The Covenant Year: 2006 Director: Renny Harlin Written by: J.S. Cardone Threat: Warlock Weapon of Choice: Magic Based upon: none Color/B&W/3D: Colour Language: English Country of Origin: USA IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

The tyranist's thoughts
Rish swore he'd never see this movie so I suppose it is up to me to review it. I'm not sure why he is so set against it but completely willing to see remakes of movies that he loves even though he knows they will disappoint compared to the originals. And really, in 2006 it was pretty much this or remakes of older horror movies.
Four young men of high breeding (and questionable intelligence) are the inheritors of The Power. As one nears his 18th birthday, the point at which they really come into their full powers, there is someone in town trying to mess up the whole thing.
I didn't care for the pretty young things that inhabited this flick. They didn't bother me, but really I had a hard time telling them apart most of the time and that was annoying. More than the actors, I struggled with the mythos of the movie. They did a very poor job of establishing the mythos and telling the audience about it. What little they did manage to convey, they contradicted in order to end the final conflict. The mythos could have been very cool, but instead, it ended up just being a sort of excuse to make a movie in which they could stage a big fight that involved magic.
And really, that wouldn't have been such a bad movie if they had tried a little harder. I found the movie watchable. It was dull in parts and just didn't resolve well, but if you needed something to waste an hour and a half on, it could have been worse. Alright. The more I think about it, the more I think of to dislike and the less I can think of to like.
I guess I shan't recommend this one after all. I don't think Rish's over-reaction to it was justified, I've seen far worse, often with him, but it isn't all that great. A few corrections and this could have been much better. They distinctly set up a sequel so maybe we'll get more. Or maybe not. I don't think it lost money, but it certainly wasn't a blockbuster. If they do make another, I'm hope someone sits down and figures out why the first one didn't make much sense.
Posted: March 12, 2007

Total Skulls: 13

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?