The Covenant (2006)

Four young men who belong to a supernatural legacy are forced to battle a fifth power long thought to have died out. Another great force they must contend with is the jealousy and suspicion that threatens to tear them apart.

Director:

Renny Harlin

Writer:

J.S. Cardone

Stars:

Steven Strait, Sebastian Stan, Taylor Kitsch

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Steven Strait	...	Caleb Danvers
Laura Ramsey	...	Sarah Wenham
Sebastian Stan	...	Chase Collins
Taylor Kitsch	...	Pogue Parry
Chace Crawford	...	Tyler Simms
Toby Hemingway	...	Reid Garwin
Jessica Lucas	...	Kate Tunney
Kyle Schmid	...	Aaron Abbot
Wendy Crewson	...	Evelyn Danvers
Stephen McHattie	...	William Danvers III
Kenneth Welsh	...	Provost Higgins
Christian Baril	...	Dead Teenage Boy
Basia Jasinski	...	Nicky's Bar Waitress (as Barbara Basia-Jasinski)
Rob Burns	...	Mr. Pennyworth
Robert Crooks	...	Ryan Bael

Storyline

To the students of the Spenser Academy, the Sons of Ipswich are the baddest boys on campus. But that's not all they share. The four friends also share a 300-year-old secret: they're warlocks, the teenage descendants of a 17th-century coven of witches. So when the long-banished fifth son suddenly appears and threatens to kill their loved ones, they realize they must face their enemy in order to prevent him from stealing their powers and shattering the covenant forever.

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Plot Keywords:

warlock | student | shower | witchcraft | front crawl | 

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Taglines:

In 1692, five families with untold power formed a covenant of silence. One family lusting for more, was banished, their bloodline disappearing without a trace. Until now.

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Genres:

Action | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, sexual content, partial nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

Gaumont Columbia Tristar [fr] Sony Pictures [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 September 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Covenan+

Filming Locations:

Bishop's University, Lennoxville, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$20,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£181,365 (UK) (8 December 2006)

Gross:

£181,365 (UK) (8 December 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Screen Gems, Eyetronics, Lakeshore Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Tyler is a year younger than the rest of the boys.

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Goofs

Chase tells Pogue and Caleb that he heard they were swimmers while the pair are playing foosball at Nicky's, but his mouth doesn't quite match up to the words, almost as if he's yelling it and then it was voiced over.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Reid Garwin: What's up fellas?
Tyler Sims: Where were you? I stopped by to give you a lift.
Reid Garwin: Had things to do. How's the party?
Pogue Parry: Don't know. Just got here.
Reid Garwin: Well hell boys,
[eyes go black]
Reid Garwin: let's drop in.
[jumps off cliff]
Tyler Sims: Shit, yeah!
[...]

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Crazy Credits

The opening Production Company; Lakeshore Entertainment shows the lake to be burning

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Connections

Featured in The Hour: Episode #7.81 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"I Love Rock and Roll"
Written by Jake Hooker (as Jerry Mamberg), Alan Merrill (as Allan Sachs)
Performed by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts (as Joan Jett and The Blackhearts)
Produced by Kenny Laguna
Courtesy of Blackheart Records

User Reviews

not as bad as expected

Basic summary: Ipswitch used to be a community of witches and escaped the Salem witch hunts by forming a covenant of secrecy. The first born males descended from these families have supernatural powers, and must come to terms with the seductive, addictive nature of using those powers.

Well, I usually give movies the benefit of the doubt and start from a 5, going from there:

Production: -1 for very obvious audio out of sync, +1 for nicely done special effects, the darkling actually gave me chills, +0.5 for nice colorization (I like the dull blue), -0.5 for the stupid sound track, +0.5 for the opening sequence -- I'm a sucker for stylish compositing and flashy title design.

Story / Script: +1 for decent main idea, -0.5 for DBZ/Matrix/Street Fighter ripoff/pastiche, -1 for not explaining some plot threads very well (spiders, darkling), -1 for boring, predictable ending, -1 for gratuitous exposition, both as words on the screen and as bland monologuing

Acting / Characterization: -0.5 for bad bad acting, although it gets a little better as the film progresses, -1 for lack of character development, especially among all the females

Other: +1 for gratuitous male and female nudity, which is fun to watch, and +0.5 for no sex scenes, which for this genre are usually done very badly and end up being boring rather than hot, +1 for hitting its target audience, teenage sci-fi/horror/thriller fans, even though this movie is not exclusively any of those genres.

Conclusion: This is not a "film," this is a MOVIE. There's really nothing to analyze, it's just good, (relatively) clean fun. Lots of really attractive actors and actresses. Lots of boys fighting in the style of DBZ and Street Fighter. If you like cute actors and actresses, supernatural special effects, and/or mindlessly fun plots, this movie is for you. If you prefer Oscar-worthy, exquisitely-produced film masterpieces with tons of multi-layered, allegorical plot threads and groundbreaking visualization techniques, you probably won't like this film.

Using my twisted logic, this movie gets a 4/10.