The Devil's Pact

I started off thinking that this one had the potential to be better than the first. My two biggest gripes with the first one was the acting and the script, both of which greatly improved on this one. However, unfortunately the storyline wasn't as gripping and the twist was, well, kinda lame lol As a whole it was still entertaining and not a waste of time. I liked the way they connected the characters and the plot from the first to the second. It didn't quite feel like a sequel for a sequels sake, it made sense, which was nice. They were quite obviously setting it up for a third which I think could be successful if they really hunkered down and infused some creativity and originality into it because I think they have a good foundation to work from. Would recommend.

I'm going to get straight to the point here and say that The Pact 2 is absolute garbage and it is definitely one of the worst movies you'll see this year. How anyone can actually think that this is better than the first film is beyond me as well.

I rated the first movie 5-Stars simply because I found it a bit slow going and was a bit hard to stick with, but other than that it was a decent film to watch. This second one, however, doesn't even come close to touching the first one as at least that film had a bit of atmosphere, suspense, and some creepy moments here and there.

This second film one had none of that.

I won't go as far to say that I had huge hopes for this sequel because it's not as if it was being promoted as one of the "scariest" or "creepiest" movies of the year, but it was still a let down and I was hoping for more considering what the first film had.

The acting was pretty poor as well from a couple of the main cast members, the main one being Camilla Luddington who played June Abbott. Her performance was less than convincing and it was more wooden than Pinocchio (probably won't come as a surprise that she's mainly a TV actress). The other pretty poor performance was from Patrick Fischler who played FBI Agent Ballard. I think he was trying to play the character as having this deep, mysterious, many layered persona but just came across as a pretty creepy, but bland, stalker-type of character. Even Mark Steger, who plays Judas, didn't have the same creepy presence as before.

Was the film scary? No. Was it suspenseful? Never. Was it thrilling? Ha, yeh right! What it was, though, was boring, pretty unimaginative, poorly written, poorly acted, and just an utter waste of time.

I'd recommend giving The Pact a watch, but as for this tripe of a sequel, I'd give it a wide berth if I were you.

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.

A less terrifying sequel to the sleeper hit horror film, The Pact. The Pact 2 fails mainly in its story that may keep you engaging, but is poorly connected and concluded together in the end. The climax is unsatisfying and is not even scary or memorable here comparing to the first film. The SCARES here might not be as genuinely creepy as the first but it does have some effective ones as well as cheap ones to have you jump from time to time. There are also some bloody kills but nothing GORY or anything. Overall, this film series has potential to be the next horror hit series like Insidious films due to its engaging story and creepy scares but for now, this sequel will be remembered as the most disappointing one, yet >>C+<<