-By Maitland McDonagh
Smart, cute teen Molly Hartley (Haley Bennett) is still reeling
from the fact that her mother, in the grip of some kind of
religious mania, tried to murder her with a pair of scissors. She
and her father, Robert (Jake Weber), have moved to a new town in
search of a fresh start, but the past just won't go away, in part
because the mental hospital holding Molly's mom (Marin Hinkle of
TV's “Two and a Half Men”) is nearby and in part because Molly is
tormented by nightmares, nosebleeds, panic attacks, and voices
whispering in her ear.
Molly's new school, snooty Huntington Prep, is a hotbed of social
landmines and she has the misfortune to step on most of them. It’s
bad enough that Molly is a senior-year transfer, but she also
manages to call attention to herself by having a panic attack in
English class. She then goes on to befriend the class
outcast—achingly sincere bible-thumper Alexis (Shanna Collins of
TV's “Swingtown”)—and runs afoul of
über-mean girl Suzie
(AnnaLynne McCord of TV's “90210”) by flirting innocently with
Suzie's too-good-to-be-true boyfriend, Joseph (Chace Crawford),
whose filthy-rich family just happens to own half the town. Molly
is afraid that she's going mad just like her mom, and the
reassurances of school counselor Dr. Emerson (Nina Siemaszko) do
nothing to quell her nagging suspicion that something is going on
and she's not in the loop.
Once upon a time in the
Rosemary's Baby-shadowed 1970s,
made-for-TV thrillers about young women caught in the webs of
wicked devil worshippers were everywhere. More than a quarter of a
century later,
The Haunting of Molly Hartley dresses up the
old clichés with contemporary pop songs and fresh young faces, and
the result is simultaneously slick and slack. The performances are
solid and the cinematography, editing and art direction are on the
mark, but the film hews closely to a tried-and-true formula. Anyone
who doesn't see exactly how the story is going to work itself out
within the first 20 minutes probably doesn't much care for this
kind of thing.
Film Review: The Haunting of Molly Hartley
This old-fashioned thriller about satanic pacts and collateral damage delivers tame shocks and a cast full of TV-friendly faces, from “Gossip Girl” heartthrob Chace Crawford to Jake Weber of “Medium.”
Oct 31, 2008
-By Maitland McDonagh
Smart, cute teen Molly Hartley (Haley Bennett) is still reeling from the fact that her mother, in the grip of some kind of religious mania, tried to murder her with a pair of scissors. She and her father, Robert (Jake Weber), have moved to a new town in search of a fresh start, but the past just won't go away, in part because the mental hospital holding Molly's mom (Marin Hinkle of TV's “Two and a Half Men”) is nearby and in part because Molly is tormented by nightmares, nosebleeds, panic attacks, and voices whispering in her ear.
Molly's new school, snooty Huntington Prep, is a hotbed of social landmines and she has the misfortune to step on most of them. It’s bad enough that Molly is a senior-year transfer, but she also manages to call attention to herself by having a panic attack in English class. She then goes on to befriend the class outcast—achingly sincere bible-thumper Alexis (Shanna Collins of TV's “Swingtown”)—and runs afoul of
über-mean girl Suzie (AnnaLynne McCord of TV's “90210”) by flirting innocently with Suzie's too-good-to-be-true boyfriend, Joseph (Chace Crawford), whose filthy-rich family just happens to own half the town. Molly is afraid that she's going mad just like her mom, and the reassurances of school counselor Dr. Emerson (Nina Siemaszko) do nothing to quell her nagging suspicion that something is going on and she's not in the loop.
Once upon a time in the
Rosemary's Baby-shadowed 1970s, made-for-TV thrillers about young women caught in the webs of wicked devil worshippers were everywhere. More than a quarter of a century later,
The Haunting of Molly Hartley dresses up the old clichés with contemporary pop songs and fresh young faces, and the result is simultaneously slick and slack. The performances are solid and the cinematography, editing and art direction are on the mark, but the film hews closely to a tried-and-true formula. Anyone who doesn't see exactly how the story is going to work itself out within the first 20 minutes probably doesn't much care for this kind of thing.
