The Haunting of Molly Hartley (2008)

I love this movie so much

Thanks for the memories!

Strong and Moving!

hyped garbage

The titular character starts a new life with her dad, after her mum tries to kill her.Trying to forget though is no mean feat, as she has counselling, demonic visions, and of course, her mother is staying in the least secure facility known to man, as she turns up every now and again, as a supposed way to keep the narrative flowing.But what haunts Molly the most is the fact that she cannot get away with the fact that under all this horror sheen, is just a really poor high school drama, that makes Hollyoaks look like Shakespeare......First off, the title is wrong, she isn't haunted, she's more harassed than anything, but The Harassment Of Molly Hartley sounds more like a courtroom drama than horror film, but the makers could have came up with a better title, something like 'guess who's coming to my 18th?' Would have sufficed.The acting is poor, it ticks every cliché in the book, and the story has been done time and time again. It tries to reference Rosemary's baby, but it offends it more than anything.And the shock twist is laughable, and is spoilt by the opening sequence anyway.I ended up just looking at it.....

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.

(Please note, this review was based off a viewing years ago, however the experience has left scars burned into my mind like a chemical burn, I want to share my pain with you.) the beginning sets up what feels to be some rather solid suspense- a father tries to (successfully and very unwillingly) murder his daughter. i found it quite unnerving, why would something like this happen for what reasons? not bad but still lacking something.However the rest of the film fails to deliver the suspense that builds up in the first 10 minutes or so, as not only does the film force feed the viewer pretentious religious themes, all the so-called scares are cheap shocks, no foreboding, no sense of lingering paranoia, none. drama? yes plenty. Horror? no, just scares, cheap scares.Horror in essence is the fear coming off of the experience of something, this was not a horrifying movie, it was bland, cheap and pretentious. The essence of the cheapness and pretentiousness really shows itself in the film's climax- Molly was resurrected by a servant of the devil, and thus owes the devil her soul on her 18th birthday. (I'm pretty sure it was her 18th birthday, 6+6+6 = 18), She tries to do what her mother failed to do earlier in the movie- kill herself. She fails, her father is sent to a psych ward and molly "accepts herself for her destiny" or whatever she said before the "Ironic happy ending", which insultingly looked more like it was for a cheap Disney channel teen movie rather than a horror film, given the production of the movie, honestly I'm not surprised.The movie fits Merriam-Webster's definitions of Haunting: To visit often, to continually seek the company of, to have a disquieting or harmful effect on. I can't help but look for the silver lining that the title certainly lives up to it's name on a technical level. However in the spirit of horror movies, it takes a variety orifices encrusted in toxic fecal matter, and throws bleach all over it, making the bloody mess looking and smelling worse than it already is.I sincerely apologize for the mental image i just gave you, but i really cannot otherwise summarize what this movie does to the horror genre.

I wasn't sure how to sum up this movie for the above title. Overall, it was disorganized, poorly made, and inconsistent. The plot jumped all over the place - sometimes moving too quickly without giving adequate time to develop characters and relationships - and at other times, moving painfully slowly. The whole film kind of felt like a B movie or a made-for-TV movie in the way it was presented - the camera angles, scene transitions, special effects, bad dialogue, and bad acting. The moments that were probably intended to be the most dramatic in the movie (e.g., Molly locked in the bathroom, final encounter with Molly and Dr. Emerson) ended up being cheesy and not exactly frightening.The actor who played Molly's father was entirely unconvincing and unsympathetic. He was just kind of there because the film needed a parental figure but had no depth and no believability. In addition, I could hear him slip into his British accent on numerous occasions - a definite distraction. Most of the other characters were similarly underdeveloped, which makes it difficult to understand the relationships between them and Molly. I was especially unmoved by Joseph's (Chace Crawford) sudden and intense connection to Molly. They never showed more than a few casual encounters between the two of them, and yet, Joseph seems to be head over heels for Molly, despite the usual things that would turn a guy off when he first meets a girl - instability, emotionality, etc. It is only the ending that saves this aspect, and then only partially - we realize that Joseph was into Molly for evil reasons, so that is why he was pretending to be so drawn to her. Yet, Joseph's true role in the evil plot is never revealed. Is he one who was like her (parents had made a pact with Satan), or is he an old soul like Dr. Emerson (whom it was shown through a flashback, apparently does not age), or something else? As a discerning viewer I found many errors in this film, some glaring. Tn the scene where Molly is looking at the book in the library, three words are spelled incorrectly, one in each section ("aditory," "possibile," and "statisticly." Although others may not be bothered by this, to me, if you aren't going to have enough intelligence to edit your props and do your research, this does not bode well for the entire film. There is no excuse for this. In addition, Molly's incredibly visible scar that is seen in the first half of the film is miraculously absent in the latter half. By the way her blouse was hanging, it should have been greatly apparent in all of the scenes of confrontation with mother and father and Alexis, running, hysteria, etc., and I was looking for it, but it was never shown. Interesting editing. The scene where Molly's mother falls to her death is ridiculously lacking in the special effects. It is clearly a dummy plummeting and there are no attempts to make it look even remotely realistic. I have seen more believable special effects from movies that are decades old.What about Alexis? Shouldn't her body have been found in the church? Why do they show a "missing" flyer at graduation? What is the point of this? It's not like we are wondering what happened to her - we saw her slip under the water as Molly ran from the church. No mystery, no reason to have this at all. And, why in the world does Alexis dress like a housewife from the 1950s when she is not in her school uniform? Really? Even an "unpopular" girl would not dress like this. Furthermore, I didn't buy into Alexis' behavior. If Alexis knew about Molly's mom through her nurse grandmother, she would have acted sooner. Subtle attempts to say "I'm worried about you" or "I'm here to help" would not be her style, especially considering her vehement religious beliefs and her extreme actions in the church scene. This makes no sense at all.I could go on and on about all of the bad acting, bad plot, etc. Why is it that Molly's dad professed that her mom was still his wife and went to visit her when Molly refused, yet, he had no real reaction to her death and Molly was beset with grief? Why is it that he thinks the pact would be dissolved if Molly killed him? Come on, if Dr. Emerson suggested it, it has to be a trick! How could you believe in the whole evil scheme and yet trust the mastermind? As for Molly, I am ambivalent about the actress. I thought she was mostly believable in evoking genuine emotion and personality, but she had little to work with. It would be interesting to see her in another role to truly judge her acting ability.I am glad I saw this movie on TV, where I could rewind it in order to resolve inconsistencies, and because I didn't have to pay for it. The only reason that I gave it 2 out of 10 stars is the fact that the plot twist at the end was mildly surprising. The movie is really not worth the time it would take it to watch it, unless you are a girl crushing on Chace Crawford.