Review of The Exorcism of Molly Hartley (2015) by Simon R — 11 Jun 2016

The Exorcism of Molly Hartley is a very cheesy film. Several times during the film, I asked myself: is this supposed to be a horror film or a comedy? There are a few scenes here that had me laughing out loud; the rest of the film had me smirking on occasion. I think the exorcism scenes were the funniest. When she's possessed, Molly speaks with this ridiculous voice and her dialogue is atrocious. I expected her to end a few of her sentences with 'bro' or 'dude.' In fact, most of the dialogue is bad â?? possessed or not. It feels so stiff and, well, ridiculous. I can't think of anyone who talks like these characters. The narrative also feels very corny. It's a bit different from the typical exorcism film, especially because of the setting, but it heads to some very peculiar places.

Due to the extra cheese, the film never conjures a scare. I thought the scratching in the walls was a bit creepy, but it's otherwise a collection of scares from other movies. There's a scene that immediately reminded me of The Omen. You also have the classic green puke and some contorting bodies â?? the regular possession stuff. When it's not using some generic horror scene, it's using a bunch of loud screaming and shrieking. Really, pay attention to the scares. When it's not setting anything up, it usually reverts to a sudden scream. Some suspense probably would have helped these jolt the audience, but that's nonexistent in this film. Instead, you're basically being screamed at throughout the entire movie like if you did something wrong.