Horror movies and I seem to come up at ends with each other. The horror film will possess some good elements that inevitably get drowned out by the bad. Today's example: The Haunting of Molly Hartley. Maybe it just caught me off guard for the first 25 minutes, but I like to think that it had all of the key elements to a good horror experience right off the bat. It even got me to jump once or twice which I assure you happens maybe once or twice a year at the hands of a movie.
What went right? Director Mickey Liddell plays The Haunting of Molly Hartley in typical The Omen and The Exorcist style. Satanic forces are afoot fighting to gain possession of Molly Hartley's soul and then the rest of the details receive a hazy blur. The Director, instead of spelling out Molly's childhood trauma from the get-go, gives the audience time to draw whatever parallels they can from the opening story and that of Molly. Yes, they eventually tell us what happened to her mother and what she did but that only opens up the second well-done aspect of the storytelling. Throughout the movie Molly catches glimpses of her mother - are they real? Dreams? Nightmares? Or delusions?
The Haunting of Molly Hartley does an exceptional job keeping the gist of what's really going hidden for as long as it can. The biggest problem, which I think hurts the movie significantly, is how the movie unfolds and ends in the final act. With such a nice setup it hurts a little to see the ending go to spoil.
The acting in The Haunting of Molly Hartley offers one of those unique situations where I feel the actors had to play down to the material. Not to say these actors have Academy Awards in their futures but many instances in the movie had me rolling my eyes at just how sappy and plot-reciting it could get. Oddly enough the two supporting actresses had better roles and performances than Molly Hartley.
Female leads in Horror films represent my greatest dislike in the film casting world. It's not about talent, it's not about charisma - it's about lungs and the ability to spasm. Can Haley Bennett scream? You bet. Can she shriek? You know it! Can she writhe in pain on the floor? Can she ever! But that's about all - and yet we have to follow her through the rest of the film, even though by minute 25 we've seen every trick in her book. Jake Weber, as Molly's father, comes across as awfully hammy. His earnestness all at once hurts and helps the character. In the beginning it sabotages his efforts to play a serious role model while at the end the once-innocent earnestness takes on that air of creepiness that is only achieved when an actor strains to keep his eyes as wide as possible. He uses wide eyes throughout the entire film - it just means different things based on where his character falls in the plot, so we can't really give him credit for performing all that well.
Leah (Shannon Marie Woodward) and Alexsis (Shanna Collins) both seem poised to pull Molly in different directions, the former towards the more sinful life and the latter towards unity with Jesus. The way these two girls play their parts helps the movie pull up after it begins tail-spinning away from its better first act. Shanna Collins does especially well playing the quiet evangelizer turned under-the-table fanatic; her transformation from one to the other comes suddenly and yet, we're not entirely caught off guard. Maybe it's because Christians can't get a fair rap in films these days or maybe because she has those crazy eyes. Shannon Marie Woodward (of Californication) does the rebellious schoolgirl thing well. She does it in Californication and she carries it over here to high marks.
DVD Bonus Features
We're given a series of cast and crew interviews with Haley Bennett, Director Mickey Liddell and Shanna Collins. These would be entirely dismissible save for the fact that Mickey Liddell acknowledges in one of his pieces the element that actually made the first 25 minutes work for me: he kept things unexpected. The few jump-out-of-your-seat moments were well-planned and I have to say I gained a little respect for him to hear that it was a very intentional device and not just dumb-luck.
The Haunting of Molly Hartley really won't be enjoyed by anyone other than the most die-hard must-see-every-horror-movie-ever fans and the couple looking for a weak sauce movie for a date. There's not much to recommend it for as the first 25 minutes are good but not enough to carry the film's entire weight.
"The Haunting of Molly Hartley" is on sale February 24, 2009 and is rated PG13. Horror. Directed by Mickey Liddell. Written by John Travis, Rebecca Sonnenshine. Starring Haley Bennett, Jake Weber, Shannon Marie Woodward, Shanna Collins, Chace Crawford.
