The Secret Pact

Teenager witnesses both of his parents murdered. He is placed into the witness protection program and given a new life. Things seem to be getting better, but one of his best friends harbors a dark secret. Undistinguishable and unmemorable thriller, but an appealing cast carries it as well as some nice life lessons and values. More entertaining then it ought to be.

Rated R; Violence.

It's tough being a kid sometimes. Especially when you watch a hit-man murder both your parents in front of you in cold blood. So you're put on the Witness Protection Program. You find a friend, and it seems like maybe this world ain't so bad after all. Then it turns out that your new buddy works for your parents' killer. It all adds up to a tragic life for one kid, meaning we get to sit and watch a passable thriller for two hours.

The bad guys send a kid to a prestigious boys' school to find the student who is in the witness protection program, for the usual reasons. Of course, this kid doesn't fit in,socially or otherwise. He tries to befriend the studens in an effort to eliminate, by "friendly" questioning, the possible students on his list. Don''t want to spoil plot by saying more. The student "infiltrator", taught never to trust anyone, is presented as multi-dimensional, and is affected by the other students. Good suspense, excellent characters,and gives insight into how one's upbringing affects who you are.

Greg Sherman (Adam Frost) witnesses his parents' murders by gunmen. His corrupt father was cooperating against crime boss Dominic Patton (Nick Mancuso). Jerome Carver (John Heard) puts him into witness protection as Steven Spencer attending a private boys' school in Montreal. Patton tracks down his location. With limited photograph of Greg, the hired gunmen have to narrow down the target. Greg befriends fellow newbie Lenny Dalton (Rider Strong).

Everything screams cheaper Canadian movie. The adults get side scenes. Rider Strong coming off of Boy Meets World is probably the only one of the kids who shows any spark. The perfunctory lead Adam Frost is a bit of a stiff although his character doesn't help. It boils down to Rider Strong and an intriguing twist. It's also intriguing to turn the traditional point of view inside out although this would probably work better to stay with traditional lead character Greg. Just switch the actors playing them. The other way to do this is to keep Greg a mystery. That way, the audience is figuring it out along with Lenny. Either way would be better.

This movie was one of twelve under the umbrella title "Tales of Intrigue" made by Allegro Films for a Canadian pay TV network. I haven't seen any of the others, but I have a strong feeling from this entry that the others are pretty poor just like this one. I have to agree with the other user commenters that the script has a number of, "Oh, come on now!" moments, starting from the first scene. While one may think from what I just said in the previous paragraph that the movie may be unintentionally campy, it isn't. It's an extremely slow, heavily padded story with no tension at any point, and you'll be able to predict what will happen long before it happens. I guess the production values are passable for a Canadian TV movie effort, and the movie gets a few points for being the rare Canadian movie that is actually set (mostly) in Canada. But it's only worth watching for those non-Canadians who may be wondering why most Canadians don't embrace their nation's movies and television shows.