Review of Lovely Molly (2011) by Tyler P — 22 May 2014

This is one moody and disturbing film about drug addiction and psychological trauma with a paranormal twist. It's pretty full on but not at all in a bad way, everything shown, I think, is necessary to the complex story. It does weaken slightly near the end due to its clear plot holes, (like why do the people around her let her be left alone when she's clearly dangerous and unstable?) but that's nothing new for horror films, especially ones as challenging as this. There's also definitely nothing new about the 'found footage' element, so I'm really glad it didn't stick with it all the way through, the small parts of it worked nicely, and I've got to give the guy some slack because he did kind of bring the concept to life. The parts that weren't in this style, which is most of it, were done brilliantly, the cinematography was great and for some reason the lighting in particular really stood out to me; it all seemed to be created by sets of lamps throughout the house scenes, making it feel really realistically haunting.

Lovely Molly is brilliantly directed, and the acting is also top class stuff, especially by the impressive newbie Grethchen Lodge.

This is a film that brings me a large deal of hope for the future of American horror.