Yet another movie not screened for critics!

The Covenant, opening today, joins the ranks of the unfortunately many films that were not screened for critics in advance this year. Like quite a few of the others, this one was produced by Screen Gems, but even more interesting is the fact that this is the third film in a row that was directed by Renny Harlin and then not screened for critics in the United States — though Mindhunters (2004; my review) was shown to critics in Canada, because it had a different distributor here. And in fairness, Exorcist: The Beginning (2004; my review) was shown to critics the night before it opened — but very late, so that none of us could even start writing our reviews until opening day.