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When I went to the video store yesterday, I walked out with two movies. I almost walked out with three of them, but thought that might be pushing it. It isn’t that I couldn’t watch three movies, I was just going to get them for one day. I have already watched three movies in 24 hours, and I have one more to watch later today. I missed out on a horror movie festival this past weekend, so I guess I am making up for it in this way. Plus I thought it would be a nice surprise to have back-to-back reviews here. The Haunting Of Molly Hartley is a film that I had planned to go see at the theater, but I just never made it there. I knew a few people that wanted to see it, so I made plans to go see it with them. When the film was released though, everyone was suddenly too busy to go see it. That is usually how my luck runs though.
Molly Hartley (Haley Bennett) and her dad (Jake Weber) are moving into a new town. For Molly this also means starting at a new school. Molly seems like your normal 17 year old high school student, except for the fact that her own mother has tried to kill her. Molly’s mother (Marin Hinkle) believes that Molly will become evil if she isn’t killed before her 18th birthday. Molly hopes to put this behind her, but of course is struggling to do just that. At school Molly meets the rebel (Shannon Woodward), the bible thumper (Shanna Collins), the good looking popular guy (Chace Crawford), and his jealous ex (AnnaLynne McCord). Molly seems to fit in as well as any new person can, except she keeps seeing her mother. Molly’s dad assures her that her mother is still in the mental hospital. While this is true, it is only the start of Molly’s troubles. She has been getting headaches, vision problems, and she hears voices along with nose bleeds. Is Molly going crazy, or is there some truth to what her mother believes?
The Haunting Of Molly Hartley starts off like a horror movie should. We get a quick story of some girl going off to meet a guy. The dad shows up, not approving of what his daughter did, and takes her home. Then he starts in about how sorry he is, that he didn’t want to believe it was true, and kills his daughter. It leaves you wondering what is going on. From there we meet Molly. With “scary” things happening once in a while, the film does remind us it is a horror film. At least it tries to. Nothing that happens is all that scary, except when Molly’s mom shows up for real. In the mean time, it feels more like a teen drama. Who will she be friends with? The goody-to-shoes bible thumper, or the rebel? Will she get the guy? Or will the ex stop it from happening? These are all sub plots that never truly play out. The title is slightly misleading, at least I think so. I know the word haunting has different meanings, but isn’t the first thing that pops into your mind ghosts? Molly is actually being haunted by a possible secret. When I watched the trailer for this movie, I have no idea when that was, I was really disappointed because I felt like I already knew how the movie was going to play out, and I was right. Molly becoming evil at 18 is the entire plot. There are a few open questions still, like who knows this and will she accept it, but it wasn’t enough to keep it that interesting. When the questions are actually answered, it happens so fast that you feel cheated by it. This is part of the reason why The Haunting Of Molly Hartley fails. But it isn’t the main reason.
I never know what to expect for effects when it comes to a PG-13 film. I have come to expect very little, but sometimes one will surprise me with how gory it ends up. With this film, we get nothing at all. This wouldn’t have bothered me if the story had been good. Since it isn’t, it just adds to how boring this film ended up. The acting at least was strong. Haley Bennett does a great job in the lead role. I found it ammusing that her biography on IMDb says she won’t do horror movies, or even look at scripts for them. Yet her she is in one. Fine, it is more of a thriller, but sometimes that is just another name for horror films. Everyone else also does a good job with their roles, but since Molly is the focus of the film, their roles are pushed more into the background.
The root of the problem for The Haunting Of Molly Hartley is that there is no struggle going on. The struggle between good and evil has been set up, but never takes place. Instead, it seems like that everyone under the sun seems to know what is going on, except for Molly. Instead of an epic struggle between the forces of good and evil, we get everyone basicly telling Molly it is too late for her. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from this film, since I knew the big plot point for the film already. I was surprised by the film, but in all the wrong ways. Even though the acting is good, and there are plenty of cute looking women and guys, the story intself never feels like it gets going. Just when it looks like we will get some answers, the end of film pops up. Even the ending feels wrong. Unless you are really into one of the actors, I say skip this one completely. I’m sure glad I didn’t pay to see it at the theater now.
2 out of 5 Who knew being evil would be so good
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Cool coll cute guys and gals always make any movie more enjoybale…..but a question for you…it looks like you have gone soft and started to like more non hard core soft movies lately. Did you get tired of the gory grind and look for something more mainstream and alternative lately ? I had some movie suggestions for you have you had time to look at any yet ?
WOW, I love this. You do know you are going to spoil me don’t you Miss Heather (grinning, standing ovation). Me, I am just goint to enjoy it while I can, but go Miss Heather, go !!!!!
Now let me get something straight you said that has me very confused too maam. You are telling me that folks pass up the chance to sit next to you in a dark theater? Shucks, throw me in that briar patch Miss Heather (grinning, lmao). Never invite me to the movies unless you are plum serious Mermaid. Otherwise you would be losing scales from shock and surprise when I showed up with both of our tickets already (hehehe).
Now I readily accept and admit, shucks I sing your praises loudly, not just admit, that you are a very intelligent lady. So that is simply no surprise to me at all maam. But the fact that the trailer gave this one away to you, is really sad to me at the very least. If I used bad language over the net, I would say more clearly what I feel it really amounts to, but let’s not and just pretend I did. But for any idiot to put together a trailer for their movie, that gives away the ending, is pitiful to me maam. I can only imagine how disgusted you were when you realized "yep, I guessed it" !!!!!!
I have to say it sweet lady. This one makes me wonder if you are still itching from it now. Don’t worry, it is just fleas, and a Hartz collar should fix you right up sweet lady. Don’t infect your skin by scratching too much, just slip the collar on (grinning, while shaking my head). You poor, poor dedicated woman you. Thanks for suffering on this one, so I can avoid it like the plague (grinning, ovation time). I am still searching for the correct design for your "public service wall hanger" to thank you for your cinematic contributions to your fans. Being so willing to suffer, so we will not have to as well.
Since you mentioned you have one more movie to watch today, all I can do is hope sincerely that it will turn out much better for you than this one did Miss Heather. If I knew that admitting publically that I was greedy over your reviews would produce such incredible results, I would have made my confession much sooner too, hehehe (smiling, tips my hat).
Two reviews back to back is great!
Although I am usually not one for remakes or sequels it seems as if this story line has a whole lot more potential than was realized here.
So I vote for a remake, in the hopes that this time it will be done properly :-)
Have I gone soft? I don’t think I have at all. I still love a good gory movie, but not all horror movies are that way. At my blog, I will pretty much review anything that is horror. When I look for a movie here, I mostly look for new films, but I also look for something I think might interest me. I don’t look for something that will have a lot of gory effects, but if they should have that then great! As much as I love gory effects, in the end it is the story that will make or break a film for me.
Howdy again Miss Heather,
For the record maam, I don’t feel you have "gone soft" either, you incredible sick puppette you (grinning). I know we are both "gore hounds". But as you noted, that is only one sub-genre and only a certain percentage of horrors will fit into that label.
Besides think of how boring it would become if every horror was splattered with blood and gore. After a bit, we would be so accustomed to it, really well done flicks with solid effects would simply not have much affect on us. As it is now, even if a movie is filled with blood and gore, that still does not mean it is well done blood and gore, lol. Some I have seen make me wish they had not tried to show blood and gore, because the effects were just plain pitiful.
So for me at least, it is the poorly done blood and gore flicks and the other sub-genres horrors, that allow me to really enjoy one with incredible blood and gore. So I reckon I figure neither one of us is less of a "gore hound" these days. We just watch what we come across as you noted maam.