The Pact(2012)
2012 · Nicholas McCarthy · 89 min
After their mother passes away, sisters Nicole and Annie reluctantly return to their childhood home to pay their last respects. While staying overnight in the house, the sisters sense a mysterious presence in their midst: noises startling them in the night, objects moving about, a fallen picture of an unknown woman posed next to their mother. Annie begins experiencing a series of intense and disturbing dreams - visions that lead her to uncover something terrible about her mother's past that is finally revealing itself.
Horror · Mystery · Thriller
5.7541 votes
TMDB score
3/5
Intensity
1/5
Gore
3/5
Stays with you
How The Pact scares
There's a heavy, uneasy feeling that builds slowly as you move through empty rooms and hallways that feel wrong even when nothing is happening. The movie leans on quiet dread, odd sounds, and things just slightly out of place rather than constant jump scares, though it does use a few well-placed ones. As the story digs into old family secrets, the fear shifts from ghostly haunting into something more unsettling and human underneath. It's a good pick if you like slow-building house-based scares with a mystery pulling you through, rather than nonstop action or gore.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, The Pact rates psychological 4/5, visceral 2/5, gore 1/5, lingering effect 3/5, and overall intensity 3/5.
- Psychological: 4 of 5
- Visceral: 2 of 5
- Gore: 1 of 5
- Lingering: 3 of 5
- Intensity: 3 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 25 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 50 of 100 — balanced
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 55 of 100 — balanced
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A slow, uneasy haunted-house creep that builds through eerie interludes into a tense, dread-heavy final stretch before settling for a quieter close.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 3.
How scary is The Pact?
On The Horror Database's 0–5 intensity scale, The Pact rates 3/5 — solidly scary, building its fear through slow-burn dread rather than shocks. The fear is mostly in your head — it unsettles far more than it assaults. Expect it to be restrained with gore and scary but not punishing. Some of it will follow you to bed, but it lets go within a day or so.
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