Synopsis

As the new school year begins at Spenser Academy, students have gathered for a wild outdoor party to mark the end of summer. Hundreds of feet above the gyrating bodies, Caleb Danvers and his three best friends walk to the edge of a dizzying precipice and drop unseen and unscathed before casually joining the fray. At the party, gorgeous newcomer Sarah Wenham is introduced to the boys by her equally stunning roommate Kate. The girls also meet an intriguing transfer student named Chase Collins, who quickly ingratiates himself into the group. The partying is interrupted by the arrival of local police. Later the body of a student, who has apparently overdosed on drugs, is found in his car. Back at school Sarah can’t shake the creepy feeling that someone, or something, is watching her every move. With tensions rising at the school, Caleb and his friends close ranks. Although the four young men appear to be normal teenagers, they share an unspoken bond. Not only are they descendants of the original families that settled Ipswich Colony around the time of the Salem witch trials, they also inherited their ancestors supernatural powers.

What The Critics Say

"It's all fun and games, with the guys using their abilities to razz the local constabulary until it becomes clear that a mysterious entity is using the same powers for evil. Director Renny Harlin has fashioned a slick horror flick that combines MTV flash with Plymouth Rock goth. He adorns it with a slamming rock soundtrack and a glamorkitty young cast, including Laura Ramsey as Caleb's civilian girlfriend." David Hiltbrand PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER "Rejoice: it's a little like a cross between The Lost Boys and Zapped!." Walter Chaw FILM FREAK CENTRAL "A promising opening sequence sets up Renny Harlin's turbo-charged sorcery story with its gothic links to 17th century witch hunts, but the story is firmly in the present, complete with college campus settings to attract its target market of young males, who would like to take a date to the scary movies so they can hug them for safety. Well, if that's all you're looking for, this is your movie." Andrew L Urban URBAN CINEFILE

"The opening steals blatantly from the 1987 teen-vampire flick "The Lost Boys", when a team of sexy young bad boys make a gravity-defying entrance to a night-time outdoor party. However, in a shock twist of near-originality, these teenagers aren't vampires (or a boy band, as a nubile love interest asks in the film's one decent gag). They're the youngest in a bloodline that dates back to five 17th-century Massachusetts families with mighty but mysterious abilities." George Palathingal THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD "The actors perform so badly that they are actually fun to watch. Harlin has mixed horror with wider appeal films during the 16 years since his American breakthrough came with Nightmare on Elm St IV." Des Partridge THE COURIER MAIL "Harlin lays on the atmospherics at full throttle, from the moonlit mist and rain drenched nights, the gothic buildings, autumn leaves blowing supernaturally in the wind, dizzy violin cues, and a little FX for the eyes of our superpowered heroes, who can will objects to move, create forcefields, fly gracefully down several stories and withstand extraordinary amounts of bodily impact." Andrew L Urban URBAN CINEFILE

The Inside Story Directed by Renny Harlin ("Exorcist: The Beginning", "Die Hard 2" and "Deep Blue Sea") from an original screenplay by J.S. Cardone ("Crash and Burn"), "The Covenant" tells the tale of four young college students whose ancestory dates back to seventeenth century America at the time of the Witches Of Salem. Chase Collins, Pogue Parry, Tyler Sims and Reid Garwin are the 'Sons of Ipswich' descendants of families who originally settled in the Ipswich Colony during the sixteen hundreds. It was a troubled time. The Salem Witch Trials, which began in 1692 (also known as the Salem witch hunt and the Salem witchcraft episode), resulted in a number of convictions and executions for witchcraft in both Salem Village and Salem Town, Massachusetts. It was the result of a period of factional infighting and Puritan witch hysteria which led to the death of fourteen women, six men and, the imprisonment of one hundred and fifty more people. Although they appear to be normal teenagers, the four young men share an unspoken bond; Not only are they descendants of the original families that settled Ipswich Colony around the time of the Salem witch trials, they also inherited their ancestors’ supernatural powers. But their ability to shape-shift, defy gravity and perform superhuman feats of strength comes at a terrible cost: Every time one of the Sons of Ipswich uses his magical powers, he ages prematurely, and the temptation to abuse the power makes it more addictive than any drug. What's more, life is only going to get harder for the young friends: At the moment each boy turns eighteen, he will 'ascend', gaining far more potent, and addictive, powers. "The Covenant" made it to the screen thanks to Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper, who was attracted to the original screenplay by J.S. Cardone. "I wanted to make a "Lost Boys" for this generation, and this was just the script to do it with," says Culpepper. So too was Lakeshore Entertainment chairman and producer Tom Rosenberg who said, "The film works as a pure thriller fantasy but it’s also a cautionary tale for young people." Rosenberg, whose name has appeared on films such as "Million Dollar Baby", "The Exorcism of Emily Rose", "Underworld" and the sequel "Underworld Evolution" gave an insight into the storyline of the film saying, "It’s about five friends who share a secret bond, all 16 and 17 years old, on the threshold of developing their full powers. The rest of society has to obey the laws of physics, but these boys don’t. The problem is that if they use their power, it shortens their lifespan, which can be seen as a metaphor for many other things." Helming the production is Finnish filmmaker Renny Harlin who admits he "was excited about the project from the moment he read the script. When I read "The Covenant", I felt that it was a story that I hadn’t seen in a long time," says Harlin. "In the age of movies like Harry Potter, we’re used to seeing witchcraft stories for kids, but to have something like this for teenagers and adults is very unusual. It offers the ability to explore this ultimate wish fulfillment of having powers to make anything happen. I also was intrigued by the fact that these young characters are on the verge of adulthood, a period when you face some very hard issues and decisions and your life is changing rapidly,” Harlin continues. “Like all of us, they want to fit into society and live fairly normal lives… but these guys have the extra challenge, the extra pleasure, and the extra danger of having these magical powers." Despite the fact that J.S. Cardone's original screenplay actually inspired a series of four graphic novels by Aron Coleite (a writer whose credits include the hit TV series "Crossing Jordan") and artist Tone Rodriguez whose other comic credits include "Violent Messiahs", Harlin decided to choose a different aesthetic n bringing the story to the big screen. "In general, there are two styles of comic book movies," says "The Covent" director Renny Harlin. "There is the sort of very colorful, oversaturated comic book movie, and then there is the sort of dark and brooding comic book movie. We wanted to create our own style that doesn’t fall into either one of those camps, but which had its own very graphic feel. It was an interesting challenge—to create a world that was fascinating, dark and different, yet still grounded in reality." When it came to finding the right cast members Harlin notes, "I needed really talented young actors who were on the brink of stardom. From hundreds and hundreds of candidates we found a group of actors who have the talent to pull these characters off. Actors who have made movies before, but haven’t really broken out, yet." The lead role of Caleb went to young actor Steven Strait. "I think Steven Strait is about to be a movie star," says Rosenberg. Strait describes his character as "the leader of the pack. He’s got a sense of responsibility and has seen what powers have done to his family. And he doesn’t want to abuse his powers. He’s mature for his age and in some ways I relate to that. I guess you can say he’s a caretaker." Of course there 'had' to be a love interest for Caleb. The role of Sarah Wenham went to actress Laura Ramsey, who by the way, was discovered in true Hollywood style, waiting on tables at a Sunset Boulevard restaurant. Laura, whose career started in 2004 on the American TV series "The Days" revealled, "My character Sarah is the new girl in school. This is a really prestigious school where all the kids are rich. I’m the new girl from Boston Public, so I don’t have any money, but my character believes that going to this school will help her fulfill her dream of going Harvard." While the main characters were filled with young actors and actresses, there is only really one cast member with a solid acting pedigree. That person is actress Wendy Crewson who plays Caleb's mother, Evelyn Danvers. "Evelyn is the glue of the family," Crewson says. "But even though she’s still mourning her husband and she’s worried that her son’s going to go the same way, she looks good all the time! She has fabulous hair and she’s always in her nightgown." If there is a loving mum and a love interest, then there has to be a 'bad guy'. The filmmakers chose actor Sebastian Stan to play Caleb's nemesis Chase Collins. "My character is introduced early on and there’s sort of an ambivalence about him," says Stan. "Nobody really knows what he’s about. But he shows up and wants to befriend this group of guys, particularly Caleb, and basically just fit in." While much has been made of director Renny Harlin's career slide by US critics, it seems the cast were impressed with the way he works. "The great thing about Renny is that he’s always got an open ear," says Steven Strait. "He’s always open to ideas, and open to things that you feel are right for the character or for the moment. It's a great collaborative process that goes on with him. And you just feel that you’ve got the room and the space to work and give things a chance." As you'd expect there is a lot of special effects in this film. "We have people jumping off cliffs and so forth, and we can’t do that without visual effects," says Rosenberg. "On the other hand it’s not strictly an effects–driven film. We need the visuals to propel the story, but without being overdone or overused." Says director Renny Harlin': "Digital effects technology makes it possible to create almost any kind of world on screen. But ours is not a fantasy world; it’s not a science fiction world, so it had to be grounded in reality." The Verdict "It's loud, pretty, dark and obviously made along the style of a "leave your brain at the box-office" production. While it falls way below the standards of "Underworld", "Underworld Evolution", "Wrong Turn" and "The Lost Boys" it does have a lot of boyish charm going for it. Suspend belief, turn off the brain and it will make a good little gap filler for when you've seen everything else at your local cinema complex. 2 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "THE COVENANT" stars .......
Steven Strait ["Undiscovered" and "Sky High"]; Sebastian Stan ["Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding", "Red Doors" and "The Architect"]; Taylor Kitsch ["Snakes on a Plane" and "John Tucker Must Die"]; 2006 Golden FIPA Award; 1994, '99 & 2003 Gemini Award winner; 2002 Gemini Humanitarian Award recipient Evelyn Danvers ["Air Force One", "What Lies Beneath", "The Sixth Day ", "The Clearing" and "Eight Below"], Jessica Lucas ["Romeo!", "Seven Days" and "She’s the Man"] and Laura Ramsey ["Cruel World", "Venom", "Dogtown" and "She’s the Man"] as Sarah Wenham.
"THE COVENANT" was .......
directed by Renny Harlin ["A Nightmare on Elm Street IV", "Die Hard 2: Die Harder", "Cliffhanger", "The Long Kiss Goodnight" and "Deep Blue Sea"]; screenplay by J. S. Cardone ["Black Day Blue Night", "The Forsaken" and "Crash and Burn"]; edited by Nicolas de Toth ["Bicentennial Man", "The Edge","Eye of the Storm", "The Sum Of All Fears" and "Terminator 3"]; director of photography Genie Award, CSC Award and the Prix Gémeaux Best Cinematography Award winner Pierre Gill ["Lost and Delirious" and "Eldorado"]; production design by Anne Pritchard ["Atlantic City", "Snake Eyes", "The Art Of War" and "Femme Fatale"]; costume design by April Napier ["The Cell", "Your Friends and Neighbors" and "The Hawk Is Dying"] with original music by TomandAndy ["JFK", "Natural Born Killers", "Arlington Road" and "The Hills Have Eyes"]. Run Time 97 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2006 - Columbia Pictures - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2006 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved