User reviews

Well, I didn't really want to see this movie at all. I work at a theater, and I was forced to watch this with my boss so I could talk with her about the promotion I've wanted for a very long time. By the time the credits rolled, "Molly Hartley" had injected me with insane predictability, zero plot, and good looking people to the point where I almost didn't want said promotion anymore.

Like I've already mentioned twice, the film's best and only strong point is the amount of good looking people in the movie. Even the geeky character is good looking. Haley Bennett manages to carry the movie in decent fashion, avoiding becoming laughable as most PG-13 horror movie heroines do *glares at Camilla Belle*. Chace Crawford was a presence I could have done without, while Shannon Woodward was the best performer (and had the best character) in the movie as Leah.

I will give this movie a bit of credit for not being formulaic for about 75% of the movie...while it avoids typical clichés most of the time, it arrives at a conclusion so obvious, stupid, rushed, and unfinished that you can't help but wonder who allowed this movie to be made. It doesn't go for cheap jump scares, which I appreciated, and is more of a satanic thriller than a straight up horror movie. Of course, it's my feeling that PG-13 horror movies not named "The Ring" are just as bad as the Disaster/Date/Superhero Movie franchise, but Molly Hartley manages to barely avoid being as disastrous as Prom Night or When A Stranger Calls. Don't take that as a compliment. It's very easy to beat those movies.

My biggest complaint would be the fact that the movie basically has no plot. We just follow Molly Hartley around aimlessly as the evidence of her being the hottest devil child ever builds up, and then "BAM", an epic fail of an ending comes, scroll goes the credits, and SMACK goes the sound of heads hitting desks. Whoever greenlit this movie is on crack, and I'm not joking.

Please don't waste your time.

Horrendous. I've never written a review for a movie, good or bad, nor have I even been inspired to; but this absolute garbage of a movie made me furious enough to want to express what I feel: The failure of this movie can not be overstated.

If you want to know what watching this movie is like, combine the following: *A "noisy shocker" at least once every ten minutes (I wish that were an exaggeration). You all know the noisy shocker; like when a loud barking dog or a group of birds suddenly bursts into the otherwise quiet and peaceful scene in order to make you jump. Overuse of this dynamic is a sure tell of an uninspired and boring thriller/horror movie, and this movie totally engulfs the entire cake of it.

*A disgustingly sappy high school teen atmosphere. Complete with the sassy and rebellious cool girl, handsome and charismatic romantic interest, jealous girlfriend, and all the drama you might find in any teen show on TV. Rich cute white teens all around, for your viewing pleasure.

*About 20 minutes of plot. The rest of the movie deals with the stereotypical problems of the modern rich white high school teen. The first and last 10 minutes are where the plot takes place - the entire middle of this movie goes absolutely nowhere.

*A lazy and transparent religious undertone. We get it. Just accept Jesus as your lord and savior, or else. Everyone else will let you down.

*A twist so mind-numbingly ridiculous, nonsensical and frustrating, that it will leave you with a truck-full of questions (not good philosophical questions, but bad "WTF?" questions), as well as make you wish bad things happened to everyone involved in writing/directing/producing this movie, because they got paid to deliver this abomination of a movie.

All that said, if I had to dig for a good quality in this movie, I would say it is the acting. And that's the only praise I can think of really. All 3 stars I gave this movie are for the decent acting in the face of sheer stupidity.

So in conclusion, avoid this movie, unless dull, boring, lazy and banal high-school-teen based thrillers/horrors with a religious undertone and shockingly idiotic twist happen to be your favorite.

I actually registered on this site to post this comment. I feel it is my duty to save you precious moments of life that are better spent elsewhere.

This film used the normal scare tactics, i.e. suspenseful building music, quick appearance on camera of people or things, reflections in mirrors, etc., but nothing new or original. The little whispers in the background try to make you nervous, but it leads to a dead end.

Speaking of endings, just when you think the movie has built to where it will explain exactly what is going on, it ends. One minute it seems all hell is about to break loose, and then there is a very weak resolution and the movie is over. The best way to describe it is to take a movie that is 2 hours long, and cut out the last half hour except for the final few minutes. I actually had to go home and verify that the theater didn't skip a reel or two. Unfortunately for us, they didn't.

Words can not express how terribly this movie ends. I am amazed that this ever made it into a theater. Don't waste your time and money on the theater, or even a rental. Hell, don't even waste your time watching it for free on TV. I've had bowel movements much more interesting and fulfilling than this movie. Maybe the director had a vision in his head, I just wish he would have let everyone else in on it.

Pure garbage. I think that says it all, but I have to write 10 lines so here we go. Acting is terrible , story is terrible and I'm mad at myself for wasting my time watching it. I like watching horror movies and I even love a good cheesy one once in a while. This was just like a TV movie with zero scares. It is basically an episode of gossip girl and beverly hills 90210 combined with a few predictable and laughable murders. I gave it a one star ( its not even worthy of that)thats my lowest rating in the last few years and this is the first time I have ever commented. I could'nt in all good conscience let another person watch this without giving them fair warning.

After this painful movie, I drank, I did illegal substances, I even beat myself with a shovel, and still I was in pain from watching this horrible movie! The Haunting of Molly Hartley or as I'm going to call it from this point on "pretty white kids with satanic problems", where do I eve begin on how awful this film was? OK, let's start with the actors, horrible horrible actors that only got their roles because they were just too beautiful to pass up on. The editing/scare tactics: let's make loud noise constantly, that'll make the audience jump. The script: let's make up a non-sense story about a teenage girl who has powers from Satan and we'll put her in high school with other pretty people and while she has to go through the hardships of being a teenager. Even though the story in no way makes sense, we have a Zac Efron look a like, so we're going to get a huge female teen audience and they'll love this film. Oh, boy, I'm rambling, OK, let's just say this, if you were, you'd see all the bruises on my head from banging it on the wall after watching this movie that I'll never know how it got green lighted.

Molly Hartley is the new girl at school who is very subtle about her strange side, she has headaches that lead to disillusions about her mother who tried to kill her a few years ago, she automatically stays away from people and is getting hit on by the most pretty rich boy in the whole school, but she is absolutely refusing to do anything until her father takes her to the hospital and they find a brain tumor, so it seems like everything will be all good after they remove it, but things are obviously not getting better when her mother escapes the insane asylum to kill Molly before she hits her 18th birthday to gain full powers of the devil... yeah, wow.

Oh, boy, I wish there was a rating lower than 1, because honestly this film is one of the worst I've ever seen in my life. It's just so odd to me that there are some films that people absolutely refuse to give a fair chance, yet this movie that has no right to be called a horror movie has a 3.4 rating? Come on, this belongs in the bottom 100 here on IMDb, I'm going to be a good citizen, please, stay away from this movie, save yourself the pain I had to endure. I had to take my cousin to see this, now I feel that I can never let her pick a film again, because for my health's sake, I just can never see a movie like this again, I'll go insane. Just trust me, this is a very very bad film, film? Why did I say that? This is trash, just trust me, the only thing horrific about this is that I wasted 90 minutes of my life that I will never get back... I could have watched paint dry, that has more meaning than this stupid movie ever will.

1/10

I never post preferring only to read and see what other people say, but I felt I had to for this movie.

It is an utter waste of time and money. I spent the whole time in the theater going what? The story line is chunky. There is no character development. The ending leaves you going huh? It really makes no sense.

The film seems to almost move to fast and doesn't really explain everything as it moves on. The film would pick up a story line and drop just a quickly as they picked it up. I very seldom walk out of a theater and feel I got ripped off but I must say I wanted my money back. I was sorely disappointed and had more questions than answers.

Save your time and your money and just stay home. If your looking for a scare rent something else. This movie would be a total waste of your time.

I went into the theater not knowing anything about this movie; I hadn't seen any previews on TV, no reviews on the Internet, nothing. A good buddy of mine wanted to go see it, so I thought "What the heck, it's Friday night and I don't have anything better to do", so we went. Boy, did I learn my lesson.

I can't believe I actually paid to see this movie. Do yourself a favor and just wait until this comes out on DVD. Actually, don't do that; this movie isn't even worth renting. This is one of the most boring and non-entertaining movies I have ever seen. Although this movie is labeled as "suspense" or "thriller", there is nothing even remotely suspenseful or scary about it. It uses all the scare tactics you're familiar with, and thus are not affected by anymore. For example, the bathroom mirror trick. Come on, how old is that trick?

As for the acting, I would say it is mediocre at best; no great performances from anybody that will save this movie. There were a couple of scenes in which I thought Haley Bennett (Molly Hartley) was going to be able to turn the movie around, but ultimately ending up crushing my hopes.

If you want to spare yourself two boring hours, don't go see this movie; it's just not worth the money. Also, remember to do your research. And don't trust your friends. (Just kidding)

The Haunting Of Molly Hartley was a very good horror movie. I thought it did a great job explaining the story. It takes a while to figure out the whole story and piece it all together but you do eventually. It was entertaining for the most part. I think many teens would like this movie and it is a great movie for Halloween time. It was pretty good acting for the most part. The movie makes you think twice about Jesus and getting saved. It wasn't that predictable except for a few scenes. As the movie goes on it gets more and more intense. It did keep me on the edge of my seat in the last few scenes of the movie. In ways it was kind of a sad ending. It had a few corny and cheesy scenes but for the most part was a pretty well filmed and directed movie. Overall I would say go see this one it is worth your time.

Judging by the current rating of 3.8 I was expecting this to be awful however it was actually entertaining and although it wasn't anything new it was nowhere near the worst film I've ever seen. It does make me wonder exactly what people expect when watching films like this.

The acting was pretty good for one of these types of films with Haley Bennett putting in a good performance in the lead role and Shanna Collins putting in good support.

It's not a scary film and maybe the lack of many frights and gore put off many people. Although this is a film more about the story than the gore there are a few creepy moments and a less than predictable last 15 minutes.

This is far better than the rating suggests and worth watching if your at a loose end.

Rating: 2 out of 4 (OK)

Genre: Horror / Thriller / Supernatural

Director: Mickey Liddell

Stars: Haley Bennett, Jake Weber, Chace Crawford, Shannon Marie Woodward, Shanna Collins, AnnaLynne McCord, Marin Hinkle, Nina Siemaszko, Josh Stewart, Jessica Lowndes

Synopsis: Molly's a 17-year-old starting a new school after moving to a new town since her mother tried killing her by stabbing her in the chest. All seems to be going well but hallucinations and nosebleeds lead her to believe that something will happen to her on her eighteenth birthday.

Thoughts: 'Molly Hartley' is a supernatural thriller that does its hardest to channel the spirit of films like 'Rosemary's Baby' with a healthy dose of '90210'-like teen angst drama. Since the scares are all of the jump variety and no sustainable atmosphere is anywhere to be found 'Molly' just spins around in the tired circles of the latest CW drama. I guess it should come as no surprise that the powers that be loaded this one with the beautiful faces that populate '90210' and 'Gossip Girl'. Heck looking at the IMDb filmography and you start to think that 'Molly Hartley' seems more at home on the Lifetime Movie Channel than on the big screen. The cast and crew do a decent enough job with a script that plays more like a 90 minute episode of a teen drama series with a slight supernatural twinge and a thoroughly nut-scratching finale.

In Conclusion: Taylor made for 'tweens and teens, 'The Haunting of Molly Hartley' is just a tepid thriller that builds ever-so-slowly to a crescendo of mediocrity.

I guess all teenage starlets have to go through their cinematic rites of passage by having some horror flick under their belt. So far I've seen every film on the big screen that Haley Bannett had starred in, from her breakthrough role as the uber-sexy Cora "Buddha's Delight" Corman in Music and Lyrics, to Kendall of College, and now, the titular character in this horror film. Save for her debut, everything else had been of dubious quality, and I'm afraid without another hit soon, she'll more than be forgotten and should concentrate on her singing career instead.

The film begins in some spooky woods in the 70s where a girl, on the cusp of her 18th birthday, begins to hear voices swirling around, and eventually got deliberately killed by her father. We don't know why, because we're suddenly transported to today, and to the bedroom of Molly Hartley, who is starting life afresh with her father (Jake Weber) in a new town.

The focus is then shifted to high school pangs, of having to deal with new rivals, new potential love interest Joseph (Chace Crawford), and new friends such as the rebel Leah (Shannon Marie Woodward) and Bible-thumper Alexis (Shanna Collins). And because of a near fatal accident involving her mother, Molly's got regular shrink schedules with the school resident councillor Dr. Emerson (Nina Siemaszko), where doubts are planted in the audience mind that Molly's not who she really seemed, having strange habits of going to the toilet to hyperventilate, or hearing voices of unknown folks again swirling around her, or experience hallucinations which provide for plenty of cheap scare tactics. Scenes like these were repeated ad-nauseam.

But they are nothing frightening, because the movie has an entire look and feel of High School Musical, save the characters don't break out into song and dance. A little bit of positivity about the film is that there was an air of mystery about it, having this cool scream queen who doesn't know what her destiny is, always possessing this edgy feel to her character that there's more than meets they eye, holding you in some suspense. Coupled with the strange and slow revelation on what happened between Molly and her mom, it leaves you guessing for the most part.

Until it decided to play it fast, and here's where the loopholes all start to appear really dumb in this hurried mode to finish the story off. You laugh as it went from scene to scene and not made much sense, and the worst part of it all was how it leapt into some bubblegum pop type of film, betraying all instances of sane thriller development into something that could have been the Wow factor when revealed, instead of the Duh factor. In doing what it did, it showed the filmmakers had lack of flair and skill, making some very strange decisions to have the story take on this flaccid psycho-babble route, and lacking any compelling characters to feel for. Heck, there's not even a decent body count too.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley had an idea, but alas the translation of this idea into a feature film, with eye candy looking cast and all, failed miserably. Save your money, and fans of Haley Bennett would be better off watching her (non) performance on rented DVD instead.

I'll admit, this is a poor excuse for a horror film, but it still isn't completely awful. Loads of people will be disappointed with this film, and so I seriously hope you know what you're in for.

17 year old Molly was stabbed by her mother who is now in a mental hospital. Molly lives with her dad and attends a new school, but strange things start to happen to her.

Yes, sounds cliché, and it is, but there are some decent moments in it. The problem with this film is it opens with a fairly impressive scene, but the tension just fails after that and the whole thing goes downhill.

Normally, I wouldn't have watched this film. The only reason I did was because of Haley Bennett as the lead role. Yes, that is the ONLY reason. She has a wonderful horror movie scream and does a good job of acting scared, and she is in fact the highlight of the movie. The other characters aren't fleshed out enough and the way they pop into Molly's life with different reasons gets a little confusing.

This film didn't have a huge budget and so I can forgive the lack of gore and special effects which I was expecting, but the script is rather weak and the plot is pretty thin so the supposed twist ending is predictable. Oh, and the ending scene will confuse some and outrage others, depending on if you understand it. Long story short, it isn't very good.

Despite all the negative things, some people will enjoy this film. I am one of those people, I could definitely watch it again and don't regret buying it. Not one of my favourites, but if you're looking for a cheesy horror movie to bitch about, then it fits the bill. If you want a true horror with lots of blood and screams and special effects, then this isn't even close to what you're looking for.

All in all, I liked this film enough to buy it and watch again. I'm giving it six stars because although it severely lacks the shock factor to make it a horror, it still qualifies as one of those bad movies you watch on Saturday night. Just remember that you may still be very disappointed, so lower your expectations.

As I sat in the movie theater watching The Haunting of Molly Hartley, I noticed many elements that are normally not used in horror/thriller films. The music is one of the strongest elements. It plays with your emotions, jumping from up beat pop music and slowly drowning into a fearful rythmic pulse. The cinematography was also top notch, and played with the classic elements of horror, such as mirrors. This film had me gripping my girlfriend and saying "Oh my god, I'm so scared". The thing that truly made me a fan of this film is how it ends. I don't want to ruin it for anybody, but this movie turns out to be much more than a quick scare, it will stay in your mind forever as a great example of creating horror using the element of surprise.

Really. Good acting. Fair production values. Thinking persons script. Make your own opinions and don't let the hate win! Bennet's acting was very good. She can definitely hold her own. Look forward to seeing her in more productions once she gets past this. Hopefully the critical pan of this movie won't taint her, even though I thought the movie was okay.

Bennet is a truly beautiful and expressive actress (I read she sings and has a lovely voice as well).

I thought it was realistic, and watch, it will be a semi-cult movie once the critical debris fades and the haters move on and the thoughtful move up.