The Covenant

Four students at an elite New England boarding school belong to a line of families said to have settled the area in the seventeenth century, and they carry inherited supernatural abilities kept secret for generations. When a fifth descendant arrives at the school, old agreements come under strain and hidden history surfaces. At the same time, a student is found dead, and suspicion falls on the group. The four must contend with a hostile power while holding together against the distrust growing among them. The story follows Caleb Danvers and his friends Tyler Simms, Pogue Parry and Reid Garwin as they try to protect their secret, with Chase Collins as the newcomer who unsettles the established order.

Renny Harlin directed the film, the thirteenth of twenty-eight features in his directing career, following Exorcist: The Beginning and preceding Cleaner. J.S. Cardone wrote the screenplay, and Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi and Marc Silvestri produced. Steven Strait plays Caleb, with Chace Crawford, Taylor Kitsch and Toby Hemingway as the other three, Sebastian Stan as Chase and Laura Ramsey as Sarah Wenham. Thirty-five cast members and 108 crew members are credited. Made for about 20 million dollars, the film took in roughly 38 million worldwide.

Opinion split sharply. On IMDb it holds 5.2 out of 10 from around 55,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.6 out of 10 from about 1,100 votes. A critics' rating of 2.9 out of 10 from 76 reviews places professional assessment well below even those modest audience scores.