Film
The Pact
A low-budget supernatural thriller where two sisters return to their childhood home after their mother's death and discover a malevolent presence tied to a dark family secret. Shot with real tension despite its modest means, it's a slow-burn haunted house story that trusts atmosphere over jump scares. For fans of intimate, character-driven horror that makes you uneasy in quiet moments.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy a small-scale haunting where the unease builds from a family secret surfacing through dreams and discoveries inside one old house.
Skip it if its audience score of 5.7 hints at uneven execution, so it may feel thin if you want big set pieces or a tightly plotted scare machine.
What it asks of you: At 89 minutes it keeps a patient, unhurried pace, so settle in and let the atmosphere do the work rather than expecting constant action.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Insidious2011
A family is haunted by something that exists in the spaces between worlds. Like The Pact, it builds dread through suggestion and sound design, and treats the central mystery with genuine seriousness. The scares feel earned.
But By now the twist has been widely discussed and parodied, which dulls the impact of what was once genuinely disorienting.
The Ring2002
A mother investigates a cursed videotape to save her son's life. Both films use the family unit as their emotional anchor and find horror in the revelation of uncomfortable truths rather than just ghosts. Methodical and absorbing.
But The central concept has aged into cultural shorthand, and repeated viewings have flattened some of its mystery.
Sinister2012
A true-crime writer discovers his new home has a horrifying history tied to unsolved murders. Exactly The Pact's wheelhouse: intimate scale, family trauma, and a protagonist uncovering something their home won't let them ignore.
But The finale leans into supernatural action in ways some find tonally jarring after the slower build.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Pact
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Shutter2008
Both turn photographs and family secrets into visual evidence of guilt; both suggest that some truths refuse to stay buried no matter how hard you try to escape them.
A couple hits a woman with their car and leaves the scene. Soon, a ghostly figure begins appearing in their photographs. Thai horror transplanted to America—it has the same DNA as The Pact but channels genuine folk-horror unease and operates on dream logic.
But The American remake dilutes what made the original work; some viewers find it too slow and abstract for conventional jump-scare expectations.
More like this (8)
The Conjuring2013
Paranormal investigators work to free a family from a house's malevolent history. It's a masterclass in constructing dread, with strong ensemble work and genuine affection for its characters that makes you care what happens to them.
But The setup is familiar enough that knowing it's Wan directing it somewhat predicts the beats.
Poltergeist1982
A suburban family's home is invaded by angry spirits connected to a buried trauma. The original haunted-house film done right: creeping wrongness that escalates into genuine threat, with real stakes for the family at its center.
But Some of the special effects have visibly aged, and the pacing stretches in the middle act.
The Blackening2023
A group of friends is trapped in a house where a mysterious force hunts them based on racial stereotypes. Sharp, funny, angry, and genuinely suspenseful—horror that uses genre to say something and characters you actually root for.
But The tonal balance between satire and scares won't work for everyone; some moments are played for laughs, others for terror.
Hereditary2018
A family is haunted after their mother's death by a presence embedded in their lineage. Like The Pact, it treats family trauma as the real horror, but goes much further into grief and generational damage. Absolutely uncompromising.
But It's relentlessly bleak and demanding; the runtime is nearly two-and-a-half hours of accumulating dread with no relief valve.
Dark Water2002
A mother and daughter move into a deteriorating apartment building haunted by a previous resident's tragedy. Japanese horror at its most patient and sad—it's about abandonment and maternal love as much as ghosts, with a melancholy that lingers.
But The pacing is glacial, and if you don't connect with its emotional core, the slow reveals will feel tedious.
The Uninvited2009
A girl returns home after a hospital stay to find her father's new girlfriend has moved in, and begins to suspect something deeply wrong. A tight mystery-thriller that plays fair with the audience and rewards attention to detail.
But Once the twist lands, rewatches flatten it considerably, and some find the final act a bit too tidy for comfort.
The Gift2015
Both films use a house as a stage for past sins to catch up with the present; both make the family unit itself feel unsafe; both understand that the real terror is social isolation.
A married couple reconnects with an old acquaintance, and what seems like a reconciliation becomes a slow-motion unraveling of their life. It's a mystery that works like a locked-room drama but set in a house, with mounting tension and genuine moral ambiguity.
But The supernatural element is completely absent—this is psychological rather than supernatural, which some may find disappointing if they want actual horror.
Come True2020
Both are intensely intimate horror about violation and powerlessness; both use a simple domestic or institutional setting to explore something deeply wrong that the protagonist can't quite articulate; both trust the audience to sit with discomfort.
A homeless teenager volunteers for a sleep-study and begins experiencing disturbing visions that blur reality and dream. An indie sci-fi horror about bodily autonomy and memory, visually gorgeous and deeply unsettling in ways that feel fresh and strange.
But It's intentionally oblique; the plot resists easy explanation and some viewers will find the abstraction frustrating rather than intriguing.
People
Cast
Caity LotzAnnie Barlow
Casper Van DienBill Creek
Agnes BrucknerNichole
Haley HudsonStevie
Sam BallGiles
Mark StegerCharles
Directing
- Nicholas McCarthyDirector
Writing
- Nicholas McCarthyWriter
Production
- Lindsey Hayes KroegerCasting
- Jamie CarmichaelExecutive Producer
- Ross M. DinersteinProducer