In the 17th century, there was a "covenant" formed by five families who were witches — they kept their power secret and never used it in public.  Cut to the present time, where we follow the lives of Caleb (Steven Strait) and his three friends, who are descendants of the witch families (the bloodline of the fifth family is thought to have been lost forever).  They are normal high-school kids, except that at 13 their powers start forming, and at the age of 18, they will "ascend" and will have complete access to the power.  The power is seductive, in the sense that it tempts the bearer to use it more and more.  But it also drains the life force away from the user.  Anyway, Caleb's romance with the new girl in town, Sarah (Laura Ramsey) is interrupted by the new guy in town, Chase (Sebastian Stan), and some spooky goings-on, which makes it obvious that someone is using witchcraft, and it's not one of the four kids.

Obviously, the long-lost descendant of the fifth family has returned, and wants the power all to himself.  Caleb is the key to this, as he is the eldest of the group and is due to ascend very soon.  Will Caleb succeed in stopping the evil one before it's too late?

What will strike you first about The Covenant is that it looks pretty good.  Director Renny Harlin (Mindhunters, Die Hard 2) brings in the requisite amount of flashy camerawork to the proceedings, and has employed actors who all look like models.  Unfortunately, this is the only positive aspect of this otherwise unremarkable movie — there are only one or two remotely scary moments, and the rest is pretty dull.  Out of the five warlocks, only Caleb and the evil one have much to do in the film — the others have practically no role in it.

Considering the fact that Renny Harlin was involved, I was expecting a much better movie.  Instead, what we have here looks like a typical straight-to-DVD release.  Very much missable.

Running Time: 97 minutes | Country: US | Genre: Action/Horror