LOVELY MOLLY (2012) Review

Directed by: Eduardo Sánchez

Starring: Gretchen Lodge, Johnny Lewis, Alexandra Holden

Eduardo Sánchez's only real claim to fame is the fact that he wrote and directed THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing I will leave for you to decide, but personally I thought  that movie was complete crap so obviously I went into LOVELY MOLLY with more than a little trepidation. 

The movie starts off with a short scene which could be called a nod to Sanchez's BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, in the form of a woman crying into a video camera about some no doubt terrible things which we will soon be witness to. After this initial scene blacks out we find our Molly (Lodge) and her husband Tim (Lewis) suddenly awaken from their slumber by the harsh wailing of their house's security alarm. The police soon arrive and do a sweep of the house only to find nothing besides the open back door, which shows no signs of forced entry. The cop offers a no-nonsense reason as to why the door may be open even though Tim is insistent that he locked it before going to bed. Crisis now averted, we are able to be introduced to our main characters. Molly and Tim have just moved into their inherited new home three months earlier after the death of Molly's father. Tim is a truck driver and so is away from home for long stretches at a time, leaving Molly all alone in the new house. During these times when she is by herself she is witness to some strange occurrences around the house which manifest themselves as voices, doors banging, footsteps and all of that kind of haunted house stuff. At the same time this is going on we are treated to some handheld camera work by an unknown person as they spy on neighbours and visit what seems to be some strange underground shrine. One day Tim comes home to find Molly sitting naked on the bed. She utters the words "He's alive" and it's from here on in that things start to get more strange and more violent.

LOVELY MOLLY is really quite a multi-layered film, but perhaps this is where its biggest problems lie. When we first realize that something is very wrong with Molly it isn't obvious exactly what is wrong. Is it really some supernatural entity? Is she being possessed? Why can't Tim see the things she sees? Are these just hallucinations brought on by her drug use? Is she just a straight up fucking nutcase? Even by the time the credits roll these are still mostly unanswered questions. I'm by no means against movies which leave you with unanswered questions, but here I felt that there were just too many and the movie answered hardly a single one.

The other big problem for me was just how bizarrely and unrealistically the characters in LOVELY MOLLY react to the things going on around them. Obviously Molly's actions can be explained away with the fact that she's crazy or possessed or whatever, but what of the others? Tim find himself violently assaulted by his wife before she runs off into the woods, shortly thereafter Molly's sister Hanna (Holden) arrives and somehow tries to rationalize Molly's behaviour and talks Tim out of calling the police. I don't know about you, but if my wife tried to bite my fucking mouth off I would be calling the cops pronto.
And when weird shit is going down in the house while Molly is home alone, why doesn't she go stay with her sister like she is asked to? And why does Tim seem content to leave her alone after finding her naked and incoherent in the bedroom? I know most horror movies are guilty of lacking logic, but really this is a bit too ridiculous.

On a positive note Gretchen Lodge does give a great performance as Molly and there is some nice camera work, but this is far from enough to outweigh the negatives of the movie.