Skip to main content

Lovely Molly

On paper - the details of Lovely Molly are wonderfully horrific: a newlywed couple moves into the wife's childhood home. Immediately she becomes haunted by "ghosts from her past". Her deterioration is rapid: she's raped by a ghost (a la The Entity), she begins stalking and secretly filming her neighbors, she begins talking to a dead deer she's keeping in her basement, she seduces and murders the local priest before going on to kill her neighbor's child and her own boyfriend. This situation leaves her fairly distraught so she slits her throat.

Typically, this is the type of movie I would absolutely blast with my cynicism but, there's something not entirely detestable about Lovely Molly.

A perfect example: found footage.
Normally I'd just write off a movie that jumped on this fad bandwagon and used this cheap, cop-out, cover up our shitty writing skills crutch of a technique but, the director, Eduardo Sanchez, is the father of our recent obsession with found footage. Had he not given the world The Blair Witch Project, we may not even be having this conversation.

You could take this as a reason to hate him even more but, I've actually discovered that he's good at using found footage to further his stories. I think that may be a skill, and I'm willing to accept a little found footage in my life, when used well.

Another example: the plot is anything but new.
There's elements of An American Haunting, where the protagonist is haunted or possessed by memories of their past abuse at the hands of a family member. This is a plot element that has become immensely popular in horror, but there's something about the insidious inescapability of these lingering wounds that feel more uncomfortable than in most other instances.

Related note: the thing I found strongest about the movie was the lead actress, Gretchen Lodge, who must have studied Charlize Theron's performance in Devil's Advocate for months before filming this movie. Her ability to act crazy is top notch. I've rarely seen better portrayals of insanity in any genre.

To further isolate Molly and make her insane stories unbelievable, we're told that she's a recovering addict, so of course you can't trust her. She's clearly a liar. Absentia used this tactic as well - it seems to be a recent plot trend.

Another related note is the secondary strength of this movie: the visuals. There are some truly unsettling images peppered throughout this movie.

Overall, my day didn't feel entirely wasted after watching this one. I'm still trying to put my finger on why that is. In the mean time, it's your turn: start by watching the Lovely Molly trailer here:


And pick up a copy of some of the movies I mentioned in my post here:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Witch (2015)

You know the drill - there's ALWAYS spoilers. Don't want the movie ruined for you, come back after you've seen it. Also - I'm still without an editor - typos and bad grammar await you! I keep hoping that the cultural obsession with zombies will end; literally every other damn movie that comes 'round seems to feature some sort of shambling, undead being bent on devouring the weak flesh of regular humans. Once upon a time, zombies have have been used as a metaphor for the blind consumerism created by our capitalist society, or the perceived depletion of resources by immigrants, or even the ravages of time and disease on our frail bodies. Now it seems that the deeper social commentary has been lost as audiences mindlessly consume "zombie fiction" in an attempt to keep up with trends. ( How very meta - a film buddy of mine commented on this assessment! ) All of this is just a sideways rant, leading up to my actual point: it seems that zombie may actually...

Mother!

Alright friends and readers–this one is probably doubly filled with typos and grammar errors because I wrote it while angry. Good luck and happy reading. There are unpopular opinions in every realm. As a film student, you can truly strike a nerve when you say things like, "I fucking hate the self-indulgence of independent films and the way people idolize them." Or, you know, "Low lighting and slow pacing does not a good movie make." Or whatever. You can of course, objectively, understand how this happens. When you are creating art–when you are outside the system  so to speak–you are free to explore things (subjects, techniques, etc.) that may need to be addressed and that freedom can become intoxicating and go to one's head. While it may seem only right  or only fair  to respect and accept each creative endeavor that every artist undertakes, it is unreasonable to believe that the world will remain forever patient with the self-obsession artists have. Th...

The Babadook

Spoilers and typos! Enjoy. We often look back nostalgically on childhood, envious of the joy we felt and the boundless imaginations we possessed. How conveniently we forget the other side of that coin: as children, we experience a depth of terror our adult selves continually try to recreate for cathartic entertainment. When we try to bring those childhood fears to life on the screen, we often end up with movies about "things that go bump in the night," which is a somewhat superficial approach. While it does provide an opportunity for a supernatural experience, it ignores the root of our fear: the unknown . As children, we lack life experience. We lack nuance. We lack understanding. Not knowing creates in us fear. Yes, we fear what lurks in the darkness but we also fear the adult world because we do not understand how it works. The Babadook works to exploit both  those fears. The short story: a widowed mother of a young boy experiences a mental breakdown and tries to...