Friday, September 8, 2006

The Covenant (**1/2)


 ? Descendents of those persecuted in the Massachusetts witch trials possess nearly unlimited supernatural powers that they must keep secret and use wisely. Four high school friends called the “Sons of Ipswich” are the present-day carriers of the powers, and the secret. A villain is able to both appear as a ghostly presence and make insects appear on young women’s bodies.
+ There’s one great idea in the movie. The more the young men use their powers, the more they’re eventually weakened and prematurely aged. The insect stuff is creepy.
- Rather than explore how each of the young men struggles to use his power wisely, the script is content to set up a predictable showdown between a noble hero and an evil villain. The plot isn’t too bad, but the individual scenes seemed more designed to show off the admittedly impressive torsos of its male stars than explore the theme in an interesting way. Overall, there are too many stock elements, with loud music and barroom brawls substituting for excitement. As usual, the high schoolers look too old to be high school students. From a horror standpoint, the scares are infrequent.
= **1/2 I think people who like the mythological aspect of vampire movies, for example, may find some appeal in the idea of a secret society.

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