The Haunting of Molly Hartley Review

I had a chance to review the DVD of The Haunting of Molly Hartley. I am now hiding in the living room with all the lights on. Just once, can’t a Medium star do a cheery, happy, jolly movie?

Anyway, it starts with a girl meeting her boyfriend, her father finding them together and then killing her because he realizes she is about to turn 18. Yikes.

Then, Molly, played by Haley Bennett, wakes up from a terrifying dream. Jake Weber’s character, Mr. Robert Hartley, chats with her at breakfast and they seem very warm and normal.

Molly goes to her new school. Everything is fine until a girl trying to make Molly feel at ease begins chatting with her and says she has a very close and personal relationship with Jesus. Suddenly, Molly has some sort of dizzy spell and ends up ducking out of school. She goes to the store and leaves without buying anything because the voices keep whispering. Then she runs into Joseph Young (Chace Crawford) from English, literally, because of the voices.

While they’re talking Joseph glances down. She follows his gaze and covers up the scar he is looking at.

Molly and her dad are talking over dinner and she wants to know that her mother is absolutely locked up and unable to get out.

I do believe the stage is set. I have a feeling I’m going to be scared. I hate scary movies!

So, I’m not going to recap the rest of the movie because that would spoil it for you and I hate it when people spoil movies. Let’s just say that there are a lot of creepy little things, like eerie lights under the door and terrifying flash backs to the day mommy dearest turned into a psycho killer.

If I liked scary movies, I would love the way the sweet school girl uniform helps heighten the suspense and scariness. I would also like how the flashbacks and camera work make us able to sense Molly’s panic and disorientation.

Although there is some violence, this is not a bloody slasher film. It is one of those psychologically scary movies.

Now that I have finished scaring myself, I am ready to enjoy the bonus material. Unfortunately, that will have to wait until another day because I am not watching anything on this DVD after dark. (Just to give you an idea of how easily scared I am…Hitchcock’s classic The Birds terrified me. So, this movie would probably not be terrifying for most people to watch as it is for wimpy old me.)

Image: Bauer-Griffin