Director: Eduardo Sanchez
Cast: Gretchen Lodge, Johnny Lewis, Alexandra Holden, Field Blauvelt
Running Time: 99 minutes
Certificate: 15
Extras: Trailer,
Synopsis: Newlyweds Molly and Tim move into Molly’s childhood home, in a remote part of the countryside. But instead of starting their new life together, Molly soon finds herself tormented by disturbing memories of her past and, possibly, demon possession.
There’s a weight of expectation hanging over LOVELY MOLLY (2011), thanks to its director. After all, Eduardo Sanchez was partly responsible for both writing and directing THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) – the film that popularised “found footage” horror where the narrative and scares are generated through a camcorder POV.
LOVELY MOLLY begins with a nod to this genre as a dishevelled and hollow-eyed Molly holds a knife to her throat while she mumbles at the camera about how it wasn’t her fault. Cut to months earlier and we see a happier Molly at her own wedding. So what turned the sweet, blushing bride into a crazed, grubby loon?
It’s once Molly and Tim move into the well-established horror trope of an isolated house that all the trouble starts. It turns out Molly’s a reformed drug addict, and that’s not the only ghost from her past that’s going to haunt her, as all sorts of weird things start happening which Molly attributes to the spirit of her abusive dead dad. But instead of continuing with the camcorder footage we get traditional film techniques mixed in. It’s a relief in a way – I mean you want Sanchez to do something different, but it does beg the question, why include any found footage? Why is Molly filming random bits of her life? We do get some sort of explanation; when things start to go bump in the night she wants to record it, but POV footage as Molly tramps around the woods and peers into the neighbour’s house seems less convincing as a narrative method, clumsily serving only to allow Tim to check the footage later to see what his wife’s been up to (and it’s not lovely in the slightest).
Because Molly’s been a bad girl. Like, really bad. Tim’s a trucker so he’s away for long periods of time, conveniently allowing Molly to descend into total narcotic and sexual craziness as she’s targeted by whatever’s lurking in the house. The haunting works: creepy, startling, and jump-inducing, heightened by a skilled use of sound and silence aiding the ominous mood. We hear a man’s whispered voice singing to Molly, flies buzzing, high pitched whines and footsteps that sound suspiciously like hooves. There’s also an effective use of light and shadow that makes you cringe waiting for something to burst out (not that it always does – the build-up is slow). Some may question Molly’s descent into murderous madness, but atmospheric shots of her staring at the wall show her disintegrating state of mind. Gretchen Lodge is excellent in her first film role as a young woman on the edge of insanity, even more so as she has to perform naked for a significant part of the film.
A lot seems to hinge on whether we believe Molly or not. Is it all in her head? After all, she starts using again – perhaps she’s just revisiting old traumas. But the film leaves it open to interpretation; a shadowy figure of a horse-headed demon (bringing to mind the 1973 stage-play EQUUS with its horse-headed men) may be just a glimpse into damaged Molly’s disturbed fantasies.
Extras: It’s actually the extras which really lift this film above genuinely scary but typical horror and show the stamp of THE BLAIR WITCH technique with more finesse. Through a series of “documentaries” including interviews with yokels, old police footage of Molly’s dad being questioned for murder and crime scene photos we learn about the house’s grisly history, from the desecration of an Indian burial ground (why is it always an Indian burial ground?), tales of pioneers and cannibalism, hangings, demon worship and general all round nastiness. LOVELY MOLLY is clearly meant to be experienced through multimedia, and interestingly if I hadn’t seen the extras I would have kept more of an open mind about the nature of the haunting depicted in the main feature.
LOVELY MOLLY may not be exploring new ground and definitely nods to films like Polanski’s REPULSION (1965) but it’s certainly unsettling, freaky and has some decent gross-out moments involving maggots and bloody kisses. But it’s when you watch it with all the extra features that the story really starts to offer lots more depth and potential.
Lovely Molly is available on DVD 22nd October
