Review - The Covenant

I should have known that this movie was directed by Renny Harlin . . .

. . . I thought I told him to stay the hell away from my horror films.

Yep, The Covenant was very Harlin-ish with its flashy little scenes and violence and lack of character development and stupid plot. Sorry, got a little carried away there.

At any rate, the story is about the Sons of Ipswich who are now coming of age and into their new and heightened powers – they call this ascending. There is one catch with the use of their powers though, the more you use, the older your body becomes. It is apparently very seductive to use so some cannot resist. Such is the case with Caleb’s (Steven Strait) father (Steven McHattie).

So all of these Sons of Ipswich are involved in a Covenant to not only keep their powers quiet but to try and all survive the whole ascending rite of passage. They all go to this private school where a couple of new players have entered the scene; Sarah (Laura Ramsey) who becomes Caleb’s love interest and Chase Collins (Sebastian Stan) who befriends the Sons of Ipswich. I will only say that I didn’t like him from the start.

The other Sons of Ipswich included Pogue (Taylor Kitsch – of Friday Night Lights fame), Tyler (Chace Crawford) and Reid (Toby Hemmingway). There was also a girlfriend of one of the Sons, Kate (Jessica Lucas) – she was the lucky one who was the girl of the jealous and HOT Pogue. One thing I did not envy her for was when a spell was put on her and it had to do with one of my least favorite things – spiders! Yes, I am a raging arachnophobe so that was quite freaky for me.

It comes to be that someone is using their powers a lot more than they should be and Caleb as the fearless leader of the group is bound by The Covenant to try and stop them. It isn’t who you initially think though, so it takes a while for the group to figure it out. But when they do, is it too late?

Like I said, this is typical Renny Harlin so a lot of flash, a lot of hoopala but not a lot of substance. This is sad for me because The Covenant could’ve been a much better movie. The premise was promising. On the positive side you get to see a lot of eye candy in some really tiny speedos so if you like that kind of thing, (and I did when it was Taylor Kitsch!) you might at least have a little fun watching this disappointing excuse for a movie.

The Covenant Movie Cast and Credits

Directed by
Renny Harlin

Writing credits
J.S. Cardone (written by)

Cast (in credits order)
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 ... James Danvers
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
Steven Crowder ... Party Kid
Larry Day ... Patrolman Reeve
Vito DeFilippo ... Mr. Hoffman
Jonathan Deveau ... Semi-Driver
Frank Fontaine ... Gorman Twoberry
Dawn Ford ... School Nurse
Paul Hopkins ... Fireman
Pierre Leblanc ... Mr. Waugh
Travis Martin ... Student
Basil McKenna ... Patrolman Endore
Jon McLaren ... Bordy Becklin
Neil Napier ... Coach Hamm
Charles Papasoff ... Security Guard
John Robinson ... Patrolman Byers
Sarah Smyth ... Kira Snider
Paul Stewart ... School Doctor
Jean-Loup Yale ... Nicky the Bartender
Richard Zeman ... Sergeant Sobel