Was looking around the internet for some good Netflix horror suggestions and came across this list from The Complex. The whole list looks pretty solid, I figure I’ll try at least a few of these this month. I started with The Pact since Netflix keeps recommending it to me anyway.
Glad to be back to the horror movie watching. Had an amazing shoot yesterday with a great cast & crew. Insanely great. And now I’m a little exhausted and my feet hurt. Life in production!
And back to the horror movies.
The Pact, 2012. Dir. & Written by Nicholas McCarthy. Starring Caity Lotz, Casper Van Dien, Mark Steger.
Netflix seems to have really wanted me to watch this one. It keeps popping up. And now I’ve watched it. Hmmm… Netflix, you didn’t really nail this one.
The Pact isn’t bad. It’s just not great.
I think what didn’t really work was the story. The basic premise is fine, a woman reluctantly returns home after her mother’s death only to encounter old family demons and a haunted house. The problem is that the backstory is just a little too complex to fit comfortably into the relatively short running time. I always appreciate when filmmakers follow Show don’t Tell. But sometimes you do need to do a little telling. There are still a few things I’m not quite sure I followed. It’s sort of a haunted house movies, sort of a serial killer movie, sort of a movie that left out a lot of important details…
That being said, I did really enjoy how the movie was shot. They make good use of the small spaces to play up the confusion. Technically, The Pact is well done. Some of the effects are noticeably low budget but that’s fine, it didn’t take me out of the moment which is generally the important thing.
Overall, this wasn’t my favorite. Mostly it suffers from trying to include too much backstory in not enough time. Otherwise, the acting, the cinematography, and some of the scares are all well done. It’s a good effort that just doesn’t quite come together.
Apparently there’s a sequel… I don’t know if I’m gonna watch that one.
On to the next one. I might try and watch something else tonight, catch up after my slow start.
Or I might just go to sleep. Haven’t done a lot of that this last week. Or two. Or three… We’ll see what happens.
How is everyone else doing with their horror movie marathons? Watching anything good?
Previous Years
2013: The Curse of the Werewolf
2012: Paranormal Activity
2011: An American Werewolf in London
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