The Covenant
for intense sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, sexual content, partial nudity and language.
Reviewed by: Maggie Hays
CONTRIBUTOR
| Moral Rating: | Offensive |
| Moviemaking Quality: |
|
| Primary Audience: | Adults Teens |
| Genre: | Thriller Action Suspense Horror Drama |
| Length: | 1 hr. 37 min. |
| Year of Release: | 2006 |
| USA Release: |
September 8, 2006 (wide) |
| Featuring |
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 See all » |
| Director |
Renny Harlin |
| Producer |
Manon Bougie … line producer J.S. Cardone … executive producer See all » |
| Distributor |
 Sony Pictures Classics, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment |
“The Covenant” tells the story of the Sons of Ipswich, four young students at the Spenser Academy who have been born with special powers—in 1692 their ancestors had formed a covenant of silence when they founded the Ipswich Colony of Massachusetts (think “days of the old witch hunts” in Massachusetts). When the body of a dead student is discovered after a party, the secret Covenant is threatened. As the film progresses, the “bad guy” appears, whose powers seem much greater than the other boys. He lusts for even more power and will stop at nothing to get it.
“The Covenant” is from the producers of “Underworld” and the director of “Deep Blue Sea,” “Cliffhanger,” and “Die Hard 2.” Stephen Strait (“Sky High”) plays Caleb—equipped with special powers, but reluctant to use them. Sebastian Slan (“Law and Order”) plays Chase—the power-hungry warlock and all-around bad guy who does horrible things to ordinary people and other warlocks.
Looking at the film objectively, I must report it is loaded with crude language. There is also a scene of a boy’s shower, full of lathering wet teen boys. A girl’s bare buttocks are crudely displayed in another scene. Several fight scenes take place, and ghastly ghostly apparitions appear several times.
Warning: if you are squeamish about spiders, you will not enjoy this movie. Especially if you prefer that spiders do not creep into people’s nostrils or ear canals.
The film is rated PG-13, but I felt it deserved an R-rating due to the frequent crude language and bare buttocks. Maybe I’m just raising the standard too high for a PG-13, since I would certainly not permit a 13-year-old to see this film.
This movie, however, would definitely appeal to the teen crowd. The story takes place in a prep school, the boys are handsome, and the girls are pretty. This is not a great movie, though the special effects are good, there are spells and magic tricks, and creepy scenes. It’s a “good” witch vs. bad witch kind of story. The storyline doesn’t always seem to progress smoothly and is pretty predictable, and there are some unanswered questions—for instance, why does the 5th boy have greater power than the other 4 boys?
Nevertheless, I cared about Caleb, because even though he is a warlock, he tries to be a decent guy and protect those he loves. And I liked Sarah, the pretty blonde who falls for Caleb and is placed in harm’s way as she becomes part of his life.
Being mindful of the fact that witchcraft is the antithesis of Christianity and not to be taken lightly, if you enjoy viewing movies of this type, and if you can put up with crude language, bare bottoms and projectile vomiting, you may find this to be interesting film.
Violence: Heavy / Profanity: Moderate / Sex/Nudity: Minor
[THE OCCULT—What does the Bible say about it? Answer]
See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.
none
Offensive / 3
Surprisingly, there are hardly any sexual scenes in the movie. Although, there are some very scantily-clothed young ladies and no-clothed young men. There is really nothing beneficial for Christians here in this movie, it’s about witchcraft and the occult. It seems that a lot of the movies coming out of Hollywood designed with teenagers in mind are very dark and having to do with the occult, and non-christians along with christians are being sucked in to see them. The moral rating according to biblical standards is no doubt Extremely Offensive, however, by the world’s standards and compared to what has come out of Hollywood, I would say this is actual not that horrible of a film. But I would say save your money, and read your Bible and don’t fill your head with this garbage.
Extremely Offensive / 3
I’d say the main goal of Hollywood is to glamourize the occult and turn on young people while doing it.
Very Offensive / 2
Another aspect is… the suspense factor just didn’t give any sense of well… suspense… for instance, a scene where the girl is taking a shower (notice the unneeded showing of her backside,) and we start hearing noises, then one of the light goes out. She gets out of the shower and looks around, letting you think that something freaky is going to happen, and this goes on for about 3 min, eventually, you see this smoke, that appears, and later on, it’s like, what the heck was that for?
Now, not only did the suspense category stink and the unneeded scenes, but just the whole story line didn’t make sense. And the so called “scary” scenes, I just suspect that they were there just to be there, to put this movie into the category of “scary.” This dead kid who showed up in this guys car, you think he’s important throughout the movie, turns out later, he’s not even really thought about later on.
Also, the fighting that is going on, it looks so stupid, my friend and I were laughing because it looked retarded rather than sitting there with our mouths open like we would in a good action sequence. I could go on forever about the movies faults, but I will say one good thing, the movies actors didn’t do so bad in their acting.
All in all, don’t waste your money on this movie, especially the good Christians. I will never see this movie again, and I wouldn’t even recommend it to a worst enemy. …
Offensive / 1
They go about their normal lives day by day without caring about too many things, when they find out that another witch has come to town and is threatening their existance. Of course, being about witches, the Covenant has a vast number of scenes where characters use their powers, most of the time for fun or to annoy other people. While it is portrayed as best not to use witchcraft in the movie, the movie still certainly glorifies it and makes it seem quite cool.
As for objectionable content, I found the Covenant to be quite heavy for a PG-13. Multiple scenes include suggestive clothing and a few contain mild nudity. There isn’t a high level of violence, instead the film makers rely on numerous creepy or disgusting sequences. A spirit possess the body of a dead student and his eyes are glazed over and glowing green. A witch casts a spell that results in two girls covered in spider bites. Overall, there are a few somewhat cool computer generated scenes, but nothing to make this film worth watching, morally or quality wise.
Offensive / 2½
Average / 5
My Ratings: Offensive / 3