THE PACT

US, 2011, 89 minutes, Colour.
Caity Lotz, Haley Hudson, Mark Steger, Caspar van Dien.
Directed by Nicholas Mc Carthy.

The Pact was written and directed by Nicholas Mc Carthy, based on a short film he made with the same theme.

The film works well as a ghost story, plenty of bumps in a dark house, suggestions of ghosts, apparitions of ghosts, the supernatural and the ghost trying to bring closure to a series of killings and the death of the killer.

The film focuses on two sisters and the death of their mother who was cruel to them when they were young. One disappears leaving her child behind. Then a cousin disappears from the house, leaving the other sister, Annie, to deal with the situation, save the child in school, go to the police, go to a medium, participate in the medium’s search of the house, then do a Ouija experience to find the truth – even though the audience is ahead of Annie. There is the touch of the torture horror film when the killer emerges from the basement, tries to kill Annie and the roles are reversed.

A better than average film of its kind.

1. The impact of the film? The blend of horror and ghost story? With the theme of a serial killer?

2. A small town, ordinary homes, streets, police precincts? The mortuary and the church?

3. The interiors of the house, the rooms, the Catholic iconography and crucifixes, kitchen and lounge room, the secret room for the punishment of the children, the basement and its sinister secrets? Musical score?

4. The sisters and the death of the mother, Nichole and her daughter, Nichole’s disappearance, Liz his looking after the little girl? Annie and her concern? The phone calls, the computer and Nichole talking to her daughter?

5. The focus on Annie, her coming to the town, seeing her mother laid out, talking with Liz? With the little girl?

6. Annie and Liz and the house, hearing noises, things falling, the sense of a presence?

7. Liz, someone in the house, her disappearance? Annie and her being upset?

8. On the bike, not wearing her helmet, the little girl’s comments and Christmas greetings? The going to the police, the meeting with Creek, his manner, her reaction, his jokes, her confiding in him?

9. Creek, going to the house, finding the wall, breaking it down, the peep holes into other rooms, Creek and the photos, later examining them? Annie and her difficulties with Creek, feeling he didn’t believe her? His return to the house, his being murdered?

10. Annie, going to the school, the photos of her mother, the information about the serial killer, Judas? Her mother and the last one and murdered? Past friendship?

11. Seeking out Stevie, Steve as a character, her blindness, fragility? Guided by Giles? As protective? Going to the house, her psychic powers, not finding anything? Discovering the room, the apparition of the woman on the roof? The repetition of Judas? Annie later phoning her, Giles taking Stevie away?

12. The computer search, the photos of the woman in the park, Annie going to the address, searching the park? Googling Judas, discovering the serial killer? The audience working this out before Annie? Finding her uncle’s birth certificate and other details?

13. Stevie’s advice, the Ouija letters and the cross, spelling out the truth?

14. The word, below? Barlow and his getting out of the basement,l Annie watching him? His finding her, the attack, her being tied up, getting the coat
hanger, attacking him, getting free, the gun, shooting him?

15. Light coming into the house, a sense of freedom? The closure for the serial killings?

16. The opening with the close-up of the eye, the final close up? The solution of the mystery, or something more…?

17. The conventions of the serial killer drama combined with ghosts, haunted houses?

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THE PACT

US, 2012, 89 minutes, Colour.

Directed by Nicholas Mc Carthy.

The pact is a brief thriller. The initial publicity and trailer indicated something of a ghost story. However, this is not the case. While the film has an eerie atmosphere, a woman disappearing at the time of her mother’s funeral, after she has had a sense of a presence in the house, there is ultimately a rational explanation. Her sister becomes the key role, encounters the cousin with her disappeared sister’s daughter, has a sense of an evil presence and goes to the police station where she is met by a sympathetic officer, Casper van Dien. When they go back to the house, they find a secret door and open up a hidden room which has an eerie atmosphere.

The woman decides to consult a woman with ESP powers and uncovers a mystery about a dead woman who also appears in a photo. Investigating her family origins, especially the photos at her school, she discovers that her mother had a brother. The medium also uses the word Judas. Which leads to information that there had been a serial killer.

We soon realise, as does the woman, that the mysterious presence in the house is not a ghost but the serial killer brother who has been hidden by his sister. He still has murderous tendencies. But, there is a happy ending.

1. Audience expectations of a ghost or supernatural film? In fact, a thriller with some moments of ESP? Rational explanations of what happened?

2. The house, the funeral, police precincts, the park? Sense of realism? The musical score?

3. The title? What pact? Between the mother and her murderous brother?

4. Nicole, her life, the effect of her mother’s harshness, the phone call to her sister, communicating with her daughter on the computer, her mother’s
funeral, her being wary, in the house, sense of a presence, her disappearance?

5. Annie, not wanting to come to the funeral, her deciding to come, the bike ride? Her dislike of her mother? The meeting with her cousin and her niece? The funeral, the search for Nicole? The aftermath of the funeral, the cousin in the house, her disappearance?

6. The film creating the eerie atmosphere in the house? Annie going to the police, the officer, his sympathy, listening, his questions, visit to the house, in the restaurant and talking, the ice cream? Opening of the wall, finding the secret room? His later return, his death?

7. The room, discovery, getting the torch, the vision, the floating woman, the peep holes into the rest of the house, the ladder and the basement?

8. Annie investigating her mother, going to the school, the photos, the dead woman seen in the photos and in the vision, her identification, the fact that she had been murdered? Annie’s mother, the discovery that she had a brother? Going to the department for information, his being a longshoreman, disappearing?

9. The reference to Stevie for her help, blind, with her mentor, coming to the house, initially no strange experience, secret room, the experience of evil, the effect on her? And the later phoning her and Stevie urging her to full commitment on the search?

10. The visit to the park, the murdered woman seeming to direct the investigations? The information about the serial killer? The sense of the brother in the
house, seeing him?

11. The confrontation, the fight, the brother binding Annie, the coat hanger and her using it as a weapon, the knife, his death? The solution of the mystery about the serial killer? His appearance, wandering the house, getting food from the refrigerator, hiding in the basement? Using the peep holes?

12. The happy ending, happy with the child, their future together? The image of the eye at the beginning and end of the film?