User Reviews

Anyone who expected this movie to be an amazing, intelligent film will be severely disappointed. However, from the trailer, I made a guess as to the general quality of the film. I was right, and I enjoyed myself.

Hot guys who do magic. That's pretty much all you need to know about the movie. The dialogue is crap, most of the acting is so-so, characters are woefully underdeveloped, and the plot is flimsy at best. That said, it was a fun movie. There was exciting action, and lots of fan service for the girls in the audience (Don't worry boys, there are girls in dubious sleepwear, too) It's one of those movies where you sit and watch and say, "This is a really good idea, but even *I* could write a better movie than this." The concept is cool, the execution not-so-hot. But as a break from the grind of class? Definitely good.

The action was cool. The boys were pretty. And, really, what more does a girl need?

Basic summary: Ipswitch used to be a community of witches and escaped the Salem witch hunts by forming a covenant of secrecy. The first born males descended from these families have supernatural powers, and must come to terms with the seductive, addictive nature of using those powers.

Well, I usually give movies the benefit of the doubt and start from a 5, going from there:

Production: -1 for very obvious audio out of sync, +1 for nicely done special effects, the darkling actually gave me chills, +0.5 for nice colorization (I like the dull blue), -0.5 for the stupid sound track, +0.5 for the opening sequence -- I'm a sucker for stylish compositing and flashy title design.

Story / Script: +1 for decent main idea, -0.5 for DBZ/Matrix/Street Fighter ripoff/pastiche, -1 for not explaining some plot threads very well (spiders, darkling), -1 for boring, predictable ending, -1 for gratuitous exposition, both as words on the screen and as bland monologuing

Acting / Characterization: -0.5 for bad bad acting, although it gets a little better as the film progresses, -1 for lack of character development, especially among all the females

Other: +1 for gratuitous male and female nudity, which is fun to watch, and +0.5 for no sex scenes, which for this genre are usually done very badly and end up being boring rather than hot, +1 for hitting its target audience, teenage sci-fi/horror/thriller fans, even though this movie is not exclusively any of those genres.

Conclusion: This is not a "film," this is a MOVIE. There's really nothing to analyze, it's just good, (relatively) clean fun. Lots of really attractive actors and actresses. Lots of boys fighting in the style of DBZ and Street Fighter. If you like cute actors and actresses, supernatural special effects, and/or mindlessly fun plots, this movie is for you. If you prefer Oscar-worthy, exquisitely-produced film masterpieces with tons of multi-layered, allegorical plot threads and groundbreaking visualization techniques, you probably won't like this film.

Using my twisted logic, this movie gets a 4/10.

This movie is essentially for teenagers. The cool boys in the school meet the cool girls. The boys have supernatural powers and it's all about being in control and appealing to the opposite sex. The plot itself is fairly shallow and offers no twists or turns.

Unlike the movie "Underworld", this movie moves a little too slow and doesn't have anything interesting to offer other than some occasional special effects and some scantily clad actors. The girls run around in their underwear and the boys walk around in swim trunks.

The special effects and the display of the supernatural powers are very well done, but after awhile they evoke yawns, and not excitement. You can only slam people around so much before it quits adding to the plot. The movie fails at upping the ante. No matter how intense the action should feel, it all just looks like more of the same.

Strangely, the adults in this movie offer forth the worst acting. The younger actors do quite well and it is the story and overall plot which leaves the most to be desired.

The movie isn't bad, it just isn't good either.

I must admit this wasn't as bad as I expected. I've seen several Renny Harlin movies, none of which I've liked (in fact, I hated them). So, going into this one, I had little hope (if any). The story isn't the most originial thing I've ever heard of, but it's not a carbon copy of anything else. The story development is pretty straight-forward and predictable. The graphics are what you'd expect, as well. My main complaint with this film is what I call gratuitous dialogue: when people talk too much or think outloud to fill the audience in on what they're thinking. There's a lot of "ha ha I'm so evil" talk from the villain, as well. But, hey, if you can't have fun at the movies, why bother going? All in all, worth seeing at least once.

This is like the definition of a guilty pleasure movie. I know it's bad. Bad acting, bad graphics, the story is pure and total nonsense. There's nothing here worth the time and yet I weirdly enjoy the awfulness.

Don't watch this. There's really no reason to at all. The fact that I weirdly like it is a definite anomaly. If it happens to be on cable, sure, maybe, you have literally nothing to loose.

The idea of the movie was better than the movie itself, I thought. It did have potential, but didn't really embrace it as much as it should have. Basically, it's about four warlocks who are descent from four families from the 17th century who were able to harness the power of witchcraft. But when a fifth one shows up, stronger than all of them and seeking the power of the others, they must stop him before he kills them and everyone they care about. Think Underworld meets Highlander, and that's the basic mood of the movie. It's easy to think of this as an Underworld knock off, but it was actually better than that. The plot is predictable, and drags at times, and there is almost no character development. A lot of interesting subplots are touched upon, but never really explored, and the way they ended it, they obviously want sequels. Check it out, there's some pretty cool action scenes and an interesting story to back it up, but don't count on being blown away.

wow. so, this movie was very hard to understand. the darklings made no sense to me whatsoever, and the way the scenes shift in sequence, it's practically impossible to tell what's going on. the dialog is very cheesy, and the special effects weren't that good. there doesn't seem to even be a point to the movie until about 2/3rds of the way through, and there was very poor acting. the music was decent, and the costumes of choice were okay, a lot of black. the best thing about this movie was that the four guys were hot. superficial, i know, but hey. i'm seventeen. a lot of the scenery and settings were obviously fake, and the movie made too many attempts at "scare scenes". not to mention the fact that it was set up for a sequel. overall- not my pick for a good movie. it was hyped up way more than i thought it was worth.

Going into seeing "The Covenant," I had little expectations. I had expected this to be a big budget movie, full of action sequences and nothing else. Some parts of me believed it would be terrible, but other parts of me had hope because "Underworld," the producers of "The Covenant," was great. Honestly, I can say that I enjoyed it. There were flaws, but not enough for me to walk out or demand my money back.

In 1692, in the Ipswich Colony of Massachusetts, five families with untold power formed a covenant of silence. One family, lusting for more, was banished and their bloodline disappearing without a trace. Four young students at the elite Spencer Academy who are bound by their sacred ancestry. These boys have all been born with special powers. The powers, however, are addictive; if they use them excessively, they will start to weaken and age. The fifth "Son of Ipswich" has surfaced and has plans to destroy the other four and steal their powers for himself.

The premise had a lot of potential. I must admit it did fulfill its potential since it focused manly on the premise then the action sequences. It was more then just a good vs. evil story; it was a story about battling yourself. I liked how there was an obvious metaphor about drugs ruining your body. This should be used as life lessons for teens of today. Unfortunately, there were zero twists or surprises, which means that everything told in the trailers happened in the movie and just that; nothing more.

For a group of unknown actors, the acting could have been a lot worse. Everyone did their jobs and all made believable teenagers. Steven Strait (Caleb Danvers), Taylor Kitsch (Pogue Parry), Toby Hemingway (Reid Garwin), and Chase Crawford (Tyler Sims) played the four main characters concentrated on. Sebastian Stan (Chase Collins) plays the villain. Laura Ramsey and Jessica Lucas (Sarah Wenham and Kate Tunney), were also believable as two teenage roommates.

Some people might complain about the horrible dialog, especially coming from the character, Chase Collins. I personally enjoy it because it was very campy and comic book like. Lex Luther (Gene Hackman) and the Joker (Jack Nicholson) were like that, yet there is no one complaints. Why should you make a complain about Chase Collins? It looked like Sebastian Chase had fun with the character. Sure it was more comic book then graphic novel, "The Covenant" is based on a graphic novel, but it was still fun nonetheless.

Visually, I felt I was watching "Underworld" without the Lycans and Vampires. The special effects were decent as well. There was nothing new or revolutionary, but for a low budget movie, $20 million- low for today's standard, it was still acceptable. Most blockbuster movies run about five times that amount, and some have even reached up to ten times the amount. A final battle between Chase and Caleb reminded me of a "Street Fighter" battle, which some may complain about, that made me feel very nostalgic. The cast is loaded with eye candy for both the male and the female audience.

While "The Covenant" is placed in the action/horror/thriller genre, it should not be considered a horror. Two scenes involved spiders, which I will not reveal anymore, which would not look out of place in a classic horror movie and I was surprised how well those scenes worked. Unfortunately, other than those couple of scenes, the movie is not scary. Therefore, if you go into "The Covenant" expecting a horror you will be disappointed.

The writing could have used some improvement! They needed to spend a little more time explaining some of the subplots. One example was that the four main heroes kept referencing "darklings." We knew what they look like, but nothing else. In addition to the unexplained subplots, one of the characters, Taylor Sims, was horribly underused. I believe he only had one line in the whole movie. They could have just taken him out of the script since he had no purpose. They even left the ending open for a sequel. If they release a sequel, they should spend more time on the things mentioned above. I would be up for seeing one, though it might be more suited for a television series.

Overall, I enjoyed "The Covenant." It was not one of the better movies, but there certainly have been worse. If you enjoy movies that are part supernatural, part comic book, and part TV movie, you will like this. I could see why there were complaints, but I think those were from people that took it far too seriously. This is not a DVD worthy purchase but when going into the theater on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, to spend your $8.50 or more, you should still consider this.

I am not even sure where to begin... so I will start with this... In 15 years of going to the movies that I have paid for with my own money there has been only one I walked out of; this is now the second. This film does not start anywhere, does not go anywhere, is not suspenseful, is not scary, elicits neither sympathy or empathy for the protagonists nor disdain for the antagonist and has some of the most poorly written dialogue in film to date. This film suffers from the script supervisor (responsible for continuity) being asleep in a lot of the scenes making the flow of the film abysmal. This film has randomly placed scenes which try to tie motivations between characters and events through out the film when very little foundation has been laid for anything that happens; everything seems forced and artificial.

Most people will read this and say: "You did not stay to the end so how can you comment on a film you walked out of." Here is my reason: This film did such a poor job of getting me to care about anything it presented in terms of story, dialogue and characters I just could not take its mediocrity anymore. I tried and I think I made it with 15 minutes or so to spare. By that time I was so disinterested in what happens seeing the ending to the film would have made no difference; it would have only served to make me more upset that I stayed to watch this... this... train-wreck to its conclusion. I cannot even chalk this one up to entertainment value because I was not entertained in the least bit. Not even the girl-candy (and they are hot) was enough to keep me in my seat.

As a friend once told me "...you would have been equally served by taking the money you spent and setting it on fire and watching it burn." In this case he is completely correct.

Okay, so it's a male version of the Craft...kinda. Yes, I'd have to agree with that summation; however, this features MUCH more story, more meat, more history, and a FAR better execution than the Craft. It also presents a much better developed story, characters, and production style.

This is dark, yet shines throughout. It is witty without being stupid. It is serious without taking itself too seriously. It is entertaining without losing sight of the fact that its audience wants to be uplifted by their entertainment.

This work features some innovatively creative elements, great performances, and strong dialog combined with historically based characters, enlightened direction, and an incredibly slick production style that does not lose itself in its...slickness. *L* I really enjoy this, and have the extended edition in my DVD collection.

All in all? It's not good for the kiddies. It tends to be a bit harsh in places, but falls well within the PG-13 rating it receives. Billed as "horror," this work is more "thriller," in my opinion. It makes for decent Friday/Saturday night viewing, if you have not yet seen it.

It rates an 8.7/10 from...

the Fiend :.

In 1692, in the Ipswich Colony of Massachusetts, five families of powerful witches commit to a covenant of silence to protect themselves against the witch hunters, but one of the families transgress their pact and is banished from their lands. Along the centuries, the power and the covenant are transmitted through their descendants and when the eldest son is eighteen years old, he ascends to a higher power. However, the use of magic addicts and if used in excess, ages the warlock. In the present days, four wizards teenage friends are in high school and their leader Caleb Danvers (Steven Strait) is close to his eighteenth birthday and consequently to ascend. He has just met Sarah Wenham (Laura Ramsey) and they are dating, when the appearance of darkling and supernatural dreams haunt the group. Sooner they find an evil warlock, descendant of the fifth ancient family that wants to strip Caleb's power.

I liked "The Covenant", a supernatural teenager movie in the style of "Angel", Buffy", "Charmed" or "Supernatural". This film has good special effects, but the story and characters are not well-developed and some lines are terrible. The acting is only reasonable, but Laura Ramsey is extremely beautiful and natural in her great performance, and I liked this unknown actress. In the end, I found "The Covenant" very entertaining, but could be better and better with minor improvements in the screenplay. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Pacto" ("The Covenant")

Takes forever to get anywhere, the performances are over-the-top retarded, especially from the antagonist; once he reveals his evilness, his performance reminded me of an over-aggravated 6th grader in a playground fight.

There are a handful of cool spells revolving around spiders and cars. The TV ad showing the car explode and and reassemble is what got me into the theater, but these are spent before the third act, which is filled to the brim of Dragon Ball Z style flinging with power orbs from hands, only difference is DBZ did it better.

Girls and gay guys will like all the chiseled man-ass splashed across the screen every 2 minuets, everyone else will be pretty bored.

Nick Anderson

Where can I start on this one? The Covenant had some negatives and positives. The negatives were that the movie wasn't at all what I expected from the advertisements. I thought it was going to be at least a little scary and it turned out to be "Just another teen movie". Actually, with a name like "The Covenant", I thought it was going to be about Vampires. Guessed wrong. No blood was involved and it had mild violence that could have been compared to watching a fight between Ken and Ryu in Street Fighter with a lot of "Haduken balls" being thrown around. That was kind of cheesy. The positives were that it did have some originality. Kind of tired of seeing sequel after sequel and this movie gave audiences a break from that. The other positive was that it definitely was a movie for guy craving connoisseurs. This director took every opportunity to showcase the hot bodies of these young hot guys and it certainly had a tint of homoerotica. Kind of like soft porn for the gay guys. The best moments of the movie were the locker room scene showing like 20 bare naked male asses, the swim meets with barely-there speedos that if cut just one centimeter below would probably show some penis, and the guy-on-guy (not so erotic) kiss between Caleb and Chase with Chase lying on top of Caleb at one point of the movie. The good parts mentioned would be good reason enough for this movie to been seen again for those that can't get enough of the male gender.

So, from the trailer you can tell the main plot--A long time ago — like, back in the 1600s with the Putnams and whatnot — five magical families settled and formed the Ipswich Colony in Massachusetts. Four families continued their bloodline hiding their powers, but one family mysteriously disappeared. Anyways, in the present day, the four modern descendants (Hotties, f.y.i.) unravel a disturbing plot for the ringleader's power when the lost bloodline returns.

I have to admit, I really wanted to see the movies because the guys were gorgeous, but also because it was from the producers of Underworld. That's what immediately caught my attention. Underworld had some great action sequences and I went in, expecting the same result with this movie. And I got it, and much more.

The final showdown between good and evil (if you didn't see it coming, watch the trailer again), was phenomenal! The sequence you kept your heart racing as Caleb and Chase battled it out, but too bad it wasn't a four on one battle.

However, the overall feeling of the movie was a bit choppy. One moment it's all tense, the next it's all happy-go-lucky. Just a lot of confusing feelings.

Well, the reason I call this an Action Chick Flick, is because, like I said before the guys are gorgeous, and damn near flawless! Though the characters Caleb (Steven Strait) and Progue (Taylor Kitsch) and the mysterious new evil guy, Chase (Sebastion Stan), are the main ones to be seen, followed by Reid (Toby Hemingway), and then Tyler (Chance Crawford;which you hardly ever see), they are like 10 foot eye candies on the big screen. Ladies, you won't be disappointed.

As for you boys, don't worry there's these two girls that just settle into the plot, Kate (Jessica Lucas) and Sarah (Laura Ramsey). Though you don't get to see their "assets" like you do with the guys, there's some PJ discussions that'll make you wish they had a pillow fight.

I really enjoyed this film. I wouldn't say it's a blockbuster hit or anything, but it's more for teenagers and it has an interesting plot. The action is superb, the guys a wonderful, and it makes you want to see more (and with the ending, it appears there could be that possibility). So, keep an open mind and just enjoy it, it's just pure entertainment with a crafty magical side.

Just came back from an advanced screening tonight.

No, this isn't going to win any awards. It didn't 'reinvent the genre'. It is just a very well made horror/action film.

Renny Harlin has taken a bunch of unknowns, a small budget, and has made a great looking film with some nicely fleshed out characters, nice fight scenes, some decent scares, and some VERY impressive special effects.

What really impressed me most of all was the tender love story between the teenage couple. When was the last time you saw a film where teenagers were in love and they just kissed, smiled and said goodnight? it was so sweet and innocent - far from the graphic bump and grind of most of today's film. I suppose the PG-13 was partly responsible for that - and if so, then bring on more PG-13 teenage films!

Don't let the PG-13 put you off. This is a very good film that anyone should enjoy...even adults like me : )

If you have seen the trailer and liked it, then I think you will like the film. I had a great time tonight and will get this when it comes out on DVD..

I guess I gave this some bonus points just because of the actors involved. I know someone who might even give this more than just one bonus point for having Sebastian Stan in it. And that is ok, overall though this is not something special. It is decent and it has some interesting effects.

Fun to see the lead actor of Blood Ties trying his fangs here ... getting a (power) taste actually. Easy to follow (no pun intended) and quite a few flaws and cliches to boot ... but all in good fun.

Just when I started thinking that Uwe Boll has a monopoly on turning great story ideas into horrible movies, Renny Harlin shows up and reminds me once again why he is the undisputed king of crappy cinema. Behold the evidence of his royal pukie-ness: one more in an endless stream of butt-stupid movies.

When the metaphysical power behind witchcraft is an addiction more seductive and self-destructive than heroin and crack combined, what happens when a super-junkie finds a way to steal the power of others just to keep riding his high? Though the original plot and storyline of the film were quite intriguing and solid ideas, Harlin and screenwriter J.S. Cardone managed to infantilize the dialogue so that even crack-whores and NASCAR fans would still think it was pretty lame.

Then Harlin added his special touch; that indefinable quality of his that perfectly demonstrates his utter lack of imagination. He turned what could have been a phenomenal battle of supernatural powers (I was hoping for the Dark Phoenix versus Emperor Palpatine on Steroids) into a schoolyard scrap involving explosive water balloons. Sadly, Ken and Ryu did it better in the original Street Fighter arcade game.

Harlin dropped the final nail in the film's coffin by casting a bunch of no-talent rejects from Melrose Creek, 90666. It was probably because no self-respecting actors would have tied themselves to this sinking ship. Apparently after doling out a trifecta of trash with "Driven", "Mindhunters", and "Exorcist: The Beginning", Harlin was hoping to suckle from the same teet that nourished Andrew Fleming's "The Craft" and Aaron Spelling's "Charmed." Unfortunately that breast has shrivelled up and gone, and all we are left with is a boob who fancies himself a director. Pity for us.