Lovely Molly (2011) Review

Lovely Molly (2011)

Dir. Eduardo Sanchez – 100 Minutes

The film starts with Molly (the hypnotic Gretchen Lodge) talking into a handheld cam and explaining that some bad things have happened and that its not her fault.

Then we go back in time to Molly and Tim’s wedding , and after the wedding they move into the house of Molly’s deceased parents.

Not long after moving in strange things start happening in the house , firstly the alarm goes off in the middle of the night and upon inspection the back door is wide open.

Then we learn that Molly had a serious drug problem and was institutionalised. Molly now starts to believe she is being visited by the ghost of her dead father, and he will only appear to her.

And so Molly heads into a downward spiral of drugs and psychosis, she loses her job and her husband Tim (the late Johnny Lewis) is away much of the time as he works as a truck driver.

So the only person left she can rely on is her sister Hannah (Alexandra Holden) , but as the film progresses you start to believe that Molly had been abused by her father , but also is something more sinister afoot?

Is everything in her head? Is it the drugs, psychosis or just loneliness or is it a genuine haunting? Gretchen Lodge is fantastic and plays a very difficult role almost perfectly and at times she is almost unwatchable as she descends into madness.

This is a really well made film , some found footage (well it is directed by Eduardo Sanchez the co-director of Blair Witch) and great acting. But it falls flat with the last 30 minutes , it builds up some stunning tension and is bleak as hell BUT then it comes apart at the seams with a shoddy ending that left me feeling almost cheated.

A real shame as this is a lovely visceral descent into psychotic and physical degradation with some great supernatural elements. Yet after 60 minutes this all unravelled into a bit of a mess to be honest.

I so want to like this , and I did to a point, however I am more annoyed than anything else. Far too predictable and lazy at the finale.

Had promise but not even the amazing performance from Gretchen Lodge can save it 5/10