Lovely Molly (2011)

Sadly Over-hyped

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Top quality acting. I've never seen Gretchen Lodge in a movie before, but I instantly wanted to know what else she'd been in after watching Lovely Molly. At no point did the acting feel false or forced - For such emotionally taxing scenes, I was absolutely impressed. At no point did I know what was going to happen. Usually it's pretty easy to guess where a film is headed, sometimes from the opening scenes, but I was constantly guessing. It made me question if what was occurring was due to supernatural purposes, human error, mental illness stemming from emotional trauma, or if none of it was really happening at all. I will always love a movie that forces me to think before and after its finished.I'm glad that I didn't read the reviews before I watched the movie. I would have avoided watching a film that is now one of my favourites. I could see elements of The Blair Witch Project, used effectively and perfect for suspense. I already want to watch it again to pick up on the symbolic elements of the movie that I wouldn't have noticed the first time around, now that I know the ending. I was left staring at my friend repeatedly saying "That was really good! But... But... That was REALLY good!"I would absolutely recommend, I'd suggest watching with an open mind and not letting yourself be swayed by other people's opinions.

Whenever director Eduardo Sanchez's name is brought up the words "co- director of the Blair Witch Project" will inevitably follow. The two sided coin of being responsible for a complete shake up of the entire film industry, but then spending the rest of your career trying to recapture former glory, also known as The "Shyamalan Effect". As a solo director he followed up with the mediocre "Altered" in 2006 and the unwatchable "Seventh Moon" in 2008. So when "Lovely Molly" came around in 2011, needless to say expectations were pretty low, and after a bit of hesitation, I found the time to see it. I can honestly say that this is by far his best film. The characters, the story and just about everything put on screen it is right on. "Blair Witch" in itself was not a great movie, but its effects on how films are made and marketed are still felt today. Conversely "Lovely Molly" is not going to have the same effect, but is a far a better film."Lovely Molly" owes the majority of its success to Molly herself, played by Gretchen Lodge. A young woman looking to reclaim her life after a battle with drug addiction and a brutal childhood. A newlywed who moves back to her childhood home with her husband Tim (Johnny Lewis), a truck driver. Molly works as a shopping mall janitor with her supportive sister Hannah (Alexandra Holden). Maybe moving back to her childhood home was not such a good idea, as her mental state takes a steep dive as repressed memories, hallucinations, and ghostly encounters meld into one terrifying situation after another. There are your classic horror clichés' of creaking doors, investigating noises in a dark and such, but Lodge's fearless and dedicated performance puts this film above others. It falls into the category of slow burn psychological horror, which can sometimes be code for stupid and boring, but the story and characters (mainly Molly) are given time to develop. Although it does have its share of horrific imagery it doesn't lean on.A big part of the storyline involves Molly's creepy video diary of her stalking around her neighbors, and wandering in the woods. Yes, sort of "Blair Witch-esque". She seems to be possessed during these nightly escapades. The opening of the film shows her on the other end of the camera with a knife to her throat wanting all of it to end. Is everything that happens to her real or is it all in her disturbed mind? This is the main question the film asks and some people will not like the answer. But I think Sanchez did the right thing in how he chose to end the film. After a repeat watching Molly's story really is a lot deeper that what lies on the surface.

The typical 5-minute Bugs Bunny cartoon has more plot than the entire 100 minutes of this dull nonsense. Molly this, Molly that, Molly Molly Molly! If I never hear the name "Molly" again I would hardly complain.LM is like one long inferno of torture and abuse – and by that I mean the psychological damage that this piece of crap inflicts on anyone foolish or unlucky enough to venture anywhere close to this presumably straight-to-video crap. 100 minutes of the same thing over and over: Molly sees ghost, Molly screams, Molly takes comfort in drugs, Molly gets raped by ghost, Molly sees ghost, Molly wants sex, Molly gets sex, Molly is depressed, Molly takes drugs, this that and the other. It becomes tiresome very quickly, but the monotony is relentless: the plot refuses to budge an inch - it is like a fat lazy dumb slug drooling all over a wet field. The story gets stuck in a haunted-house rut and doesn't develop at all, for what surely must be weeks. (Does this movie last for several weeks? I'll have to check the running time, it's possible.) Every 5 hours there is a tiny plot-point or something of vague interest. What there is plenty of, however, is Gretchen Lodge overacting her sweet buns off. This script is a dream-come-true, a real haven for any actress who indulges in the animated drama-queen "method". Gretchen cries hysterically, shouts, pouts, broods about 8000 times, and by the time the movie goes into its second half the whole mess becomes frankly unbearable. Gretchen is cute and tries her best (HER best, mind you), but by the time the name Molly is mentioned for the 105,048th time, I was already rooting for the ghost, hoping he'd simply massacre everyone and end this prolongued misery of a B-movie turkey. Not that it's even clear who or what the ghost was in this muddled script.Could this be the first movie with a horse as a serial-killer? Once the plot finally started moving quicker than a boozed-up slug, I had a different problem: confusing plot-twists. Once you get to the last 15 minutes, you'll wish LM was still "just" dull, because absolutely nothing makes sense in LM's cop-out "conclusion". So was Molly molly-ested by a horse? Was her real father a horse? Was she molested by a horse when she was a child while her father stood by and did nothing? Did her father train a horse to molest her? What purpose did her husband's adultery serve this ghost story? Why did she kill the priest? Is it because she thought he had a face like a horse – or was it because he was hung like one? Did she also kill the little girl? Was it the insane Molly AND the ghost killing off people as a tag-team? Randomly picking victims? Does Molly have an I.Q. lower than 50? LM was written by an imbecile – for slugs and other non-thinking creatures.In the end, nothing is resolved. Instead, piles of confusion are added one atop another. Molly gets possessed, Molly suffers and Molly eventually loses the battle. The ghost wins. The message? The point? Perhaps this: if you're a parent who sexually molests his child, you will be REWARDED in the after-life by getting to RE-NEW your sexual hostility as a ghost, and will in fact go unpunished because priests are on vacation and God isn't interested. Look, I'm an atheist, so this whole good-vs-evil Bible nonsense makes no sense to me anyway, but there has to be some measure of logic even in supernatural horror flicks, otherwise any moron (this horses**t writer) could write anything he wants to (this movie) and get away with it (were it not for my reviews).LM is so bad, I'd rather have seen a dumb sex-romp called "Lovely Molly Makes a Porn Film" with Ron Jeremy in the director's chair. It's THAT bad.

The Blair Witch marketing stamp is applied to yet another film. This time we're told that the writer/director of the cult classic which 'redefined the horror genre' (depending on your opinion of three kids running round a wood at night) is at the helm of this latest frightfest 'Lovely Molly.' Once again, the use of 'first person filming' is used for Lovely Molly, which tells the story of a newlywed couple who move into an old house in the middle of nowhere. However, when the husband is away driving for work, strange (and definitely not so lovely) things start to happen to Molly.First of all the good: the performances. Everyone does very well with what they're given and the acting is pretty hard to fault. However, there's not an awful lot of characters. The husband is largely away and Molly spends much of her time experiencing things on her own (then going and telling her sister about it every few days).The main problem with the film is that, although well-acted, it's really nothing we haven't seen before, i.e. walk round a creepy house and then get grabbed by some unseen supernatural force.Yes, there's a story woken in there somewhere, but, ultimately, there's nothing new enough here to really make it stand out. The reason Blair Witch worked was because it was original (or at least revitalised a genre that had lain dormant for a long time). This time the film-makers just retreads well-worn ground.It's okay, just nothing special enough to warrant elevating it over the other million similar horror movies out there right now.