Review of The Pact II (2014) by Quincy T — 28 Jul 2015

Horribly slow and slumber inducing. 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.