It seems that horror films have decided the best way to
scare people these days is lost footage or home made movie styles of making
films. Yes, these can offer some truly frightening moments but it doesn't
always work. Those behind LOVELY MOLLY have decided to combine that format with
straight forward narrative story telling and it works but not quite.
Molly and Tim are a young couple just married as the film
opens. Their wedding runs smoothly and we get to watch the handheld camera work
as their wedding is filmed and as they enter their new home, actually Molly's
old one. The house they move into was the one that belonged to her parents
years ago and now the young couple is taking it over.
Things begin to go wonky early on as one night the alarm
system Tim had installed goes off saying someone entered the kitchen. The
police show and find no one or any sign of a break in. While Tim thanks them
and says he must not have locked the door, he is certain that he did so.
Tim had the system installed because as a truck driver he
knows he'll be gone days at a time and wanted Molly to be safe. But odd things
begin to happen that a simple lock and alarm system won't prevent. Molly
continues to go to work the days Tim is on the road, but when home she feels a
sense of uneasiness.
The times when Tim is home are filled with odd behavior by
Molly. It's enough odd behavior that Tim begins to question whether Molly has
begun using drugs again. Apparently Molly had a severe addiction problem that
stemmed from something in her past, something that involved her father in this
very house.
As these events unfold the viewer begins to wonder if there
is something truly demonic going on in the house or is Molly losing her mind?
When it's revealed that Molly had some mental issues years before, that line of
thought begins to dominate and we watch as we think that Molly is slowly
drifting into madness.
As was the case with THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, a film that I
didn't find frightening until the final images, LOVELY MOLLY does the same
thing giving us a terrifying answer to the things that happen here with the
last shot. Until that shot I felt no sense of fear or terror and found the
movie to actually move along at a snails pace revealing little. But something
else did and perhaps would have made all the difference had I chosen to view
those instead.
The Special Features of this disc include several pieces put
together revealing more of the back story to the tale being told as if it were
webisodes that explained and set up so much more. The history of the house is
one. The problems that faced Molly's family when she was a child is another.
Had these been incorporated into the final film it would have been a much
scarier film to watch and explained enough that the actions of the characters
would have made more sense.
As it stands the film moves along slowly and you find
yourself wondering more along the lines of what is going on than having some
knowledge to base the actions of anyone on. Those clues would have made all the
difference. So if you plan to watch this movie, watch those short episodes
first, then watch the film. It will be scarier if you do so since they are more
terrifying than the movie all by itself.
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