The Haunting of Molly Hartley Review

Note: Review may contain spoilers.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley can basically be summed up in a single word: dull. The plot of Haunting is fairly intriguing, a Satanic pact of sorts and a young girl caught in the middle, a plot bearing similarities to 1976′s To the Devil…a Daughter, and the opening moments of the film as well as other scattered moments here and there showed some promise. Unfortunately, the film just never quite gets off the ground and plays it safe for the most part resulting in a rather tame and plodding mix of horror and teen angst that left me unmoved. It’s not a disaster, but it could have been so much better.

Haley Bennett stars as Molly Hartley, a teenager making a fresh start at a new school where she keeps a dark secret about her past from her fellow students. You see, not long ago, Molly was the victim of a stabbing. Even worse, it was at the hands of her own crazed mother who at the time declared that she was actually trying to save Molly. From what she didn’t make clear. Having survived to see her mother committed to a mental hospital, Molly currently bears a scar on her chest as a constant reminder of her mother’s brutal attack.

Now living with just her father (Jake Weber), Molly tries to pick up the pieces and move on, quickly making new friends in Alexis (Shanna Collins), a bible thumper offering salvation to Molly, and Leah (Shannon Marie Woodward), who is quite the opposite, a wild girl with a rebellious spirit. Molly even catches the eye of a popular boy at school by the name of Joseph (Chace Crawford) whose aggressive charm eventually begins to draw Molly to him, much to the chagrin of his current girlfriend, Suzie (AnnaLynne McCord).

Molly soon realizes, though, that her past will not be so easily buried. She starts to have visions, visions of her mother trying to kill her, to finish the job she started before being put away. As these visions persist, Molly begins to feel like she is losing her mind. Has her mother actually escaped from the mental hospital and is pursuing her, or is it all in her head? Has she developed the same psychosis her mother is suffering from? What do people mean when they say to Molly, “I know what you are.”? Eventually, all is revealed as Molly approaches her eighteenth birthday as she discovers that not all of the people around her are quite what they appear to be.

Haunting manages to generate a few thrills, but many are just cheap scares, a freaky image here or something surprising yet harmless popping onto the screen there, stuff that is likely to give you a quick dose of adrenaline, but without any of the lingering effects of dread that I prefer to experience in a horror flick. The film also suffers from bland characters, generally nice to look at, but shallow and uninteresting. Still, the performances are passable, and the story kept me invested in the film, if just barely. Molly’s sudden acceptance of her true nature later in the film is a bit implausible, in my opinion, but at least it keeps the pace of the film from really dragging, which, at that point, it was starting to do.

The biggest disappointment in the film for me, however, was the ending. The final revelation, which could have borne a much greater impact if handled better, comes off as rushed and somewhat anticlimactic. Aspects of this revelation, towards which the entire movie had been building, really should have been fleshed out more, in my opinion, the meaning behind the events playing out explored so that one could appreciate more fully what the future holds for our main character. Alas, this does not happen, and my viewing experience ended on a sour note.

Overall, The Haunting of Molly Hartley is not a terrible film, just lackluster. It’s an okay time-waster and holds some entertainment value for fans of horror, but there are so many better films in the genre out there to watch if you have the choice.