of good jumps too. Caity Lotz is very good as Annie, steely but also vulnerable. Haley Hudson is also excellent as the psychic Stevie. An emaciated waif, she looks as though she barely has enough strength to stand up, let alone contact the dead. Casper Van Dien is so haggard-looking that he's almost unrecognisable from the rugged young actor who played Rico in Starship Troopers. However, his role as the initially uninterested detective is mostly unnecessary and he's pretty superfluous. As a whole, the film is surprisingly well made, considering its low budget and it's sufficiently creepy with both a new idea and an interesting ending, somewhat of a rarity in the haunted house genre. It does slip a little towards the end when it resorts to the obligatory Ouija board scene but it's a good first effort from director Nicholas McCarthy.
A fresh and interesting idea, good performances and solidly executed. What more could you ask for?
7 out of 10.
