Lovely Molly (2011)

Newlywed Molly moves into her deceased father's house in the countryside, where painful memories soon begin to haunt her.

Director:

Eduardo Sánchez

Writers:

Jamie Nash (screenplay), Eduardo Sánchez (screenplay)

Stars:

Johnny Lewis, Alexandra Holden, Gretchen Lodge

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Johnny Lewis	...	Tim
Alexandra Holden	...	Hannah
Gretchen Lodge	...	Molly
Ken Arnold	...	Samuels
Lauren Lakis	...	Lauren
Gray Ellis	...	Church Boy (as Tony Ellis)
Tara Garwood	...	Saleswoman / Mother
Todd Ryan Jones	...	The Demon
Daniel Ross	...	Victor
Dan Franko	...	Mall Man
Alexis Savage	...	Young Molly
Brandon Thane Wilson	...	Spit Cup
Mark Redfield	...	Ronnie's friend
Katie Foster	...	Stacey
Greg Cool	...	Ben Palmer

Storyline

This film is about Molly and her new husband Tim. They've moved in to Molly's deceased parents house out in the country. But not long after they move in Molly starts getting haunted by forgotten memories, or so she thought. Her husband Tim is a truck driver and while he's away she starts seeing things and hearing things that she can't explain. She slips back in to old habits, involving drugs. Her sister Hannah gets worried about Molly, as is her Pastor, and her boss notices something is up too. But there is more to what is happening than most people know. It all comes out in the most horrific way, and not everyone is safe.

---

Plot Keywords:

house | newlywed | bathtub | home movie | stabbed with a screwdriver | 

---

Genres:

Drama | Horror

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong disturbing violence and grisly images, some graphic sexual content and nudity, drug use and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 June 2012 (Ireland)

Also Known As:

The Possession

Filming Locations:

Hagerstown, Maryland, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Amber Entertainment, Haxan Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Alexandra Holden was nominated for the 2012 Fright Meter Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

---

Soundtracks

"Lovely Molly"
Traditional Irish folk song
Performed by Sweet Leda

User Reviews

Part Blair Witch, part Paranormal Activity, (nearly) all scary.

Her parents both dead, Molly (Gretchen Lodge) moves into her childhood home with trucker husband Tim (Johnny Lewis); but while Tim is away at work, Molly begins to experience terrifying occurrences that make her believe that she is being haunted by the spirit of her abusive father. As the terror mounts nightly, Molly—an ex-junkie—finds herself returning to her old habits for comfort...

Eduardo Sánchez's Lovely Molly begins with a close-up of a distraught Molly speaking directly to her video camera—a scene that directly references Heather Donahue's classic monologue from Sánchez's 1999 hit The Blair Witch Project; it's a rather amusing move by the director, one that blatantly acknowledges the similarities in technique and style between his new film and that with which he first made his name.

Thankfully, despite a very familiar feel to proceedings throughout (particularly thanks to a fair amount of shaky hand-held video footage), Lovely Molly does mark another level of progression for Sánchez as a film-maker: it is a technically superior piece to Blair Witch, the plot being far more complex and the production more polished, but more importantly, it sees the director using tricks developed on his first few films much more effectively, taking the terror to new heights.

Certainly for the first hour or so, Lovely Molly succeeds in being one of the scariest movies in a long while, Sánchez using his tried and trusted bag of tricks—creepy noises, impenetrable blackness, a well developed sense of vulnerability—to ramp up the tension to pant-wetting levels; he is aided in no small part by a fine central performance from Lodge (who is indeed very lovely!) and excellent sound design which adds immensely to the eerie atmosphere.

Sadly, the nearer the film approaches the end, the less it succeeds in chilling the spine: Sánchez slowly loses his grip on proceedings, with way to many plot details hurriedly brought into play, and the ambiguous nature of the narrative leading to utter confusion rather than fright. Ultimately, the viewer is left to question whether Molly has lost her mind or whether there really was a supernatural explanation for her behaviour. Reaching a satisfactory conclusion ain't easy.

8 out of 10 for the first hour; 5 out of 10 for the rest (an average of 6.5/10 by my calculations, which gets rounded up to a 7 for IMDb).