The Devil's Pact

The Pact was a good movie. Great even, but why it got a sequel is beyond me. The Pact 2 is connected by the fact that the killer from the first one, Judas, has a copycat going around and it's somehow tied to this forensic cleaner. The lead is fine in the role, quite good actually, and the main girl from the last movie makes an appearance. There's also a creepy FBI agent who's the guy who plays a creepy character in basically everything he's in, and he's fine, and then there's the main character's love interest who is a cop. This dude is a terrible actor and unfortunately a good amount of the plot rests on his shoulders. The plot itself is so ludicrous though it's impossible for anyone to save it. They tie a supernatural element to the whole thing, combined with a murder mystery and psychological drama and it just bites off way more than it can chew. After a while it gets convoluted to the point that you just want to see it end.

The scares are mediocre at best. There are a few cheap jump scares, but a majority of the movie is atmospheric and slow burning. Unfortunately slow burning comes across as boring when trying to piece together a plot that makes absolutely no sense. I wouldn't say The Pact 2 is an awful movie. There's some promise here, but it's muddled in messy storytelling and a lack of quality scares. Maybe worth watching on a drunken night if you've seen the first movie. Even then, The Pact 2 is a sloppy and forgettable sequel.

If your hoping the pact 2 is as good as the first outing of this impressive horror thriller film well im sorry to say you will be disappointed. The first film had something extra to add to the recent outings of horror films and gave the feeling this could be a new exciting franchise. The story was well thought and carried on from the first film but the acting and how it was put together was the let down for this sequel, the fright scenes were few and far between which after watching the first one I was excited to watch the sequel but 30 mins into the 95 minute attempt of a sequel you really lose interest. The saving grace is there is potential to make a third outing for the carpet hateing killer and lets hope they do make it and go back to how they done the first one as this has the potential to be a good franchise as lets be honest there have not been many lately and the only competition would be the never ending paranormal activity which has gotten dull. The pact 3 could work the same as sinister 2 and insidious 3, the future could be bright for horrors.

Every now and then a film comes along that breathes new life into an old genre. A film that makes you think...wakes you up...makes you take notice and become invested in it's twists and turns and intricacies.

Yeah, this isn't that film.

So this is a direct sequel to The Pact (2012) and it's exactly the same.

Muted, washed out color palette.

Strange and unprofessional lighting choices.

Technical problems regarding focus and overexposure.

And let's not forget the atrocious sound design.

Knowing that this film is a small, lower budget production one could maybe look past the obvious inexperience and lack of polish.

What I cannot look past is yet another film filled with completely unlikable and apathetic characters that I simply do not care about in any way.

Hence, the title of this review.

There is no way you can convince me that two separate films filmed approximately two years apart just happened to have an entire cast of people you simply cannot care about and probably actively dislike from scene one.

Coincidence? .... no way.

This must have been intentional.

The story is again, worn out and tired and the entire production offers nothing new or refreshing whatsoever.

The "jump scares" are amateurish and simply do not work.

The "suspense" is dull and drawn out and becomes boring really quickly.

The interpersonal dramas and emotionally charged situations are inconsequential and aggravating. You simply cannot bring yourself to care enough about any of these people to invest any time at all into their lives.

I was disappointed in the first film for all of these same exact reasons and I assumed that a sequel released 2 years after the first film would show some technical improvement, increased production value, better developed plot points and dialogue, and characters I actually wanted to go along with on the journey through the film.

What I got was a washed out muted mess full of aggravating events and plot holes, bad dialogue, horrible characters, and a collection of failed attempts to frighten me with tired, old, geriatric jump scares that fell flat every single time.

This is a failure through and through.

I was quite surprised to see that The Pact got a sequel, but that was a great movie and every successful movies these days gets a sequel i guess. What's no surprise is that The Pact 2 is inferior to it's predecessor in almost every way, cinematography which is very nice is on par and in the same vein as it's predecessor. The Pact 2 does also like the first movie build up the suspense through tension and atmosphere, but it only partly succeed and relies too much on cheap jump scares. Plotwise it's rather hard to follow and sometimes confusing to see the connections, especially through her nightmare visions and the supernatural elements. I also find the acting sometimes awkward and unnatural, especially FBI agent Ballard.

Amazing how the screenplay can make simple scenes look very tiring. Each conversation are twice the length of normal movie's, one might press fast forward or skip a chunk of it and still be at the same agonizing slow pace. Acting is limping, it has small cast and half of it are awfully delivering rigid performance. It feels disjointed at every corner, even the scares are poorly constructed and overly used.

Story is an inconsistent struggle to bring supernatural theme and mystery thriller, both of which fail at making any momentum. It's crucial to highlight the FBI officer, which is the weakest character on the small roster. Every time he's in the screen, he brings inhumanely stiff performance. If this is an effort to build mystery, it's highly misguided. Random passerby reading the script out loud would probably be more capable.

The boyfriend and mother roles are also awkwardly played. They never seem to be convincing nor do they sync well with others. Thus, Camilla Luddington as June, the troubled girl and returning Caity Lotz, as Annie are the most decent, by default. To their credits, both of the female actors try to set-up the horror and they do have better screen presence.

Nevertheless, the scenes are either plodding or rushed. Caity Lotz doesn't feel as she's introduced to the story naturally, she just pops up and becomes instant best friend with Luddington's June. Their interactions are more fluid than most, unfortunately the movie doesn't take advantage of that. Luddington isn't entirely bad, she has good expression, but she must deal with insipid screenplay which makes her looking bizarre and enacting the same motions repeatedly.

There might a few scares with flicker lights or angle shifts, yet even these instances are overly done. Without spoiling anything the mix between paranormal and mystery doesn't pan out well. The Pact 2 instills more boredom than horror or dread.