Found footage horror is officially dead. I’m serious, the genre has now been fully divested and hung out to dry, bloodless guts exposed.
This semi-found footage horror about a young girl being haunted by her dead father – who sounds a lot like Barry White riding a horse, spooky dulcet tones accompanied by clip-clopping hooves – makes the criminal mistake of blending some ‘amateur’ camerawork with conventional footage; meaning every time you cut from the former to the latter, you are reminded that what you’re watching is categorically not real.
However, the above is really the least of its problems. The inconceivably stupid plot is a glaring annoyance from start to finish. It’s a methodical succession of constant twists and revelations, which results in complete saturation of both surprise and sense.
The film attempts to establish an air of uneasiness, but it’s ruined by the relentless unoriginality – you’ve seen this all before, and any moments that might be considered fresh are ruined by not being established with any gravitas, making them almost laughable.
The performances are full on, with few punches pulled. Some of the peripheral characters are stilted by poor casting; Johnny Lewis, for example, plays one of the least convincing truck drivers you are ever likely to see. In the lead role, debutant Gretchen Lodge tires her hardest but she is far from enough to conquer the poor script and jarring characters development.
Occasionally a horror will be given the ‘so bad it’s good’ label and through a forgiving audience’s rapturous humour will, finally becoming entertaining. Lovely Molly is just boring.
Tom has awarded Lovely Molly one Torch of Truth.
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This is Eduardo Sánchez’s film isn’t it? He’s never going to live up to Blair Witch again is he? Shame, I thought Altered was a decent enough effort, although rather bizarre.
In fairness, I liked the soundtrack. That’s about all I liked about that shambles of a film, though.