Review by Quin
When I was given the task of reviewing The Pact 2, not having seen the first one, I agreed anyway. I then did what any reasonable film critic would do to prepare myself for this task, I found The Pact on Netflix and watched it. Having enjoyed it as much as I did, I’m now slightly embarrassed that I didn’t seek it out sooner. I remember the positivity it received from viewers when it was released in 2012. But, for some reason I just never got around to it. I actually partly blame it on that horrendous poster that makes me think of Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners or that scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street where Freddy starts to come out of the wall over Nancy’s bed. It creates a rather interesting visual, but it looks cheap and silly on the poster. Well, it turns out that it’s a very good thing when the only fault you can find for a film is its poster. The rest of The Pact is damned near perfect. There are two reviews on Brutal as Hell (editor’s note – from Keri and Annie) if you wish to go back and read about them. But in my humble opinion, I love the way it takes its time with the story, weaving an intricate plot filled with enough details for two movies.
The Pact 2, out now on VOD, is pretty much everything that the first one is not – or better yet, The Pact is all of the things that its sequel is not, because The Pact 2 is predictable, filled with plot holes, tries to hurry complex ideas with very little explanation or plot development, and it’s brought back the good old fashioned jump scare. Now before I pinpoint exactly where this film went oh-so-wrong, I’ll give you a brief synopsis and I’ll do my best to not be too spoilery unless you haven’t seen the first one. Actually, before I begin – if you haven’t seen the first one stop reading right now and go check it out. It’s streaming on Netflix, so it’s very conveniently located. Enjoy it and ignore the final 5 seconds, then forget the sequel exists. Okay, are you still reading? You must have really loved the first one and genuinely want to know whether you should bother with part 2 (or as I like to call it, Number 2.)
We are introduced to the main character, a young woman named June, who isn’t in the first film. She lives with her boyfriend who is a cop and she makes her living as a cleaner of crime scenes. She is seen with her tiny spray bottle, scrubbing brains with a sponge while the landlord of the apartment building makes cryptic, creepy comments. June’s mother is in Narcotics Anonymous and she drives her to her meetings, appointments and drug tests. One day, FBI Agent Ballard (played as well as possible by Patrick Fischler, an actor who has had roles in everything on T.V.) shows up to tell June that she is adopted and her birth mother was murdered by the Judas Killer. He was just in the neighborhood investigating murders that appear to be copying the Judas murders, so why not stop by and ruin someone’s life on his lunch break? He also has reason to believe that June is either involved in these murders or will probably be a victim soon. He also thinks she should talk to that girl from the first Pact and see if she has any advice.
When the woman that June had thought was her mother ends up dead, she starts playing investigator. First she calls Annie (Caity Lotz, the star of part 1). Annie takes her to see the blind psychic Stevie (Haley Hudson, also from part 1). Stevie kinda steals the show in part 1, but she’s in part 2 just long enough to say she’s moving away and can’t help at all. It’s now up to Annie to figure this shit out. She scratches her head and lights some candles, but June pretty much just takes care of it all herself.
The rest is pretty much just more of the same as part 1, but with less ghostly activity. The use of smart phones that was so clever in the original is abandoned, as is the amazing wallpaper. And the characters – the characters are all just magically moving like a Ouija Board planchette toward this big conclusion that will create a twist that you can probably already guess and it will all inevitably lead us to The Pact 3.
The Pact 2 had a director change from the first one. Nicholas McCarthy wasn’t available because he was making At the Devil’s Door. The director team of Dallas Hallam and Patrick Horvath took over for part 2. They previously did one of my favorite indie films of this decade, a nasty, gut punching, scary hipster home invasion movie called Entrance. Their director skills are just fine. They bring a similar mumble-core style that Entrance had as well as doing a great job of maintaining the look and tone of The Pact. The writing on the other hand is awful for all of the reasons I mentioned a few paragraphs ago.
It actually made me pretty sad watching this. The Pact had great potential to be an indie horror franchise. But instead of building on the things that made the first one so successful, Hallam and Horvath just dumb it down and give us something that Hollywood would probably want to see. After all, making money is a long standing tradition in the horror business. By the last ten minutes it felt like I was watching Scream 5 or something, with the twists and self referential humor. Oh, and the last few seconds that set us up for another sequel will make you face palm so hard you may lose consciousness. So, to recap what we have learned today: rent The Pact and Entrance, two of the best horror-ish films to come out recently, but stay far, far away from The Pact 2 with its ache to be a cash generating formula and its ridiculous poster.
The Pact 2 is available now in the US on VOD, via IFC Midnight.