Haunting of Molly Hartley DVD: Review By Dodd

I realize I've gone on this tirade in other reviews, but sometimes it can't help being brought up again. Any true horror fan will agree that the genre is in trouble. The fans see it, but the studios do not. There is a steady stream of PG-13 mediocrity that will continue to flow in and out of multiplexes so that teens have a place to make out with each other and maybe jump out of their seats a couple of times. I recently reviewed the film The Unborn, which is a striking example of these films currently hitting theaters. I is true that I did not care for the film and it is a good thing I did not jump to the conclusion of using the word "hate." Because half-assed horror can come in the form of something so much worse and that project is The Haunting of Molly Hartley.

As the title takes the liberty of spelling it out for us, the film is about a girl named Molly Hartley (Haley Bennett) who gets haunted. Why exactly she is getting haunted is not always certain. It is also not very important as this question takes a back seat to the wretched acting and unnecessary, melodramatic moments. Molly is new in town with her single dad (Jake Weber) and forced to make friends at a new school. This happens to be a prestigious private school populated with only attractive students in uniforms. This attractive populace includes Molly herself, even though she is supposed to be that shy oddball who is picked on by local bitch cliques. She does attract the attention of popular jock Joseph Young (Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford) who does not seem to care about getting to know Molly as much as he cares about staring longingly into her eyes and spouting off lines like, "Hey, wanna come to my party tonight?" However, Molly can't really focus on being cool in school because she has mommy issues. It seems her mom tried to stab her once and she is now institutionalized. We know her dad is trying hard to keep the family together because he delivers a monologue about it to Molly over a dinner of Chinese take-out because, you know, single dads are really stupid and can't cook. Dumb lugs.

Somewhere in the midst of this there actually is a storyline about ghosts, but how can I care when I am so distracted by the awful drama that was outlined on a napkin by a studio exec and crapped out in time for a Halloween theatrical release? When Molly is getting haunted, we get jump-out-and-scare-you moments that are more frustrating than scary. There is also an attempt at integrating some religious fanaticism into these occurrences. Hey, if you want to see a scary movie about fanaticism, rent the doc*mentary Jesus Camp.

I see a movie like The Haunting of Molly Hartley and I truly feel irked at the time I wasted watching it, and the very little effort put into making it. The film was made for $5 million and managed to make more than double this amount in returns. Movies like this are not really made with audience enjoyment in mind, but strictly for profit. I am not sure if even the daftest of teenagers would find intrigue in this. What is particularly insulting are the moments intended to make the audience jump. Half the time I even jolt in my seat, but I am never ever fulfilled by this. Utilizing such tactics is just plain cheap. Making a sudden banging noise may make people jump, but they will not depart from the movie with a feeling of unsettling dread. Instead they experience an adrenaline rush that is no better than downing a cup of strong, Turkish coffee.

I wish I could offer a deep analysis of the acting and the developed characters, but everyone here is awful. Even Jake Weber, who is usually an outstanding supporting actor, cannot keep his concerned dad afloat. The overly-dreamy Chace Crawford is particularly terrible here. I cannot say I am a fan of Gossip Girl and cannot attest to his appearance on the popular show, but I see this movie and begin to lose faith in the search for true talent in Hollywood. It must be easy to do scene walk-ons that consist of smiling arrogantly at the girls.

Why do the movies we shouldn't give a crap about come loaded with special features? Three of the female stars and director Mickey Liddell. In all honesty the stars talk in one-minute tidbits about how great it was to do this scene, and how such a great script attracted them to the project. The best bit has to be a 51-second snippet with director Liddell in which he explains that the movie reminds him of Carrie, The Shining, and Rosemary's Baby (HA!) and how excited he was to work with teens (wonder if he was disappointed when he found out they were over 18?).

Widescreen. Director Mickey Liddell has only this film under his belt as a director, with plenty of experience producing teen television dramas. Based on the dull, point-and-shoot techniques done here, I am not sure if I am looking forward to his next project.

5.1 Dolby Surround. Sound is really abused here. A somewhat decent and haunting score is butchered by constant loud noises intended to make viewers jump. These sounds are played out so much that I almost developed a headache.

As the film came to be in a screener envelope, I am unable to comment on the presumably remarkable characteristics of this DVD's plastic case. This is very unfortunate. Maybe it would have convinced me to give the movie 5 stars.

I try to be fair in seeing a project's objectives, but I truly hated The Haunting of Molly Hartley. I think the teenage demographic this movie was targeting even deserves better than this. If there was a lot of hard work put into this movie, I would not believe it. It appears this thing was thrown together with a half-finished script and amateur actors as a way to keep the budget low and make a nice profit. Fans of the horror genre definitely deserve better than this.