The Pact

So after a Sun Dance appearance the Pact went to straight to video on demand, which is a shame because this movie has potential if a studio marketed it properly, and changed the name. As I never saw any indication of a pact being made . The Killer in the Walls while more fitting would not put butts in seats either. While on a sparse budget writer/director Nicholas McCarthy made the most with what he was working with using lighting and the tension of silence to create scares. The story has a familiar Lovely Bones them of I'm haunting you til you find my killer/body/bury me peacefully theme. The little blood is negligible.This one clocks in at only two scenes of bloody violence. As far as boobs go normally not into blonds Caity Lotz runs around well in a confused break down wearing her under pants and has a tied up over head shot of her as a damsel in distress. I can't seem to place her 3 episode role in Mad-men, but remember her from the Mtv mockumentary style horror reality show about vampire killing cops . Haley Hudson does a good job of playing a spooky meth'ed out psychic. The concerned buddy cop role, is left cut in card board, but that is one of the movie's few flaws. This movie is smartly made the typical soundtrack builds precluding the boo! moments are non existent and even with some of the Paranormal Activity moments stays pretty realistic, unexplained disappearances not included. So fans of the haunting sub-genre of horror will find this worth there while, even though a serial killer plays a plot point role, true crime gore-hounds need not apply. Sure without Sam and Dean's zaniness at times it might feel like a across between Momento and Supernatural. Sure we get the twists coming from a mile away and the plot shift occurs earlier than you would expect, but was handled well and takes the tension up a notch. The film has enough creep and supernatural to be horror, though leans in the direction of thriller.Not unlike metal fans who expect double bass and growls in order to be metal, this movie plays it with restraint so rigid genre fans might not classify this as horror. The happily ever after ending in my book doesn't help it's case as a horror movie.But I was on the edge of the bed with the no don't go in basements for a few seconds here and there, though I'm a sucker for a haunting.

The Innkeepers

Ti West's newest film the InnKeepers, had high expectations after i loved the creepy factor of his previous effort " house of the devil" . I was not prepared for the stylistic shift , but can appreciate a film maker who wants to have a boarder range and not just be a one trick pony. At times i think The Innkeepers , is no more horror than say Shaun of the dead, but it's not a comedy either , falling into more of a Napoleon Dynamite slacker ethos , sure there is a haunted hotel , there is a serial Killer in last year's day dream nation but that didn't make that film horror either , not that it tried to be.
The characters are real , fleshed out and well acted , so that keeps the movie moving a few scenes tease you as you can see something happening from a mile away . I liked this movie in the same way i liked Ghost World or high fidelity, so despite the spooky poster art i wouldn't classify this as a horror movie per se , dark comedic drama ? Sure he pulls out a scare of sorts i suppose at the end but where house of the devil worked is that the tension was kept taunt through out the whole movie, here it feels more like yeah , here's this boo.
Here the haunted house didn't really carry the sense of menace, it needs to loom as the monster or be convincing , 1408 in it's first hour before it turned into a scary Jumanji didn't give you the imposing structure like Amityville, or the isolation factor like the shining , even movies like paranormal activity and poltergeist which occur in the burbs created enough myth to keep you on edge , after all isn't that the purpose of a ghost story. Normally i am the most scared by a good haunting , even a haunting in Connecticut, here the atmosphere of menace , just wasn't there perhaps purposefully so to add to the slacker realism.
Hope Ti goes back to horror on his next , films , if you want to watch something with a slight spook to it perhaps with a friend who isn't into horror , this would work, it's well acted and made , and not a bad movie , perhaps mis marketed