31 Days of Horror: Day One - Lovely Molly

 Like many other bloggers I will be doing a 31 Days of Horror. Over the course of these 31 Days I will watch and review a horror film. Note that all these horror films will be the first viewing so don't except to see The Exorcist, Alien, The Thing or any other classic horror movie as I've most likely already seen them. Note that I have no schedule set, I just watch whatever I want to. 

I will try to publish something everyday, but in the past week I officially lost my job, but got a new job literally the next working day, which I start on October 12th. This means I have to move to London (where the new job is based) so I might get too busy to publish something on the odd day. We'll have to see.

Lovely Molly

To start of my 31 Days of Horror I have chosen Lovely Molly, a film about  a newlywed  couple who move to the bride's, Molly (Gretchen Lodge), childhood home only to find painful memories resurface. 

Lovely Molly is directed by Eduardo Sanchez, most famous for revolutionising the entire horror genre by making an entire sub-genre popular (rather than inventing one). Much like how Halloween made the Slasher genre a popular one, The Blair Witch Project made the found footage genre one the most popular sub genres among horror filmmakers right to this very day. 

Anyway, Lovely Molly's basic plot doesn't stray too much away from a standard horror movie about possible possession from an evil, possibly, demonic spirit. However, the film has an element of ambiguity surrounding whether the actions of the central heroine are the result of a serious mental disorder due to a traumatic past, or a result of hallucinations from taking drugs or the actions of a person who has fallen victim to a demonic possession. The fact that the film has a degree of ambiguity (until the ending at least) means that plenty of questions have left, whether on purpose or accidently, unanswered. 

Eduardo Sanchez takes further steps away from the standard mainstream horror movies by not overpopulating his film with jump scares and instead relying on a slow moving plot (to the extent it's little bit slow in places) to build a very dark and moody atmosphere. Eduardo Sanchez attempts to scare the viewer by getting them to empathise with Molly, Hannah (Alexandra Holden) and Molly's boyfriend (Johnny Lewis) as Molly's mental state deteriorates dramatically. By making the audience care about the characters we become concerned about their well-being.

The performances from all the players are excellent, and whilst the film does suffer from one or two pacing issues (there is also a completely needless subplot), director Eduardo Sanchez brilliantly creates a film with a very moody and dark atmosphere.

3.5/5