When is a haunting not a haunting? Give up? When it's The Haunting of Molly Hartley! Get it? I know, I know, not very funny. If you thought that little joke at the movie's expense wasn't funny, just imagine what awaits inside the darkened theater.
Considering I was going in with rather low expectations to begin with, not to have those met must mean this was a pretty bad movie. Oh, it's bad all right. It is almost as if the writers liked the show Reaper and wanted to see if they could make it as a "serious" movie. The answer to that challenge is emphatically NO! Or at least these guys cannot make it a good movie.
The film opens in the past. A teenage girl is meeting up with her boyfriend in an old cabin where she is surprised by her father. Daddy puts her in his truck and then proceeds to ramble on about how she cannot turn 18 and that she has to die. This pre-credit sequence is the most exciting thing about this movie, unless you count the moment the closing credits begin to roll.
Now, the biggest problem with The Haunting of Molly Hartley — well, maybe not the biggest but one that definitely needs to be addressed — is the fact there really is no haunting taking place. When a movie has the word "haunting" in it, there better well be a haunting taking place. This movie is more about mental illness and religious fanaticism. There are a couple of times when the supernatural is alluded to, with the first couple being delivered in a way that mental illness and religion could be seen as the backbone as opposed to a ghost or some such. The only time that the supernatural really comes into play is during the finale, which is presented in a way that that defies logic. It is like the writers decided they wanted the movie to end here, regardless of what may be left to tell and the only way to end was to rely on convoluted supernatural nonsense, completely overshadowing the religious/mental nonsense that had come before.
Anyway, following the opening sequence we are introduced to Molly Hartley (Haley Bennett). She is a troubled teen looking to start over at a new school while her father (Jake Weber) does the best he can to help her keep moving forward. Molly is troubled by visions and she hears things and believes she is going insane like her mother, who had attempted to kill her and is now locked up in a mental hospital. At school, the class hunk (Chace Crawford) flirts with her and she is befriended by both an evangelical Christian (Shanna Collins) and the class outcast (Shannon Marie Woodward).
Article comments
1 - a girl
what did molly hartley turn into at the end of the movie.
i never understood it.
2 - Collin gabler
WORST MOVIE EVER **sorta** at the end i didnt know to feel good or bad i mean really wtf sell your soul and your life will be grand XD isnt there spose to be some sort of values learned....to not not sell your soul idk but in the end i give it a 2/10