The Covenant

The Covenant is a 2006 supernatural horror/thriller... something film starring Steven Strait, Taylor Kitsch, Toby Hemingway and Chace Crawford 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, Caleb's love interest, and Chase, a mysterious New Transfer Student. You can imagine what follows.

Despite its potential, it is clear that the producers were trying to make a quick buck off the combination of hot guys and magic, resulting in plenty of Narm. As such, Your Mileage May Vary as to whether this film is So Bad It's Good. In any event, it has an surprisingly large Fanfic community, so there's that.

This film contains examples of:
""Harry Potter can kiss my AAAAAASS!!""
 * Always Night: The majority of the film is well-lit, but dark.
 * Artistic License Geography: Yup, Ipswich, MA, is right next to Marblehead and has many cliff-lined beaches.
 * Battle in the Rain: The birthday battle at Putnam Barn gets pretty soaked.
 * Cast From Lifespan: The more you use the power, the more it ages you. (Maybe this explains the Dawson Casting?) The main character's father is shown, who should be around 40, but looks closer to 100.
 * This is only post-ascension. Before 18, they can cast spells all they want and won't age.
 * 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, killing various people, and not denying Aaron's accusations,  qualifies.
 * Mr. Fanservice: The Sons of Ipswich.
 * Foe Yay: Obviously between Chase and Caleb. Also, possibly between Aaron and Chase.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Caleb's father
 * Ho Yay: Ho boy...
 * 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.
 * Never Found the Body: the Big Bad is seen thrown into a barn which then explodes. Nobody mentions finding a charred corpse.
 * 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 Invulnerable: 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 stepparents, 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:  The other two boys hardly even show up for the movie's climax, as they're at the Halloween dance to not arouse suspicion.
 * Self-Made Orphan: Subverted with Chase's biological parents, but played straight with his adopted parents.
 * Shallow Love Interest: Kate and Sarah's lives seem to revolve around their boyfriends.
 * Take That: At one point, just as they're about to drive off a cliff to escape the cops, Reid gives us this gem.


 * 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.
 * Witch Species: These boys inherit their powers as descendants of the founders of the town.
 * Wizards Live Longer: Inverted.