I love it when a little indie like this from a practically virgin director turns out to be a diamond in the rough.
I watched the Pact based on a few mentions it's garnered on the IMDb horror board and I was really impressed. I'd seen it available on Netflix instant for a while but had avoided it - probably because of the uninspired "Frighteners" DVD cover design rip-off (which incidentally has nothing to do with the movie). I kind of expected it to be just another sub par supernatural flick, the ilk of which Netflix instant is teeming with.
Instead it turned out to be a really good, old-fashioned, slow-burn ghost story with some neat thriller elements in the final act. There was one particularly effective scare near the beginning that actually made me curse out loud, which in turn scared the heck out of my cat. As a complete ghost film geek, that doesn't usually happen to me, so big kudos to the director for that one.
Caity Lotz makes for an intriguing troubled lead who can't forgive her dead mother for past abuses. I didn't like her character much at first, but she grows on you and the rebellious aspects she played the part with rounded out what could have otherwise been a much more two-dimensional character.
The direction is beautiful. Nicholas McCarthy has a real knack for laying out the geography of a haunted house in the viewers mind and also seems to know exactly how long, and from what angle, to hold a shot for in order to achieve optimum tension. I'm gonna keep my eye on this guy - I have a feeling we might see bigger things from him in the future if he continues to direct horror.
Yeah, so, if you're a ghost movie fan and you're antsy for a good one, you could do much, much worse than to pop open your Netflix and cue this one up.
I watched the Pact based on a few mentions it's garnered on the IMDb horror board and I was really impressed. I'd seen it available on Netflix instant for a while but had avoided it - probably because of the uninspired "Frighteners" DVD cover design rip-off (which incidentally has nothing to do with the movie). I kind of expected it to be just another sub par supernatural flick, the ilk of which Netflix instant is teeming with.
Instead it turned out to be a really good, old-fashioned, slow-burn ghost story with some neat thriller elements in the final act. There was one particularly effective scare near the beginning that actually made me curse out loud, which in turn scared the heck out of my cat. As a complete ghost film geek, that doesn't usually happen to me, so big kudos to the director for that one.
Caity Lotz makes for an intriguing troubled lead who can't forgive her dead mother for past abuses. I didn't like her character much at first, but she grows on you and the rebellious aspects she played the part with rounded out what could have otherwise been a much more two-dimensional character.
The direction is beautiful. Nicholas McCarthy has a real knack for laying out the geography of a haunted house in the viewers mind and also seems to know exactly how long, and from what angle, to hold a shot for in order to achieve optimum tension. I'm gonna keep my eye on this guy - I have a feeling we might see bigger things from him in the future if he continues to direct horror.
Yeah, so, if you're a ghost movie fan and you're antsy for a good one, you could do much, much worse than to pop open your Netflix and cue this one up.