Director: Fred C. Rabbath
The Final Pact is a new film by an independent director, Fred C. Rabbath, who also happens to be my favourite director (generally, not just the independent one). The Final Pact is a sci-fi/horror film that tackles biblical sin, temptation and exorcism. But this film is more than that. It is fundamentally about people’s faith and beliefs, religiously but also, people believing in themselves. It is a story of personal growth, empowerment, and finding oneself despite challenges.
Fred C. Rabbath is my favourite director because he previously defined the meaning of love with his amazing film Listen (NO, it is not P.S. I Love You that did that!!!). In Listen, he engaged with understanding people and the meaning of love, and this new film, The Final Pact, has the same distinctive signature. By creating a horror film and a story of priests going through temptations and being tempted to sin to test their faith before they get ordained, we actually see a story of how our past influences our present, explore personal faith and beliefs, and we also see a story of breaking with the past and moving on.
In The Final Pact, three priests are at the story’s centre. They are about to graduate from a seminary and get ordained, but then, a day before, they learn there is one final test. The test is about facing a demon and exorcism, so there is an element of horror, but there is also an element of sci-fi with a haunted house, where priests come for a test, and the house comes and goes as needed. I liked the lights, and in many instances, whilst watching the film, I forgot this was an independent film, which only ever happens with Rabbath’s films. I know I should support independent directors more, capitalism blah blah, but that work is often poor and unpleasant. Not Rabbath’s films. Maybe because his stories are so compelling, and I spend a lot of time both watching the film and thinking about the message and meaning of life. The Final Pact was entirely made by Rabbath, direction, writing, filming, and cutting (as part of his independent production company, F.C. Rabbath Creations), and for one man to produce all of this pretty much himself is astonishing.
But again, it is the underlying story that I find compelling the most. I kept thinking about things whilst watching the film, and I will think about this film for a while, just like I often think about his film Listen. Horror and sci-fi fans will like this, as well as those like me who like films that have an underlying story. The film is getting released tomorrow, 9th of December so this was a sneak peek into the film. You will need to watch it to get the details.
Watch Rabbath’s films!
Thank you for reading!