The Covenant

Sebastian Stan (Chase Collins) performed all of his own stunts.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Caleb's surname is Danvers. Danvers is a city in northeastern Massachusetts only ten miles from Ipswich, where the film is set. Danvers is also the modern name of "Salem Village," the actual center of the 1692-93 Salem witch hysteria, which included Ipswich.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The Danvers mansion exterior, always seen from a distance, is actually an abandoned water treatment plant, with some window lighting and greenery added by the production team.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Although his character is the oldest of Ipswich's four Sons, Steven Strait (Caleb) is actually younger than the other three leading men and both female leads.

CHARACTERS & CAST · SOURCED

It reached number one in US box office earnings in its opening weekend, taking in only $8,852,458.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The party scene at the film's opening features roughly 200 extras. They were hired about two days before shooting, partly with the help of local club and radio DJs in Montreal. They worked two nights in freezing weather; on the DVD commentary, director Renny Harlin says he was amazed at how cooperative and enthusiastic they were despite the uncomfortable conditions.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The party at the start of the film is meant to take place in New England at the end of summer. However, shooting took place in Montreal at the end of October. The cast and crew had to endure the cold during filming.

BEHIND THE SCENES · SOURCED

On the DVD commentary, the director says CGI steam had to be added to the shower room scene because some nudity was visible in the foreground and they were trying to get a PG-13 rating.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The exterior shots of Spenser Academy were filmed at Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and shot in the fall of 2005. Because it rained throughout the shoot, the director had to compromise on many shots.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Hugo Simberg's famous Finnish painting "Haavoittunut enkeli" (English: The Wounded Angel) hangs on Sarah's wall. It shows two children carrying an angel on a stretcher.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

During the filming of the police chase early in the film, the camera crane hit the police car's roof lights as the vehicle passed underneath. No one was injured, but the car and the crane were damaged, and the camera was destroyed along with the lighting equipment mounted on it.

BEHIND THE SCENES · SOURCED

Despite popular misconception, The Covenant is not based on a novel, a comic book or any comic book title. The confusion stems from Sony creating a comic book of the same name to promote the film. Just before the film's premiere, Top Cow Comics published a four-issue comic book mini-series titled The Covenant by Aron Coleite and Tone Rodriguez. Neither the mini-series' writers nor Top Cow Comics are mentioned in the film's credits, so the mini-series is not regarded as source material by the film's producers.

DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

Chace Crawford and Sebastian Stan would later star together in the hit TV series Gossip Girl. (2007).

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

When Caleb first mentions the Lord of Darkness, he says he appears in the form of a dead boy in the Valley. As the camera moves toward the paper, a headline is visible in the upper right corner stating that West Nile Virus is spreading. In 2006 (the year this film was released), there was in fact a West Nile outbreak in Canada and the United States.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

It was sent to theaters under the code name "Full Power."

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

In the scene at Nicky's Bar, the boys use their magic to lift up a waitress's skirt and reveal that she is not wearing underwear. Another version of this scene was used in the preview trailer approved for all audiences, in which black panties were digitally added to the waitress.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The word covenant actually means a written oath between several people, like a secret agreement made among them.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The spider Chase steps on is CG, like all the spiders.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

The budget did not allow for rewriting the script, but Kirsten Elms wrote new scenes for the film together with director Renny Harlin (uncredited). During this period, Elms also worked on another script that Harlin was to direct: the dark thriller "Brodie's Law" (an adaptation of the comic of the same name).

PRODUCTION STORY · SOURCED

Caleb Danvers said that Jacob Pope died on June 4, 1692, and that Hagen Pope was born on April 11, 1693. Caleb calculated that these events were 10 months and 24 days apart, when in reality they were 10 months and 7 days apart.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Pogue's name on his student ID is actually Nicholas Parry. However, during the opening title sequence, flashes of the Spenser yearbook appear on screen. In the yearbook, Pogue's name is shown as Christopher Parry.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Tyler is one year younger than the other boys.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Ipswich and Salem are about 25 minutes apart by car, roughly 13 miles. The Salem witch trials took place around Salem Village and Salem Town. Although other witch hunts occurred in other parts of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, they had no connection to Salem. Also, the accused families and individuals lived in Salem Village or Town, not in Ipswich.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Sarah's surname is Wenham, which is also a town in northeastern Massachusetts not far from Ipswich.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Two more members of The Covenant cast would later appear in Marvel films (Disney did not own the X-Men rights at the time). Taylor Kitsch played Remy LeBeau (aka Gambit) in 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." From 2011 onward, Sebastian Stan would go on to appear in several Captain America/Avengers films as Bucky Barnes (aka The Winter Soldier).

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Laura Ramsey and Jessica Lucas worked together on the film She's the Man (2006).

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Sebastian Stan (Chase) and Toby Hemingway (Reid) appear in Black Swan (2010).

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Sebastian Stan refused to embrace the film and hates it.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Caleb's parents are Evelyn and William Danvers III, Pogue's parents are Beatrice and Wayne Parry, Reid's parents are Meredith and Joseph Garwin, and Tyler's parents are Rosalind and Glenn Sims.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Toby Hemingway and Laura Ramsey later starred together in 1 Out of 7 (2011).

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Toby Hemingway and Chace Crawford also worked together on Undrafted, playing teammates on a baseball team.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

There are 5 Sons of Ipswich in the film. The hour Caleb ascends on his birthday is 23:12. 1+1+1+2 equals 5, perhaps tying into the fact that there are 5 Sons.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Chace Crawford, who played Tyler Sims, one of the 5 young warlocks in The Covenant (2006), soon rose to worldwide fame playing the golden boy Nate Archibald, one of the "gossip guys," in the popular TV series Gossip Girl (2007-2012).

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Both Laura Ramsey and Jessica Lucas appeared in She's the Man, which was also released in 2006.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED