The Pact (2012)

The Pact is a 2012 American horror film written and directed by Nicholas McCarthy and starring Caity Lotz and Casper van Dien. The film was made following the success of McCarthy's short film of the same name which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The films follows Annie, whose mother has recently died, as she tries to discover what caused her sister, Nicole, and her cousin, Liz, to disappear. The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival on 20 January, opening to generally favourable reviews. The film was released in the USA on June 6, 2012 in select cinemas and 8 June 2012 in the UK and Ireland. The film is due for a UK DVD and Blu-ray release on the 1st October, 2012.

Plot

Nicole Barlow (Bruckner) is finalizing preparations for her mother's funeral at her childhood home. Her sister, Annie (Lotz) does not want to come down for it, reminding Nicole of the way their mother used to treat them. Nicole tries to contact her cousin, Liz (Perkins) and her daughter Eva (Bright) via video call. After losing the connection, Nicole sees an open door, leading into a dark room and walks inside.

Annie arrives, having been informed that Nicole is missing, and finds Nicole's phone along with a photo. That night, she awakes from a bad dream and finds a photo of two pregnant women. She identifies one pregnant woman as her mother but does not recognize the other woman, wearing a floral dress. The next day, Annie attends her mother's funeral and it is shown that Annie has one blue eye and one green eye; her mother also had one green eye and one blue eye. After the funeral, Annie meets Liz and Eva, and the three return to Annie's mother's house. Later, Annie dreams of a shirtless man crying and while she sleeps, her phone shows a map, pinpointing an address. When Annie awakes and sees a figure in the hall, she enters Liz's room and finds her bed empty. An unseen force tries to attack Annie but she is able to escape the house with Eva.

At the police station, no one believes Annie's story and a police officer, Bill Creek (Van Dien), implies that Annie may have played a part in both her sister's and cousin's disappearances. In a motel, Annie notices the address from the night before on her phone and sees a blurred figure in a floral dress on the screen. That same night, she dreams of the crying shirtless man again, as well as a dead woman in a floral dress with her severed head strung up. Annie later sorts through her mother's papers and discovers a room she had never seen before on the blueprints of the house. She finds the room and invites her psychic friend Stevie (Hudson), to the house to see if she can help. In the hidden room, Stevie has a hysterical fit, repeating the name "Judas". They then see the corpse of a woman in a floral dress floating above them and Annie realizes it is not her mother's spirit that is haunting the house.

Annie searches the word "Judas" online, which leads her to a page for "Judas", a serial killer. The killer's last known victim was Jennifer Glick, and Annie identifies her as the woman in the floral dress with her mother in the photo. She also finds a crime photo of Jennifer's murder, which shows Jennifer with her severed head, similar to Annie's dream. Annie goes to the address that keeps appearing on her phone and discovers photos of her mother and Jennifer together, realizing that the cross she owns, given to her by her mother, originally belonged to Jennifer. In the photos is also a man listed with the same last name as Annie's mother. Creek returns to the house after finding a mysterious photo pointing to a cupboard, where there is a secret door leading into the hidden room. Creek is then murdered by an unknown assailant.

Annie discovers that her mother had a brother, the man in the photos. She performs a ritual in the hidden room and Jennfier tells her that she was murdered by Judas, who is revealed to be the brother of Annie's mother. Annie hides and sees Judas come up from the floor through a secret hatch. He leaves the room through the cupboard door and is heard crying. Annie finds Creek's body and takes his gun, discovering her sister, Nicole's, severed head. Judas hears Annie and attacks her, tying her up. Annie breaks her hands free but Judas slashes her on the shoulder with a knife. As Annie breaks free, Jennifer's spirit pulls her away from Judas and to the gun, which Annie uses to shoot Judas. Staring at his dead body, Annie sees that Judas has one blue eye and one green eye, just like she and her mother.

At the end, Annie has gained full custody of Nicole's daughter, Eva. With Liz and Nicole dead, the house has been sold and is under renovations. Just then, Judas' closed eye opens, and he looks around the room. The movie ends with the eye.

Cast

Caity Lotz as Annie

Casper Van Dien as Creek

Agnes Bruckner as Nicole

Mark Steger as Charles

Haley Hudson as Stevie

Kathleen Rose Perkins as Liz

Samuel Ball as Giles

Bo Barrett as Jesse

Dakota Bright as Eva

Jeffrey T Ferguson as Officer Benson

Rachael Kahne as waitress

Santiago Segura as dishwasher

Sam Zuckerman as county

Directed by

Nicholas McCarthy

Produced by

Jaime Burke

Jamie Carmichael

Ross M. Dinerstein

Sam Zuckerman

Written by

Nicholas McCarthy

Starring

Caity Lotz

Casper Van Dien

Agnes Bruckner

Haley Hudson

Kathleen Rose Perkins

Samuel Ball

Mark Steger

Music by

Ronen Landa

Cinematography

Bridger Nielson

Editing by

Adriaan van Zyl

Distributed by

Entertainment One

IFC Midnight

ContentFilm Internationa

Release date(s)

June 6, 2012 (USA)

June 8, 2012 (UK)

Running time

89 minutes

Country

United States

Language

English

Verhaal 

Annie keert terug naar huis om de begrafenis van haar alom verachte moeder bij te wonen als gunst aan haar oudere zus. Wanneer ze overnacht in haar oude slaapkamer voelt ze iets onbekends in het huis. Ze roept de hulp in van een lokale agent en een helderziende om een aantal vragen beantwoord te krijgen rondom haar moeders dood. Wanneer lang onderdrukte nachtmerries opnieuw op beginnen te spelen, komt er een verontrustende aanwezigheid in haar ouderlijk huis naar boven.