Not powerful enough

Teen angst and witchcraft don’t brew well together. We get it; we saw The Craft. What The Covenant lacks in plot, though, it makes up for in cool-looking fight scenes and a drool-worthy cast.

The latest in teen horror flicks is set in a small Massachusetts town, at an exclusive, old boarding school. The premise is actually kinda cool and different: Four seniors, calling themselves the Sons of Ipswitch, are descendants of the town’s original founders. A fifth founding family was killed off during the Salem witch hunts. Or so they thought.

These guys have powers—they can levitate, move objects with their minds, fix broken glass, get into car wrecks without dying—but they don’t fully mature until their 18th birthdays. Caleb (Steven Strait), the leader of the pack, is about to turn 18. That’s when things get all crazy with a mysterious evil showing up in town.

There are a few creepy scenes, especially for you arachnophobes out there. And the special effects are pretty cool—most memorably those taking place in the rain.

The cast, which is basically a bunch of young relatively unknowns, is surprisingly good. And not bad on the eyes, either.

After the initial setup, though, the plot loses momentum, mainly because it’s full of holes. For one, the students come and go from their dormitories at will. There is no supervision.

The love story is cute and almost believable until you examine the time element. And it’s just kinda weird that the Sons of Ipswitch keep referring to their powers like drugs: “Did you use last night?” “Nobody warned me about the side-effects of using.”

Where the plot gets really lost is in describing why the bad guy comes to town in the first place. His grudge just doesn’t make sense.

The storyline may well be fatally flawed, but any flick that uses the line “I’m gonna make you my weeotch” can’t be all bad.