The Haunting of Molly Hartley

I admit that I have never heard anything good about The Haunting of Molly Hartley. It has a lousy 3% on Rotten Tomatoes and an average IMDB rating of 3.9/10. Still, when I saw it on Netflix, I decided, "what the hell?" It was late at night, and I didn't want something that was going to require a lot of attention or thought.

The opening scene is promising. In 1997, a girl (Jessica Lowndes, Abattoir) visits her boyfriend (Randy Wayne, Grizzly Park - a personal favorite) in a secluded cabin. Her boyfriend gives her a diamond necklace, an early birthday present - she's turning 18 in one week. The happy couple is almost immediately interrupted by her father, who demands she leave with him. He then proceeds to kill her on the ride home, because, he says, he can't let her turn 18.

Alright, so, so far, so good. I'm interested. Maybe this movie will be better than I thought.

But then, it jumps to the present, where we meet our protagonist Molly (Haley Bennett), who is starting a new school in a new town after a recent traumatic incident where her mother tried to kill her, claiming that she was actually attempting to "save" her.

Over the next half hour, the tedium steps in, as we're privy to an endless rotation of not much happening. Seriously, over a third of the movie goes like this: Molly sees things that aren't there; Molly hears things that aren't there; Molly interacts awkwardly with others. This is occasionally broken up with her dad trying ineffectively to parent, while just making things worse.

Eventually we find out that Molly has a tumor...in her nose (?!?) that is supposedly causing the hallucinations. Molly proceeds to have the tumor removed... and then it has no more bearing on the plot. It's only mentioned once, briefly, afterward, before being forgotten from the film.

Her school looks awesome though.

And that's the main problem with this movie, lots of things happen that don't make sense or aren't fully explained. A popular girl starts a fight with Molly at a party and Molly breaks her arm. Nothing else comes of this. Said popular girl has one more line, and is then relegated to just showing up in the background occasionally for the rest of the movie. Their conflict is never resolved. One of Molly's new friends shows up at her house to give her a birthday gift and then we never see her again either. People, particularly Molly's love interest, seem to behave and speak in a way that suits the needs of the particular scene they're in, even if it's contradictory to their other behavior and dialogue. The eventual ending is rushed, and a lot of questions are left unanswered. It's all just kind of sloppy.

Ultimately, though, I didn't hate it. I know that's damning with faint praise, but, honestly, the best thing I can say is that I didn't walk away feeling like I'd wasted an hour and a half of my life. So that's something.