The Haunting of Molly Hartley
| release date | October 31 2008 |
| studio | Freestyle Releasing |
| director | Mickey Liddell |
| writer | John Travis and Rebecca Sonnenshine |
| starring | Chace Crawford,Haley Bennett, AnnaLynne McCord, Marin Hinkle, Jake Weber, Josh Stewart. |
| site | thehauntingofmollyhartley.com |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
4 Comments
it wont let me give it a 1
Greetings fellow horror fans!
Well I went see this film tonight, and I wasn’t exactly suprised by what I found. I saw the trailer for it a while back, so my first thought was “Oh! A devil/demon/possession theme movie”. Now in my opinion, the devil thing is one of the scariest themes for a horror story (i.e. Amityville Horror, The Exorcist, etc.) It’s a pretty welcome change from the typical J-Horror remake or slasher, so I was all on board.
Then I saw what it was rated.
PG-13 aka “diet horror”
This didn’t change my already low expectations however, so I sat there and watched.
After a fairly tense and creepy opening sequence, we meet our young heroin and throughout the first hour, we get the basic jist of the plot. However, if you’ve seen the trailer, then you already know the plot, thus you know everything else that’s about to happen. (It is PG-13 after all).
But I should give it more credit than that. With a fairly descent outline, the potential for a great horror film is there. I never really felt a connection with any of the characters, nor felt the satanic presence in our heroin as well. I just saw a teenage girl acting like a teenage girl, and a ghost or something that may not even be there. A few notable scenes do occur however, particularly with the mother, who delivers the creepiest performance of the whole film and gives us our most chilling moments.
Outside of this however, not a whole lot to be impressed about. A very predictable ending, which you can probly figure out if you saw the trailer, watered-down or “diet horror” as I call it, dumbed down for the teenage kids in the crowd who are probly making out, acting up, or talking on their cell phones the whole time anyway. I was left wanting a whole lot more from what could have, potentially been a fairly descent and scary film.
This movie friggin terrrible. Drawn out with horrid acting, generic cinematography and really loud desperate sound effects. If your in the mood for a half hearted ABC family horror event thats just bad than tune into this insepid supernatural melodrama.
I paid for this?
Spoiler:
So um… if I knew that I would suddenly become rich, popular and smart as soon as I turned 18 I would have been looking forward to it. F voting and cigs.
Typical Satan is bad for you, Christianity is good for you PG-13 bullshit.
i went to the movies and watched this, and i’m glad that my friend paid for it. if you watch the preview on the official site, you know everything that’s going to happen in the movie.
spoiler
the ending was very confusing. she stabbed herself twice and nothing happened. it was a decent film, but like most, the ending killed it.
I brought this on dvd today and went and saw the movie opening day…it was alot better than i expected it to be.. Haley Bennet was a good actress and the movie had a good story and made me jump a few times…i love the religious aspect into the movie and the whole movie itself keeps me drawn in…thos movie is a quick good horror flick that deserves more than it got.
Alright, this movie was…ehh. A religious horror movie is always going to stir moments for anyone that attended religious ed classes or catholic schools but this movie was just not very good. The overall story was fragmented and never fully tied together, some scenes seemed to be thrown in for kicks and had nothing to do with the overall story. One plus, I think it was great that the movie had a slightly different ending than one would have expected while watching. Would not recommend this to anyone.
I was actually surprised by this movie. I thought it was going to be another dreadful PG-13 teeny bopper flick. Boy, I was wrong. This was a decent and well made thriller. It goes to show that not every horror film doesn’t have to be rated R, just to be good. While I admit the movie wasn’t scary and used the same “cheap” scares, besides that it was good. I could understand what the director was trying to do. It goes to show you that even the worst advertisement, you can still get a good film. The haunting of Molly Hartley doesn’t disappoint.
not what i was hoping for just a plain movie not very good at all
id give this a 0/10 if i could
better than I expected
wtf kind of ending was this movie like everyone
else said 2 stabs a yea im a valadictoran wtf
if i could give it a zero i would dont waste your time
The film had a good storyline, but it was the last act that really let me down.
this movie is the a good example of why horror is going downhill in America…PG-13 bullshit like this is ruing our countries rep in the horror biz…nobody likes it except teen’s mothers!
its sucks dont waste ur time theres is no good parts 2 this movie i would have give it a 0 if it let me
This movie was too long and it had a weak ending totally.
This movie was just awful not even worth seeing so heed this warning dont see this awful movie!
well ??
Awful. That’s all I’m gonna say.
2008 was a year in which true horror was released upon the world in the unholy triumvirate of tween horror schlock. Including One Missed Call and Prom Night, The Haunting of Molly Hartley is probably the best of these three films, and that is all that can be nicely said about it. The story follows a teenager whose mother tried to kill her, and as she copes with the trauma she begins to believe that she is destined to become an agent of Satan unless she can do something to stop it.
The plot of this film, literally, can be found in about the first and last five or ten minutes of this overly long film and the rest is simply teen drama filler fit for a Family Channel series. Just in case you begin to fall asleep or forget you are supposed to be watching a horror film, there is a fake jump-scare about every five minutes, and you can safely guess that a bathroom mirror is involved in at least one. Each attempt at generating fear fails under the oppressive weight of its ineffective clichés and from a story line that is impossible to give two shits about. The script is generic and unimaginative, the directing lazy, the characters flat stereotypes, and the actors pretty but untalented. In all fairness, Haley Bennett makes a valiant effort as the lead but cannot hope to save a film which has her jumping at shadows every couple of minutes. But the cast over all reflects their characters – attractive, privileged white kids – and this helps to reveal who the target audience of this dreck is.
It also helps if said audience belongs to a Christian youth group, for the religious overtones of the script are almost as comical as they are transparent. Turn to Jesus, kids, or Satan will rule the world. Films that deal with the devil and demons need not come equipped with a Christian message to be effective, as this will only cause most of the audience to roll their eyes or become too alienated to enjoy what is on the screen. The Exorcist, by example, did not have a religious agenda, but merely used Christian imagery and mythology to tell a compelling tale of human drama. No faith is required to appreciate its impact. The ending of The Haunting of Molly Hartley can leave one falsely feeling that the filmmaker is ambiguous in its attitude towards Molly’s fate, but the set up leaves no doubt. Truly, though, the movie is far too benign and forgettable to be insulting, because by the time Molly is begging to accept Jesus as her savior we are merely begging for the film to end, and are willing to sell our soul’s to the devil to do it.
I will end this with how I ended my reviews of One Missed Call and Prom Night, for as I indicated before this film belongs squarely in their company and is subject to the same criticism regarding the state of teen horror (in fact, I’ll simply cut and paste). I have seen countless terrible, mostly low-budget horror films that are easily forgettable and often times laughable. However, these bombs are usually made with the best intentions, and even though they are lacking in almost every other way, they contain some heart in their creation. This film, however, is nothing more than a cold, calculated profit machine meant to separate young teens from their parents’ money. It is the horror genre’s equivalent of a boy band, and contains no artistic integrity, and therefore deserves no respect. Hopefully, if these films cease to become the guaranteed cash cows that they always are, Hollywood might start trying a little harder to give teens the quality horror which they so greatly lack. Not likely, I know.
Lastly, the PG-13 rating need not be the death knell for horror films that it too frequently is, as some fine examples of the genre contain this rating: Poltergeist, The Others, The Sixth Sense, The Ring, The Grudge, The Skeleton Key, etc. The quality of these films is certainly varied and debatable, but it cannot be denied that all are far better entrance films for teens into horror than embarrassing products like The Haunting of Molly Hartley.
F
…pretty cast?
I don’t know why everyone is being so harsh on this movie.
I liked this movie for what it was: a teenage horror flick. A genre in which I’ve seen a lot worse than this. “Prom Night” (remake) anyone?
This movie had a nice story, a great cast, good atmosphere and it moved at a good pace.
My only disappointment was the finale. I was expecting something more, considering the enormous build up.
But all in all, a fun little movie.
it was an ok movie i just didnt expect the ending to happen like the way it did
i liked this one:)
There is too much hate on this, but I really liked it. The ending sucked, though. It’s worth watching.
Ughh.