'The Pact'
(Caity Lotz, Casper Van Dien, Agnes Bruckner, et al / R / 96 mins)
Overview: 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.
Verdict: This breathtaking film begins with an impending mothers funeral, and two daughters at odds as to why one should go, the other not. But, before the "good" daughter (played by Agnes Bruckner) can leave the house something takes her - slowly, silently, un-noticeably; nevertheless it takes her. With her daughter staying with her cousin (for previous drug-encountered misdemeanors), when the "bad" daughter (Annie, played by Caity Lotz) finally decides to ride in for the funeral, she can't find her sister. But whilst at the funeral, she runs into her cousin (Liz, played by Kathleen Rose Perkins) and her niece and invites them back to the family home for the night.
A bad idea though for the house has a secret, one hidden away for a long, long time, and one that must resurface to finally be able to rest in peace. Perhaps you won't understand the opening reference to the sisters both having one green eye, one blue eye each, but come the end (the very end) you most certainly will.
Both the actors who play the sisters are great in their respective roles, and it also has to be said that Casper Van Dein ('Starship Troopers') plays his best indie role to date. A little chubbier than ever before, a slight beard on his handsome face, he looks a little lost at the beginning but sure comes to the fore soon thereafter.
In truth, it's really hard to not give anything away here. Honestly, 'The Pact' (although that title makes no real sense to the movie!) is such a great little-indie-that-could, with such tense, confused, and yet totally engrossing moments that you really want to be able to say 'guess what happens next'! But, I won't, of course ... that said, this is a supernatural chiller that you WON'T guess the motives behind until it slaps you starkly around the face!
Reviewed by: Russell A. Trunk