Posted in: Movies, Review | Tagged: eduardo sanchez, film

Lovely Molly – The Bleeding Cool Review

It can be refreshing to go into a film with little or no prior knowledge as to what it's about. Such was the case with Lovely Molly, a film that I saw knowing only that it was written and directed by The Blair Witch Project's Eduardo Sánchez, and that it was a horror movie of some description. I had no idea whether it was a psychological thriller, a ghost story, or a slasher film.

And by the time the credits rolled I still wasn't sure.

The film begins with newlyweds Tim and Molly moving into her childhood home, which has been empty since the death of her father. This may not seem like the wisest move for Molly, who has a history of drug abuse and mental illness, and intends for her marriage to be the start of a newer, happier stage of her life. It's probably not a spoiler to tell you that things don't quite work out that way.

The film is essentially an exploration of the haunting and ultimately destructive effects of early trauma. It attempts valiantly to be both a solid drama and an unsettling horror film.

But succeeds at neither.

Despite the best efforts of leads Gretchen Hope and Johnny Lewis, who both do just fine, neither character comes across as particularly sympathetic or genuine. Sanchez makes use of his known talents with loosely scripted, apparently part-improvised naturalistic dialogue, and by occasionally cutting to grainy video interludes of an unknown family being stalked by a camera-wielding voyeur, though the film is mainly shot in a more traditional, narrative style.

It's worth mentioning that I rate the sound of the film much higher than the visuals. Where ever Lovely Molly is actually scary, it's usually the result of the haunting score or the recurring use of a supremely creepy rendition of the film's title song in grating tones.

There is great potential for horror in any text portraying schizophrenia or other mental illnesses, and this film works best as horror when Molly herself is seen being tormented by her past. By contrast, sections where Molly becomes the antagonist, which occur with greater frequency as the film goes on, seem contrived and poorly integrated: a mere excuse to inject a bit or requisite gore into the story rather than a natural evolution of her mental state. Molly's 'madness' is implemented mainly as a tool for making scary things happen, and as a result it ends up being quite shallow and unconvincing.

For fans with a specific taste for low-budget horror fare, Lovely Molly is unique enough to be worth watching and it does have a few genuinely creepy moments. Those with less of a predisposition towards the form might find it lacking.

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