Reviews & Ratings for
Lovely Molly More at IMDbPro »

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33 out of 44 people found the following review useful:
Eduardo Sánchez's new psyche-out horror flick is altogether spooky., 15 September 2011
Author: thesubstream from Canada

Director Eduardo Sánchez begins his newest spooky feature Lovely Molly with a deliberate shout out the the film that brung him here, The Blair Witch Project (co-directed with Daniel Myrick). A crying woman confesses into a videocamera, capturing herself in a moment of distress and hoping to leave a clue to be discovered after she inevitably succumbs to an off-screen terror. Sánchez hasn't returned exactly to his old stomping ground of first-person documentary horror - Lovely Molly is for the most part a spooky old fashioned psyche-out horror film - but it's a nice touch in a film filled with them.

Molly and new husband Tim (Gretchen Lodge and Johnny Lewis) are ripped from sleep in their new inherited home by a squalling alarm. Someone has opened their back door and is thumping around in the kitchen, but police find nothing out of the ordinary and chalk it up to the wind despite Tim's insistence that he locked the door.

He's a truck driver, and is away from home for stretches of time in which Molly is left alone to deal with a growing malignancy, a presence in the house that manifests itself as sung voices, crying children, clomping horse hooves and slamming doors. Molly's afraid to reach out to her sister or husband for help, fearing that they'll assume she's lapsed back into substance abuse. She instead begins to videotape her encounters, and it's this footage, as well as taped footage of someone stalking neighbours and visiting an odd underground shrine of some sort, that forms the frightening backbone of the film.

As Sánchez himself claimed in a post-screening q&a, the film is as much an "indie relationship" film and "actor's piece" as horror film. The entire weight of the film is on newcomer Lodge's back and she pulls the whole thing off dazzlingly well, transforming from a slight, trembling girl into a stalking, haunted and threatening woman crawling through an empty house. It's a performance good enough, combined with Sánchez's legitimate gift for crafting arresting moments of weird, totemic and animalistic horror, to transcend the film's kind of tired "is it a ghost or a hallucination" set-up, and take the whole thing into straight-up spooky, straight-up original territory.

27 out of 42 people found the following review useful:
It creeps and creaks its way to an unexpected end, 15 September 2011

Author: Greg (gregmoroberts@yahoo.com) from Oakville, Ontario

"Whatever happened, it wasn't me", says Molly in the opening shot as she holds a knife to her own throat. But exactly what happened and who it was by the film's end remains uncertain.

Lovely Molly is the new film by Eduardo Sánchez, the brilliant director behind 1999's The Blair Witch Project. The film stars Gretchen Lodge as Molly, a beautiful newlywed that moves into her old home with her husband after the death of her father.

Within three months of their arrival at the home, unexplained phenomena begin to happen around the house. Door alarms go off in the middle of the night and footsteps could be heard throughout the structure. Molly's husband Tim (Johnny Lewis) does not have an explanation for some of the occurrences, but as a truck driver who is rarely at home, he leaves Molly in the house with the confidence that is must be 'the wind' or local kids playing a prank.

Molly, however, continues to be victimized by what haunts the house. With Tim gone, she relies on her sister Hanna (Alexandra Holden) to provide her comfort but with a lack of sleep and feeling as if she is losing her grip on reality, Molly resorts back to injecting herself with drugs – an addiction thought beat before marriage.

When Tim arrives home one evening he finds Molly naked staring at the ceiling in her room. She softly states "He's alive" and this statement will initiate an intensity in strange occurrences and violence that will lead to tragic results.

Lovely Molly is a multi-layered horror film that mixes POV camera work into the film to give an authentic feel into a terrifying reality. Sánchez cast his film perfectly and Gretchen Lodge, as Molly, appears in just about every scene carrying the film on her naked back. The horror in Lovely Molly comes in small doses and intensifies as the plot develops. The audience is aware early that there is something wrong with Molly, but is it supernatural? Is she possessed? Or does her drug abuse have Molly realizing a non-existent entity? All these questions abound and the journey to some open-ended answers is worth the time investment.

Eduardo Sánchez works the camera like a seasoned pro and is not quick to bring the story or any of the events to a quick resolve. Instead, the horror elements mount until Molly passes a point of no return and where family secrets haunt long after the death of her parents.

Lovely Molly ends up being one of those great horror films where if watched in the right frame of mind and at the right time of night can really scare the bejezus out of you. It doesn't attempt to go for the jugular or splatter the screen with scenes of gore that attempt to top the latest splatterfest. Instead, it stays true to its plotted course and reels in its audience – paying them back with an above average genre film the creeps, creaks and cringes its way to an unexpected end.

www.killerreviews.com

16 out of 23 people found the following review useful:
Gets under your skin, 28 August 2012

Author: edgure3 (edgure3@yahoo.com) from United States

OK, so I know the reviews for this one have been pretty mixed, but for fans of psychological horror that don't mind an ambiguous story line, I highly recommend Lovely Molly. As a massive horror enthusiast who sees EVERYTHING, I can tell you there are only a few films per year that have the ability to get under my skin, and this is one of them. Although not a particularly sadistic or violent film, Molly's (newcomer Gretchen Lodge) descent into depravity is entirely convincing in a very realistic and unpleasant manor. Her back story is left intentionally vague, which makes the proceedings much more horrific. As horror fans we all know the downfall of over exposition...once we know exactly whats going on it's just not scary anymore. To say much more about the story could hinder one's viewing experience but I will say to make sure you CRANK your surround system or watch with headphones because the sound design is a vital part of the film. Many scenes feature sonic subtleties which could easily be missed, and constant attention to detail (take note of the crackle heard every time Molly drags a cigarette). So anyways, Lovely Molly has my vote for one of the year's best in horror, and I can't wait to see what's next for both Sanchez and Lodge.

7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Ambiguous Horror Movie, 4 April 2013

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The janitor Molly (Gretchen Lodge) marries the truck driver Tim (Johnny Lewis) and they move to the house of her deceased parents. Tim needs to drive and leaves Molly alone in the house. Soon Molly is haunted by her past and by her abusive father and she sees him in the house. Molly uses drugs again and records everything with her camera, expecting to prove that she is not crazy. Meanwhile, her sister Hannah (Alexandra Holden), Tim and his friend, Pastor Bobby (Field Blauvelt) try to help her, but Molly becomes dangerous and violent.

"Lovely Molly" is an ambiguous horror movie where it is not clear whether Molly is possessed by the evil spirit of her abusive father or whether she is mentally ill, after an incident with Tim and a neighbor a couple of days after her birthday. This is basically the debut of the unknown Gretchen Lodge and she delivers a top-notch performance. The screenplay is a little messy and the director fails in the conclusion, and maybe this is the reason of the bad reviews in IMDb. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Adorável Molly" ("Lovely Molly")

18 out of 30 people found the following review useful:
Gretchen Lodge is captivating in Lovely Molly, 12 November 2011

Author: Cheryl Dowling from NC, USA

Lovely Molly is the tale of one woman's painful past returning to take hold of her once more just as she begins her marriage to her new husband in her family's old home. Molly's transformation throughout the film is beautifully played by Gretchen Lodge, each bit of her turmoil peels back another layer of her past and the horror unraveling around her.

The bond with her sister, played by Alexandra Holden is believable and real, the interactions between the two women showing the conflicting feelings of fear and love as they both struggle with the changes in Molly and the memories of the past.

Thick with tense moments, Lovely Molly is eerie, tragic, and disturbing but not rife with gore or shocks designed to make you jump in your seat. Instead, there is a sense of inevitable dread that hangs in the air throughout the entire film. The house itself is as much a character in the film as those who inhabit it. Every small old room, creaking doorway, bit of chipped paint and worn wood seems to hold the promise of something sinister.

And that is a promise that does not go unfulfilled.

28 out of 50 people found the following review useful:
Lovely, Indeed!, 11 October 2011

Author: Dramawiener from Canada

Tremendously glad I got to see this film at TIFF. Not content to adhere to the one-two punch of a little quiet followed by a jump-scare that seems de rigueur in modern horror cinema, Sanchez delivers hardcore on the building of atmospheric tension and a sense of creeping dread. This is achieved so well, in fact, that I was unaware of the precise moment at which one of the characters' fears became my own. The leads are honest in their performances, with Lodge being utterly fearless within the delivery of a truly fearful character, and none of the relationships smack of the disingenuous--other horror filmmakers take note; we're more creeped out when we're creeped out by and for actual people. If you need a dude with an axe/machete/mask combo, this one might be a little subtle for you. If you want to squirm wile you bask in the sense that everything is horribly wrong, you can't miss this film.

10 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
My reaction at the end was wth?!, 18 September 2012

Author: awab_avril from United States

Look the movie is creepy and got me suspended for a long time. It was successful in creating suspense and intensity but in my opinion fails to deliver a message or an ending.

There is a moment towards the end where Molly goes out to hug "someone" I am not gonna say it so I wont spoil it for you but I keep wondering what on earth did they think when they were making this scene! Another part that I will vaguely criticize is the struggle-less death that happened in the movie. It just doesn't make any sense.

Overall, I gave the movie 6 stars because it was exciting and creepy but I was pretty disappointed with the end and how things developed eventually.

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Narrow, unoriginal and boring, 22 January 2013

Author: KineticSeoul from United States

This is a tedious and generic horror flick that isn't original. It's just dull to watch, it's by the makers of the "The Blair Witch Project" a movie I am not fond of. It tries to incorporate standard horror movie cinematography with found footage aspects of it and it still comes off dull. The plot is about a newlywed couple that moves into a house that has a lot of dark history behind it and weird things starts to happen to the wife named Molly. Yeah, it sounds very cliché for horror movie buffs out there and this one really is narrow. It doesn't throw anything new or shocking for that matter. The tension sort of builds up for very few scenes and leads to disappointment. It tries to blend elements from the "Paranormal Activity" franchise but it's not all that effective. Although I am not fond of the "paranormal Activity" franchise either. The ending is a big let down and I was like "what the crap so is that it?". Some horror movies are effective by not giving away of what is exactly going on sometimes. But that isn't the case here, I was getting annoyed because I wasn't entirely sure what was really going on and what is behind the weird stuff that is going on. The special features part of the DVD gives a bit of back-story but the audiences shouldn't have to go to the special features to be a bit slightly satisfied. In fact the special features part of the DVD is way better than the actual movie itself. And it's kinda comedic unintentionally of course as well. The weird static noise in this gets more annoying instead of getting gradually creepy.

3.6/10

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Worst sound FX ever, 16 November 2012

Author: elman22 from Slovakia

Sound FX for this movie was really awful. All that buzzing, whistling, ringing, whining... I really don't understand why would anyone buy a camera that records whining all the time. Or why anyone want to own CCTV with buzzing.

This kind of sound design was pretty distractive and actually made my ears hurt. It's a shame they used this SFX since otherwise it was pretty decent movie with nice atmosphere and some intense images. Also actors were pretty convincing and it was nice to see Alexandra Holden perform as worrying sister.

So watch this movie with sound turned off and closed captioning turned on.

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Part Blair Witch, part Paranormal Activity, (nearly) all scary., 5 September 2012

Author: BA_Harrison from Hampshire, England

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).

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