gregsrants Review of Lovely Molly

Lovely Molly (2011)

It creeps and creaks its way to an unexpected end

[7/10 · 15 September 2011]

"Whatever happened, it wasn't me", says Molly in the opening shot as she holds a knife to her own throat. But exactly what happened and who it was by the film's end remains uncertain. Lovely Molly is the new film by Eduardo Sánchez, the brilliant director behind 1999's The Blair Witch Project. The film stars Gretchen Lodge as Molly, a beautiful newlywed that moves into her old home with her husband after the death of her father. Within three months of their arrival at the home, unexplained phenomena begin to happen around the house. Door alarms go off in the middle of the night and footsteps could be heard throughout the structure. Molly's husband Tim (Johnny Lewis) does not have an explanation for some of the occurrences, but as a truck driver who is rarely at home, he leaves Molly in the house with the confidence that is must be 'the wind' or local kids playing a prank. Molly, however, continues to be victimized by what haunts the house. With Tim gone, she relies on her sister Hanna (Alexandra Holden) to provide her comfort but with a lack of sleep and feeling as if she is losing her grip on reality, Molly resorts back to injecting herself with drugs – an addiction thought beat before marriage. When Tim arrives home one evening he finds Molly naked staring at the ceiling in her room. She softly states "He's alive" and this statement will initiate an intensity in strange occurrences and violence that will lead to tragic results. Lovely Molly is a multi-layered horror film that mixes POV camera work into the film to give an authentic feel into a terrifying reality. Sánchez cast his film perfectly and Gretchen Lodge, as Molly, appears in just about every scene carrying the film on her naked back. The horror in Lovely Molly comes in small doses and intensifies as the plot develops. The audience is aware early that there is something wrong with Molly, but is it supernatural? Is she possessed? Or does her drug abuse have Molly realizing a non-existent entity? All these questions abound and the journey to some open-ended answers is worth the time investment. Eduardo Sánchez works the camera like a seasoned pro and is not quick to bring the story or any of the events to a quick resolve. Instead, the horror elements mount until Molly passes a point of no return and where family secrets haunt long after the death of her parents. Lovely Molly ends up being one of those great horror films where if watched in the right frame of mind and at the right time of night can really scare the bejezus out of you. It doesn't attempt to go for the jugular or splatter the screen with scenes of gore that attempt to top the latest splatterfest. Instead, it stays true to its plotted course and reels in its audience – paying them back with an above average genre film the creeps, creaks and cringes its way to an unexpected end.