|
|
Movie Review: The Haunting of Molly Hartley
'Molly Hartley’ hauntingly laughable
By Michael Farrar
Special to 2theadvocate.com
|
PLAY OFFICIAL TRAILER
out of 4 stars.
The bad news for 17-year-old Molly Hartley (Haley Bennett) is that her mother is a vicious maniac who tried to kill her, which raises plenty of family issues.
Molly is now being haunted by nightmares that her crazed mother (Marin Hinkle) is out to murder her -- again.
I guess that I would be on edge too, if my father moved me to the same town as the mental hospital where my murderous mom is locked up. Even though Molly’s mom is off-the-hook insane, her dad (Jake Weber) is either quietly nuts or absolutely clueless. How else would you explain him moving Molly to the same zip code as the mom who tried to stab her to death? It is beyond all belief of any kind of movie logic.
That's the main symptom of what's wrong with "The Haunting of Molly Hartley" -- the plot doesn't make much sense. Let's say for the sake of entertainment that you get past that particular flaw, there are more plot problems waiting.
We watch Molly try to get by in her new prep school. She makes a friend of a cynical Goth girl with a few personal issues of her own. She makes an enemy of the queen of the clique girls, whose boyfriend has eyes for Molly. This seems solid enough in a predictable way, but you can watch this kind of stuff any night of the week on TV.
The movie tries to make Molly's nose bleeds some kind of supernatural event. There is also too much use of the standard 'horror' technique of the main character being startled by something that turns out to be harmless.
The director, Mickey Liddell, tries to make it scary with overblown 'horror' sounds and music. However, that just makes it even more laughable. This is filmmaking on a low budget without much creativity. How I wish this movie was as good as "The Craft" or "Carrie," but sadly, it just can't come anywhere close.
The one thing that does make sense is that Molly is truly terrified that she is losing her mind and will end up just as crazed as her mother. The repeated nightmares of her mother stalking and killing her make Molly a very sleep-deprived girl for obvious reasons.
There is a slight Christian theme seeping into the movie that suggests that if Molly accepts Jesus as her personal savior, she will be protected of all evil. This form of 'left-behind' salvation is presented in a clumsy way by sweet classmate Alexis (Shanna Collins), who is a committed Christian.
Overall, this film looks more like a cable TV movie than a big-screen film. Maybe that's because director Mickey Liddell has spent most of his 10-year career producing soapy teen television series such as "Everwood." This movie actually feels like "Everwood" with a dash of "The Omen" mixed in.
However, there is one clever twist at the very end that did put a smile on my face, but that small dessert could not clean the bland taste of the 90-minute film that was offered as the main meal.
"The Haunting of Molly Hartley" doesn't really work as horror, teen drama or a Christian film. It's actually caught in between all of these styles without much to show for it. Save yourself from boredom and skip "The Haunting of Molly Hartley."
