The Pact - a great horror thriller

I assume it was a Mark Kermode review that pointed me in the direction of The Pact (it normally is), and how glad I am that he did.  I watched The Pact last week when I was home alone for a few evenings.  That was a bit of an error, since the film is one of the scariest I have seen in some time.  Being home alone in the dark with the lights off does wonders for generating an exciting atmosphere in which to watch a horror film, but it doesn't help you get to sleep later on.

The Pact starts off with a neat opening in which a woman - Liz - goes back to the house in which she grew up to sort out her recently dead mother's affairs.  She has a Skype conversation with her daughter who asks "who's that behind you?".  Not put off by that, she decides to sleep the night there, hears weird noises coming from behind a cupboard door, goes to investigate and... cut to black.  The next day her sister Annie (Caity Lotz) arrives, but Liz is nowhere to be found.  Annie stays in the house and has a series of paranormal experiences, that result in her leaving the house vowing never to return.

The film then moves along at a nice pace as it switches smoothly between straight horror and mystery thriller.  A series of neat twists and turns come and go before the story comes to a head in a way that's rather satisfying and crucially doesn't make a mockery of the rest of the film.  You want scares too?  Well there's one fantastically effective shock moment when Annie sees a vision of death in the motel room where she has sought refuge after fleeing her mother's house.  In that respect it's as good a horror film as any I've seen in recent years.

There are a lot of small pleasing things about this film.  The first is that Annie acts like a normal person would!  When she gets thrown around by a poltergeist in the house where her mother died - she runs for the hills (note the contrast with Daniel Radcliffe's character in the uninspiring Woman in Black)!  When she goes back she's got back up in the form of the police and then a local psychic she knew at school.  Secondly - she's an attractive woman, but there is no romance subplot.  It's something that could easily have been crow-barred in between her and the nice friendly policeman.  Instead the film concentrates on the mystery / horror / thriller story line with Annie searching furiously for clues that will set her free from what she has unleashed.  Admittedly she does most this wearing little more than pants and a vest top - but I don't see anything wrong with a strong independent female protagonist looking good while she's being strong and independent.

To conclude; The Pact is a superb, simple thriller.  It's terrifying, has a number of stand-out moments of pure horror and a great performance from the relatively unknown Caity Lotz.  Anyone with any passing interest in horror cinema needs to watch this movie.