Annie (Caity Lotz) heads back to her childhood home following the death of her abusive mother. However, she's not making the trip as a matter of paying her respects, it's more sinister - her older sister has vanished. Upon arrival at the home of her deceased mother things take a ghostly turn for the worse when Annie feels the presence of something in the house. As she investigates the spooky goings-on - with the help of local cop Creek (Casper van Dien) - things take a shocking turn that makes Annie question everything she ever knew about her family.
Given the sheer number of flaws within The Pact, it would be quicker to rhyme off the things that work in the film - nothing! McCarthy has an annoying knack for ending numerous scenes with an overlong fade out - either he realised there wasn't enough detail to fill the running time or he felt the need to punctuate proceedings with needless black screens.
The script is painfully dull - exchanges of dialogue between characters are stilted and take forever to complete. It's like watching automatons have a discussion. As for labelling The Pact a horror, it's nothing of the sort. The entire film lacks tension, atmosphere and - most importantly - is completely devoid of scares. Almost every horror cliché is rolled out including doors opening on their own, people inexplicably entering dark rooms despite lights working and numerous attempts at (failed) fake scares.
When the final act detours into serial killer territory involving a ghost that somehow knows how to work Google Maps on an iPhone, the entire thing descends into farce. There's also the little issue with certain plot-points that are touched upon briefly but never explained or utterly discarded towards the end.
Even the film title makes no sense - there's no 'pact' to speak of mentioned throughout the entire 90 minutes. The Pact is yet another awful attempt at horror that provides absolutely nothing new to the genre and will waste the time of anyone opting to see it.
