The Covenant is a 2006 supernatural Teen Action Horror film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Steven Strait, Taylor Kitsch, Toby Hemingway and Chace Crawford (plus Sebastian Stan) as your average bromance group, allowing for plenty of possibly intentional homoerotic moments.
Four teenage boys, Caleb, Pogue, Reid and Tyler, have magic powers inherited from witches in colonial New England. When they're not jumping or driving off cliffs, the boys attend Spencer Academy. At the start of the film, each boy is awaiting his 18th birthday, when he will "ascend" and increase in magical strength. But there's a catch: the magic is so addictive, it's "seductive", and the more it's used, the more the boys' bodies degrade and age prematurely. Enter Sarah (Laura Ramsey), Caleb's love interest, and Chase, a mysterious new transfer student. You can imagine what follows.
Not to be confused with the 2023 film of the same name.
The Covenant contains examples of:
- Alliterative Name: Chase Collins, Pogue Parry, Aaron Abbot and Bordy Becklin.
- Always Night: The majority of the film is well-lit, but dark.
- Ambiguously Brown: Kate
- Ambiguously Gay: Chase. See Depraved Homosexual for the details.
- Artistic License – Geography: Ipswich and Marblehead are both towns in Massachusetts, but they are not located within spitting distance of eachother. The movie portrays Ipswich as having many cliff-lined beaches, which it does not in real life.
- Badass Longcoat: Chase sports one in the final showdown.
- Battle in the Rain: The birthday battle at Putnam Barn gets pretty soaked.
- Black Eyes of Evil: Both subverted and played straight. The warlock's eyes change to black whenever they use their powers, regardless of intent.
- Cast from Lifespan: The more you use the power, the more it ages you. (Only post-ascension.)
- Chewing the Scenery: After being revealed as the Big Bad, Chase seems to have a diet consisting exclusively of the scenery.
- Combo Platter Powers: Among the powers shown, the boys have flight/levitation, shapeshifting, augmenting physical activities (like swimming faster), making constructs (like the spiders), and other powers are implied, if not directly shown.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Pogue is convinced that his girlfriend is interested in Chase... which is slightly hilarious when you realize that Chase himself seems a lot more interested in Pogue.
- Damsel in Distress: Sarah.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Not only does Chase have one, but his family's dark and troubled past can be traced back to the Salem Witch Trials.
- Depraved Homosexual: Between kissing Caleb, apparently having a crush on Pogue, killing various people and not denying Aaron's accusations, Chase qualifies.
- Drunk on the Dark Side: Chase is literally addicted to using his magic, even knowing the risk of long-term use, because he's now so used to it he literally can't imagine 'cutting down'.
- Flat Character: Tyler has about five lines and no real purpose to the story other than filling out the group.
- Freudian Excuse: Some of Chase's problems can be attributed to him growing up with the power without learning about the consequences of over use until it was too late.
- Going Commando: We get to see Reid coming out of the shower without a towel at one point. Some of the boys also bet what a cute girl at the club is wearing under her skirt. This trope is the winning bet.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Caleb's father wills him his power, killing himself in the process so that he can defeat Chase.
- High-School Dance: A Halloween Dance. Subverted since Caleb and Sarah never get there.
- It's All About Me: Chase doesn't care about the negative consequences of his powers or who else suffers so long as he gets more power.
- Jerk Jock: Aaron Abbot's entire existence seems to be a one-dimensional bully who accuses Chase of being gay. Then again, the way Aaron carries himself seems to imply something else.
- Magic Is Evil: Kinda. They keep as much evil overtone, especially emphasizing magic as deleterious and addictive, but the lead character is rarely anything but heroic.
- Marilyn Maneuver: The boys use their powers to do this to a Fanservice Extra.
- Masquerade: To protect themselves, the families formed a covenant of silence to hide their powers. One family lusted for more power and was banished, their bloodline disappearing without a trace.
- Mind over Matter: One of the powers the boys have.
- Mr. Fanservice: The Sons of Ipswich. Although, virtually everyone qualifies.
- Never Found the Body: The Big Bad is seen thrown into a barn which then explodes. Nobody mentions finding a charred corpse. It was probably left as a Sequel Hook.
- New Transfer Student: Both Chase and Sarah are new to Spencer Academy. Sarah plays the Scholarship Student card while Chase plays the mysterious new kid.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: With the power that the main characters have, it's apparently possible to survive a head-on collision with a semi truck.
- Parental Abandonment: Of the intentional variety. Chase killed his father to get his power and then murdered his adoptive parents, making it look like a car accident.
- Puberty Superpower: Their powers started young, but get stronger on their 18th birthday. It's referred to as 'ascending', but we don't really see much of it.
- Put on a Bus: Pogue, who is last seen in the hospital after Chase kicks his butt. The other two boys hardly even show up for the climax, as they're at the Halloween dance to not arouse suspicion.
- The Quiet One: Tyler. He gets maybe five lines in the entire film.
- Reality Warper: The best single description for the Combo Platter Powers. The only thing they seemingly can't do is keep the power from prematurely aging them or otherwise be immortal.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Pogue telling his girlfriend to stay away from Chase is done largely out of jealousy towards him, but given that he's a dangerous warlock who has no problem sending her into anaphylactic shock, Pogue's right to be wary.
- Satellite Love Interest: Kate and Sarah's lives seem to revolve around their boyfriends.
- Salem Is Witch Country: The main characters are the descendants of five witch-families that fled from the Salem Witch Trials to the nearby Ipswich.
- Self-Made Orphan: Subverted with Chase's biological parents, but played straight with his adopted parents.
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: Chase.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: While Sarah's attractiveness was never in question, Caleb does have this reaction when she gets dressed up for the Halloween dance.
- Shirtless Scene: Quite a few, with the most utterly gratuitous and egregious being a long, lingering shot of Steven Strait and Taylor Kitsch in skintight swimming briefs.
- Slipknot Ponytail: Sarah's hair is in an updo for the dance. Naturally it comes undone during the Final Battle.
- Spear Counterpart: To both The Craft and Charmed, which were about female witches.
- Superpowerful Genetics: These boys inherit their powers as descendants of the founders of the town.
- Take That!: At one point, just as they're about to drive off a cliff to escape the cops, Reid gives us this gem."Harry Potter can kiss my AAAAAASS!!"
- Theory Tunnelvision: Chase believes that he can overcome the rapid aging caused by overuse of the power if he gets Caleb to give him his own power, even though Caleb tries to explain to Chase that the issue is the body wearing down rather than the power.
- 13th Birthday Milestone: In the town of Ipswich, four boys — Caleb Danvers, Pogue Parry, Reid Garwin, and Tyler Simms, together known as the Sons of Ipswich — are the descendants of colonial witch families and possess magical powers. Their powers begin on their 13th birthday and grow stronger until they Ascend at 18.
- Too Dumb to Live: Though both Kate and Sarah dabble in this, Pogue is surprisingly the worst offender. He escalates from petty jealousy and general jerk behavior towards the Big Bad to charging into a fight against someone he knows is much stronger than he is.
- Too Kinky to Torture: The look on Chase's face after Aaron punches him suggests this.
- Villainous Crush: Chase seems to have a crush on Pogue.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Chase does this to look like Caleb at one point. By extension, the other boys can too.
- Wild Teen Party: The opening scene.
- Witch with a Capital "B": During the climax, Chase makes a pun on the other meaning of "bitch" when he taunts Caleb.How about I make you... my wee-atch?
