The Haunting of Molly Hartley

I think it is unfair to give this movie anything under 4 stars. The movie had suspense, not that bad acting and an ending that kept you guessing. True it is not an academy award nominee and the actors are not the best, but the movie works as it is. It is not gruesome as some horror movies but this really doesn't fit that genre, more of a supernatural thriller. Is it that bad to cast good looking people? No. Was it cheesy at times? Yes. It is definitely not a bad Friday or Saturday night movie to be enjoyed with some popcorn. The ending is thought provoking. Makes you wonder about the world we live in and ironically how a movie dissed by many critics and thought to be targeted at ignorant teens, offers insight into the good versus evil struggles in our society and religion. So I do recommend it. Just have an open mind and enjoy. I almost didn't see it but didn't really trust the 3.5 overall rating.

My girlfriend wanted to keep it low key this Halloween and go catch a scary movie but we didn't want to go see the played out "Saw" series so we went to this expecting some thrills and good time "B-movie" fun. Sorely disappointed. I actually left the theater to see when Saw or anything else was playing instead, but no luck. The "scares" were too obviously telegraphed and there were none of the special effects teasers we see in the previews.In fact there were little to no special effects at all, the budget on this film should have allowed for at least one or two awesome makeup effects or cool plot devices.In addition there was an entire lack of psychological horror or tension!Everything was so dull and predictable we kept hoping something would turn around or at least show some sign of intelligence but no!Ladies, if you are going for Chase Crawford he is a mess here. Yeah he's an attractive guy but he is utterly useless in this and his acting is bad. The lead girl cannot hold anyones attention at all and I'm sorry but her acting is wooden and distracted.It all felt like 90210 (the new one) meets "Carrie" and and "The Omen" but doesn't hold a candle to those. The direction was lazy and cinematography so by-the-book that Ihonestly think that someone with NO film experience could have done a better job.Not worth it.Not even as a fun B-movie or cult classic! DO NOT SEE THIS FILM!You'll just end up saying you want your time and money back.Total waste.

So after seeing this I realize I wasted my money seeing this trash. The film begins with a girl playing a follow the notes type of game with her boyfriend, until her dad interrupts and they have their daughter-father argument. Then the father breaks down, goes crazy, and kills his daughter. The story then jumps to Molly, who's had problems coping with the stress of her mother's insanity. Though locked up in the asylum, she sees her mother chanting things such as "I've got to save you" "this is for your own good" It's all fun and entertaining at first, but the movie seems to just loop in a circle.This movie is a big disappointment, as I had some expectations from it.

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.

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.

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.

I actually enjoyed most of the movie except the last 5 minutes, which ruined everything for me. It's a pretty serviceable PG-13 horror film otherwise. There were several effective scares (albeit not of the torture * kind) mostly just the jump scares kind, but also some real one too (with knives, etc.) This movie is clearly targeted at teenage girls and to get a PG-13 rating, so if you go into it with that mindset the scare level is pretty decent and what you would expect for a PG-13 movie. Now onto what I hated about the ending: *****MAJOR SPOILERS ALERT (i.e. the entire ending)***** I have to say, the ending was very disappointing and made me feel that I wasted the entire movie worried about her soul getting taken by the devil, since in the last resolution scenes, the way the movie portrays it, it didn't seem so bad for her after all. She graduates as the valedictorian, ends up with a hot boyfriend, becomes part of the popular crowd, and it's implied that she'll go on to a life a privilege, power, and position. Big deal. It doesn't effectively portray what might potentially happen after that. It's like if they had ended "Faust" near the middle when he's still enjoying all of the benefits of trading his soul tot he devil rather than following it all the way through to the later horrible consequences of that. Also, one part that I felt could have been explained better (and seemed to confuse a lot of commenters) is the stabbing at the end, and why the lead devil-worshiper said "Now you're one of us" when she stabs herself rather than her father. They actually had to get her to do that to seal the deal so her soul would be "damned" forever. (Yeah, I'm a lapsed Catholic, who went through Catholic high school...) According to what I learned in Catholic school, at least, suicide is considered the only sin that can never be absolved and condemns the person to hell forever because not only are they committing the sin of murder but they would never be able to receive last rites before they died. They used to bury people who committed suicide outside of the church graveyard, because being damned forever precluded them from being able to be buried on "hallowed ground." Anyway, they should have explained that better in the movie. So, in balance, everything except the last 5 minutes is a relatively serviceable PG-13 scare fest, but then everything goes down the drain after that.

The bright atheist teenager Molly Hartley (Haley Bennett) moves from Boston to the Huntington Prep to start a new life with her father Robert Hartley (Jake Weber). Her mother Jane (Marin Hinkle) stabbed her on the chest trying to kill her and now she is confined in the Clayton Mental Institution, and Molly wants to forget her past. In her new school, Molly befriends the outcast religious girl Alexis White (Shanna Collins) but sooner the popular Joseph Young (Chace Crawford) flirts with her and she despises Alexis. On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Molly's mother escapes from the asylum and explains to her that she died in the delivery. However, a woman promised to revive her but her soul would belong to the devil that would collect on her eighteenth birthday. Molly runs to the Christian Community Center seeking salvation, but would it be possible? "The Haunting of Molly Hartley" is a predictable collection of clichés, with a plot that it is possible to anticipate what will happen on the next scene. The story uses the idea of the masterpiece "Rosemary's Baby" in a different approach; freely insults the Christian followers with a weird character; and has a terrible conclusion where evil wins without any explanation since the lead character decides to stab herself to save her soul and spare her father. Anyway this movie is not as bad as indicated in many IMDb reviews. My vote is five. Title (Brazil): "Jovens Malditos" ("Damned Youngsters")

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.

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.