The Pact is a 2012 Supernatural Horror movie written and directed by Nicholas McCarthy.
This film provides examples of:
- Bland-Name Product: Global Search, Global Maps, and Global Earth Street-View.
- Good All Along: Jennifer Glick's ghost is actually trying to alert Annie that there's a serial killer living in the basement. During her acrobatic struggle with the ghost, Annie embeds her kitchen knife in what she later realizes is a false wall covering the door to a secret extra room.
- I See Dead People: Annie's friend Stevie is technically a psychic, but she was still able to pick up a message from Jennifer Glick inadvertantly because of her powers.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Jennifer Glick's headless body is blurry but visible in the background for several seconds before a Rack Focus abruptly highlights it for us.
- Otherworldly Communication Failure: Considering the dreams Annie keeps having as well as the visions of the ghost woman in the floral dress she has when awake, Annie is rightfully terrified and thinks this ghost is the cause of her sister Nicole's disappearance. While Annie is right that the house is indeed being haunted by the ghost of Jennifer Glick, she was only trying to warn Annie about the murderer living in the basement, who was the actual killer. Jennifer is finally able to at least give Annie a hint (by naming the murderer) when she brings in her psychic friend to help.
- Secret Squatter: Annie is being haunted by a ghost - but the ghost is trying to warn her that there's actually a flesh-and-blood Serial Killer, her crazy uncle Charles, hiding in her basement.
- Shared Unusual Trait: Annie Barlow has one green eye and one blue eye. So does Charles Barlow, implying Annie's basement-dwelling serial-killer uncle is also her creepy incest-dad.
- Spooky Photographs: A ghostly hand pointing at the Torture Closet can only be seen in photos (printed copies, or through the viewfinder of a digital camera). Subverted when the viewfinder shows a gaunt male figure walking through the living room. We're led to believe this means the figure is a ghost. It's actually a trick of perspective: we would have been able to see the figure even without the camera, because he was an alive human.
- Tentative Light: Light fixtures and flashlights flicker and go out. The medium Stevie says that something is "taking the light."
- Torture Cellar: Annie and Nicole are haunted by memories of childhood time spent in the Torture Closet. It's never said exactly what abuses happened in there, but it left enough residual bad juju that a blind junkie psychic felt the need to offer condolences to Annie.
- Wacky Cravings: Subverted. The fridge mysteriously opens in the night, and some food is scattered on the floor: a jar of pickles and two sticks of butter. Is this a clue that the ghost is a pregnant woman? Well, yes. But she's not the one who made the mess; the flesh-and-blood killer was just hungry.
