The Pact Reviews

Nicholas McCarthy admirably tries to deliver both a terrifying tale of horror while mixing in more gritty elements, but doesn't explain much as to why.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/10

The Pact feels like exactly what it is: interesting material warped to fit the wrong format.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

To those brave enough to stomach the horrors of the Saw series, The Pact will seem tame.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

A stylish and well-acted if disappointingly rote paranormal gumshoe story.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

Despite having an effective but shockingly-predictable computer-chat scene, The Pact didn't raise a single hair on the back of my neck.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

There's no pact in The Pact, which is indicative of this faux spooky tale's guiding illogicality.

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[VIDEO ESSAY] "The Pact" is a horror movie with training wheels. It's for audiences who have never seen one before and don't want to be too scared.

Full Review | Original Score: C-

A fiend-ish puzzler less likely to give you scares before bed than leave you scratching your head.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

The female leads are uniformly characterless, as if Central Bimbo Casting has been told, "Keep sending in the next interchangeable blonde."

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

The film has some cheap thrills ... but lacks more sustained tension.

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McCarthy has a talent to unsettle - still not entirely developed.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Quite easily, one of the scariest films I've seen in a long while... It's a corker.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10

The best thing The Pact has going for it is the way it manages to play its cards right, despite the fact that it doesn't have many aces up its sleeve.

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It's a promising, efficient debut for McCarthy, but any kind of originality isn't part of the deal.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

When The Pact descends, finally, from suggestion to explication, the scares regrettably slink away.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

It works hard, and the first half hour is textbook creepy, but the oldschool grab-bag of shocks struggles to jolt a dour script to life.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

While it retreads well-trodden horror paths and shies away from any originality, it does favour heightening the mystery over goriness, relying on some impressive visuals ...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Certainly has some assets, but The Pact often feels almost like a TV-style procedural piece.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

At times scream-out-loud scary, with a second half that can't maintain the momentum.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

Basic, efficient little horror item scares up a few little shocks, possibly enough for a modest commercial career.

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