User reviews

Look the movie is creepy and got me suspended for a long time. It was successful in creating suspense and intensity but in my opinion fails to deliver a message or an ending.

There is a moment towards the end where Molly goes out to hug "someone" I am not gonna say it so I wont spoil it for you but I keep wondering what on earth did they think when they were making this scene! Another part that I will vaguely criticize is the struggle-less death that happened in the movie. It just doesn't make any sense.

Overall, I gave the movie 6 stars because it was exciting and creepy but I was pretty disappointed with the end and how things developed eventually.

LOVELY MOLLY is a BLAIR WITCH follow-up from director Eduardo Sanchez. In it, a newly wed couple movie back to the childhood home of the wife, only for her to start experiencing flashbacks and hallucinations as dark secrets from her past are dug back up again.

This is a slow burning, atmospheric horror film that unfortunately misses the mark too often for me. It doesn't help that the characters, particularly the protagonist, are too unlikeable for me to enjoy the movie. Everything about this is greyed out and downbeat, and the segments filmed found footage style are intrusive; with found footage it's all or nothing. The opening scene with the burglar alarm going off is the only one which is truly menacing.

The whole mysterious "secrets from the past" aspect of the storyline is an all-too-familiar one from a lot of modern horror movies and there's just too little incident here to attract my attention. Even worse, some of the stylistic choices are annoying in the extreme, such as the constant tinnitus-inducing ringing on the soundtrack. I appreciate what Sanchez was trying to do here but for me, it's a failure.

Obviously the title is not meant literally. You also shouldn't be surprised if you start thinking this is another found footage movie. The movie was made by one of thinking heads behind "Blair Witch Project". But don't worry (or be happy?), this is not one of those movies. It actually is one of the regular horror movies.

The horror itself isn't that bad, though you will know where this is heading. The "twist" is a bit of a downer, almost bringing the whole thing down. On the other hand, some people might think this is funny. But what really was unnecessary was the ending. Just when you thought it should be over ... Cliché right around the corner

Director Eduardo Sánchez begins his newest spooky feature Lovely Molly with a deliberate shout out the the film that brung him here, The Blair Witch Project (co-directed with Daniel Myrick). A crying woman confesses into a videocamera, capturing herself in a moment of distress and hoping to leave a clue to be discovered after she inevitably succumbs to an off-screen terror. Sánchez hasn't returned exactly to his old stomping ground of first-person documentary horror - Lovely Molly is for the most part a spooky old fashioned psyche-out horror film - but it's a nice touch in a film filled with them.

Molly and new husband Tim (Gretchen Lodge and Johnny Lewis) are ripped from sleep in their new inherited home by a squalling alarm. Someone has opened their back door and is thumping around in the kitchen, but police find nothing out of the ordinary and chalk it up to the wind despite Tim's insistence that he locked the door.

He's a truck driver, and is away from home for stretches of time in which Molly is left alone to deal with a growing malignancy, a presence in the house that manifests itself as sung voices, crying children, clomping horse hooves and slamming doors. Molly's afraid to reach out to her sister or husband for help, fearing that they'll assume she's lapsed back into substance abuse. She instead begins to videotape her encounters, and it's this footage, as well as taped footage of someone stalking neighbours and visiting an odd underground shrine of some sort, that forms the frightening backbone of the film.

As Sánchez himself claimed in a post-screening q&a, the film is as much an "indie relationship" film and "actor's piece" as horror film. The entire weight of the film is on newcomer Lodge's back and she pulls the whole thing off dazzlingly well, transforming from a slight, trembling girl into a stalking, haunted and threatening woman crawling through an empty house. It's a performance good enough, combined with Sánchez's legitimate gift for crafting arresting moments of weird, totemic and animalistic horror, to transcend the film's kind of tired "is it a ghost or a hallucination" set-up, and take the whole thing into straight-up spooky, straight-up original territory.

The janitor Molly (Gretchen Lodge) marries the truck driver Tim (Johnny Lewis) and they move to the house of her deceased parents. Tim needs to drive and leaves Molly alone in the house. Soon Molly is haunted by her past and by her abusive father and she sees him in the house. Molly uses drugs again and records everything with her camera, expecting to prove that she is not crazy. Meanwhile, her sister Hannah (Alexandra Holden), Tim and his friend, Pastor Bobby (Field Blauvelt) try to help her, but Molly becomes dangerous and violent.

"Lovely Molly" is an ambiguous horror movie where it is not clear whether Molly is possessed by the evil spirit of her abusive father or whether she is mentally ill, after an incident with Tim and a neighbor a couple of days after her birthday. This is basically the debut of the unknown Gretchen Lodge and she delivers a top-notch performance. The screenplay is a little messy and the director fails in the conclusion, and maybe this is the reason of the bad reviews in IMDb. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Adorável Molly" ("Lovely Molly")

Her parents both dead, Molly (Gretchen Lodge) moves into her childhood home with trucker husband Tim (Johnny Lewis); but while Tim is away at work, Molly begins to experience terrifying occurrences that make her believe that she is being haunted by the spirit of her abusive father. As the terror mounts nightly, Molly—an ex-junkie—finds herself returning to her old habits for comfort...

Eduardo Sánchez's Lovely Molly begins with a close-up of a distraught Molly speaking directly to her video camera—a scene that directly references Heather Donahue's classic monologue from Sánchez's 1999 hit The Blair Witch Project; it's a rather amusing move by the director, one that blatantly acknowledges the similarities in technique and style between his new film and that with which he first made his name.

Thankfully, despite a very familiar feel to proceedings throughout (particularly thanks to a fair amount of shaky hand-held video footage), Lovely Molly does mark another level of progression for Sánchez as a film-maker: it is a technically superior piece to Blair Witch, the plot being far more complex and the production more polished, but more importantly, it sees the director using tricks developed on his first few films much more effectively, taking the terror to new heights.

Certainly for the first hour or so, Lovely Molly succeeds in being one of the scariest movies in a long while, Sánchez using his tried and trusted bag of tricks—creepy noises, impenetrable blackness, a well developed sense of vulnerability—to ramp up the tension to pant-wetting levels; he is aided in no small part by a fine central performance from Lodge (who is indeed very lovely!) and excellent sound design which adds immensely to the eerie atmosphere.

Sadly, the nearer the film approaches the end, the less it succeeds in chilling the spine: Sánchez slowly loses his grip on proceedings, with way too many plot details hurriedly brought into play, and the ambiguous nature of the narrative leading to utter confusion rather than fright. Ultimately, the viewer is left to question whether Molly has lost her mind or whether there really was a supernatural explanation for her behaviour. Reaching a satisfactory conclusion ain't easy.

8 out of 10 for the first hour; 5 out of 10 for the rest (an average of 6.5/10 by my calculations, which gets rounded up to a 7 for IMDb).

OK, so I know the reviews for this one have been pretty mixed, but for fans of psychological horror that don't mind an ambiguous story line, I highly recommend Lovely Molly. As a massive horror enthusiast who sees EVERYTHING, I can tell you there are only a few films per year that have the ability to get under my skin, and this is one of them. Although not a particularly sadistic or violent film, Molly's (newcomer Gretchen Lodge) descent into depravity is entirely convincing in a very realistic and unpleasant manor. Her back story is left intentionally vague, which makes the proceedings much more horrific. As horror fans we all know the downfall of over exposition...once we know exactly whats going on it's just not scary anymore. To say much more about the story could hinder one's viewing experience but I will say to make sure you CRANK your surround system or watch with headphones because the sound design is a vital part of the film. Many scenes feature sonic subtleties which could easily be missed, and constant attention to detail (take note of the crackle heard every time Molly drags a cigarette). So anyways, Lovely Molly has my vote for one of the year's best in horror, and I can't wait to see what's next for both Sanchez and Lodge.

Molly (Gretchen Lodge) is a janitor who marries Tim (Johnny Lewis), a long distance truck driver. They move into her old family home, but since Tim is away a lot of the time, it leaves Molly alone with her unpleasant memories of her youth; obsessed with filming things, she comes to believe that there is some unholy, spectral presence in the house.

Commendably, Eduardo Sanchez, best known for "The Blair Witch Project", never dips his toes all the way into supernatural waters, preferring to leave us with an ambiguous take on a young woman losing her sanity and her health. This is also a young woman so deeply traumatized that it doesn't take much to send her over the edge. Indeed, she is a former junkie who is soon using once again. And Tim and Molly's sister Hannah (Alexandra Holden) are at their wits' end trying to cope with Molly's behaviour.

The film does keep visual effects to a bare minimum, but gives lovers of more visceral horror some good gore to enjoy. What "Lovely Molly" really is, is a good "slow burn" type of psychological horror film, the kind we don't get all that often in an era where genre cinema typically depends on jump scares. One of its main assets is the sound design, which Sanchez had perfected with BWP and a minimal budget. It's guaranteed to keep some viewers on edge. The other major point of interest is a gripping, bravura central performance by Lodge, who makes Molly sympathetic enough to sustain the films' 100 minute run time. But the acting from all of the principals is engaging, including Field Blauvelt as the genial Pastor Bobby.

Location shooting in Maryland, cinematography, production design, and music are all well done, but ultimately take a back seat to the journey undertaken by our haunted main character.

Seven out of 10.

Molly and Tim get married. They are working class, she's part of the cleaning crew of a mall, he's a truck driver. They move in to her family home, where her dad died.

Three months after, doors suddenly end up mysteriously opened at night, someone or something starts banging on doors furiously. Tim is out working but Molly has her sister Hannah who lives nearby and who works with her. Molly starts for no good reason to film things. She walks into the cellar, there's something there that groans, in another room something makes sounds calling her and she extends her arm.

We learn that Molly has a history of drug abuse and was apparently molested by her father. Now Molly starts losing it. She hears steps, and a voice. At work she's on tape acting as if she's being raped but no one is there. When Tim returns he finds he drug paraphernalia but it's never clear if she's using again or not.

Molly now starts acting more erratically, and things go downhill further for them and the movie. She kills or finds a dead deer, and films it, she becomes obsessed with a neighbor and her daughter and films them. At another time when Tim returns from a trip she nearly chews his face off, she tries to seduce a pastor. But a dr. finds nothing physically wrong with her.

Now she finds a screwdriver and things get bloody. It all ends with not one but two 'what the hell' moments, that come out of nowhere and don't answer much either.

Lovely Molly is a disaster or a movie on all levels. At best it would have made a good short if filmed in POV because that's what this director likes. This is basically a POV movie filmed in mostly in third person perspective with some bits of POV. The way "the story" is told is if it were one of those dreadful lost footage movies. And that's how the intro starts, too. So we get endless scenes that are meaningless and pointless, dialog that goes nowhere. And as with all lost footage movies all it can offer is an ending that is surprising, comes out of nowhere and answers nothing.

But there is a basic problem, that writers/directors don't get- movies about someone going mad are just not fun, entertaining, nor intriguing, or interesting, because you just know that nothing is going to come of it- no matter what happens at the end. And this movie suffers even more because we simply don't care about Molly. We've been given no reason to like her. Tim I guess is likable and so is Hannah, but still, the viewer is given no reason to invest emotionally in the characters.

Add to that how slow, lame, long, and boring this movie is, and you're left with basically nothing to like. I try to be generous in my reviews, but this was one the dullest movies I've seen with barely any redeeming quality. I give it a score of 2, for Gretchen Lodge's excellent performance and for the scene of nudity. Otherwise Lovely Molly is an utter failure and yet another reason to stay away from any other project this director is involved in- if the Blair Witch scam wasn't reason enough already.

The fact that I intended to write a review of Lovely Molly then forgot and about it, and a year and a half later I am now is testimony to how memorable the movie is. On undoubtedly a low budget with not a huge cast the overall quality I was impressed with and a real star of the show was the sound design. Its a creepy slow, but not too slow burner that quite gets under your skin. As an avid horror movie goer I'm rarely scared however Molly and its wonderful sound really creeped me out. The movie centres around Molly and her apparent mental problems, and the movie does a great job of actually running the fine line of guessing are they mental issues or is there something else going on, strong performances from all the cast rounded off this great little flick. Highly recommended for those who enjoy creepy horror however be aware the subject of some issues in the movie are adult rated.

There was absolutely no point to that entire film. I cannot believe people have rated this anything other than 1 star.

Please please please don't waste your time like I just did.

Oh I have to write 10 lines.... Right...

Yes I agree the lead females acting is pretty good, but that doesn't make up,or the lack of storyline. I also got to the point where I actually didn't really care what happened to her anyway.

I watch a lot of horror movies but just can't see what the director was trying to do with this film. At no point did he build up any sort of tension or suspense. The most scared I got was when I had he urge to poke my eyes out and block up my ears so I didn't have to endure the final 30 minutes.

I've never written a review before (as I'm sure you can tell) but I have also never seen such a pis poor movie.

I think I've made my point.

Rant over!

I had been looking for something different to watch for The Halloween Season when I ran across this movie on Tubi. I seldom find Horror movies worth watching, ones that make you feel something,;frightened, dread, creepiness factor, etc. This had all of that. Though cringy at times, It kept my interest from beginning to end. Yes it has The Blair Witch/Paranormal Activity thing going, but I didnt mind that. A box office flop definately worth watching.

This is a tedious and generic horror flick that isn't original. It's just dull to watch, it's by the makers of the "The Blair Witch Project" a movie I am not fond of. It tries to incorporate standard horror movie cinematography with found footage aspects of it and it still comes off dull. The plot is about a newlywed couple that moves into a house that has a lot of dark history behind it and weird things starts to happen to the wife named Molly. Yeah, it sounds very cliché for horror movie buffs out there and this one really is narrow. It doesn't throw anything new or shocking for that matter. The tension sort of builds up for very few scenes and leads to disappointment. It tries to blend elements from the "Paranormal Activity" franchise but it's not all that effective. Although I am not fond of the "paranormal Activity" franchise either. The ending is a big let down and I was like "what the crap so is that it?". Some horror movies are effective by not giving away of what is exactly going on sometimes. But that isn't the case here, I was getting annoyed because I wasn't entirely sure what was really going on and what is behind the weird stuff that is going on. The special features part of the DVD gives a bit of back-story but the audiences shouldn't have to go to the special features to be a bit slightly satisfied. In fact the special features part of the DVD is way better than the actual movie itself. And it's kinda comedic unintentionally of course as well. The weird static noise in this gets more annoying instead of getting gradually creepy.

3.6/10

Was not sure what to expect with this one as many good and bad reviews? But I loved it, Edge of the seat Dark, Scary, Twisted.

What I found most impressive about Lovely Molly, was enabling viewers to immerse themselves in what's happening, is how Sánchez is able to instantaneously blur the boundary between reality and imagination. It's made clear that something sinister is haunting Molly and causing her mental breakdown, but always left to our own interpretation as to what this actually is, whether it is supernatural or, in fact, Molly's own fragmented mind playing nasty tricks on her.

Loved it, say no more!

I usually love films, but certainly not this one. Everything is poor. Including the narrative. It leaves you wondering what's going on the whole time, the acting is poor, the cinematography too. Definitely in my list for the worst films in cinema history. I regretted wasting 2 hours of my life watching this film. However, the dilemma was interesting to a small extent, however a very poorly constructed film, which takes forever to get to the point.

It's very gruesome and a little too gruesome for any liking. It's a film that's so confusing you'd need to search up what transpired in the film after you watched, however it did follow the conventions of a good horror film, which in a way made it suspenseful. I didn't get what the overall message of the film was or even what morals it consisted of; if consisted of any. I wouldn't recommend this film, to anybody.

Lovely Molly is the tale of one woman's painful past returning to take hold of her once more just as she begins her marriage to her new husband in her family's old home. Molly's transformation throughout the film is beautifully played by Gretchen Lodge, each bit of her turmoil peels back another layer of her past and the horror unraveling around her.

The bond with her sister, played by Alexandra Holden is believable and real, the interactions between the two women showing the conflicting feelings of fear and love as they both struggle with the changes in Molly and the memories of the past.

Thick with tense moments, Lovely Molly is eerie, tragic, and disturbing but not rife with gore or shocks designed to make you jump in your seat. Instead, there is a sense of inevitable dread that hangs in the air throughout the entire film. The house itself is as much a character in the film as those who inhabit it. Every small old room, creaking doorway, bit of chipped paint and worn wood seems to hold the promise of something sinister.

And that is a promise that does not go unfulfilled.