Lovely Molly

Molly has moved into her parents' house after becoming newly married. When alone as her husband is on the road, she experiences possible possession, hallucinations, or trauma from the past (perhaps all of the above.), and this all could be related to her dead father.

****½

Molly has moved in to her parents’ house after marrying her truck-driver hubby, and she’s experiencing a darkness perhaps brought on by (my guess) the intimidating spirit of her father (there’s an eerie song hummed a bit when his presence is around at night, “Lovellllly…Molllly.”) He seems to have “possessed” her. In a video recorded confessional, in tears and under emotional duress, Molly mentions that she has no control. At her job, she pulls down her pants. She tells her employer that it was a forced rape. It is possible her late father sexually molested her. She’s also using heroine again. She insists that he is real, has returned, and is tormenting her. We later learn in a conversation between Molly and her sister that they used the closet to hide from father when he was on the prowl. It’s here in the conversation that we learn of the molestation. Whether or not what Molly sees is real, the smell that seems to accompany his presence is overwhelming, as evident from her sister and husband. And later Molly’s sister approaches the same closet as Molly did before the madness started. We also learn that Hanna killed their father, probably after she found him molesting Molly.

I’m not the least bit surprised that I came away from Lovely Molly pleasantly surprised considering it was the brainchild of director Eduardo Sánchez. While I was disappointed in Seventh Moon, I dug Altered, so along with Blair Witch Project, he was still on the plus side. I think Seventh Moon suffered from too much unstable camera, but Lovely Molly incorporates certain elements that made Blair Witch (and to a certain extent) Seventh Moon (somewhat) tolerable. I loved that the film (Lovely Molly, sorry, getting messy as usual) grounds us in the lives of ordinary people. What I loved about Blair Witch Project was that the kids focused on were twenty-somethings that I could identify with on some level. Molly, through the phenomenal performance of Gretchen Lodge, is a person so understandable. A wronged, damaged woman--plagued by the trauma from a past thanks to a monster that was supposed to offer paternal love, not sexual molestation--makes the perilous mistake of returning “to the scene of the crime”. Being alone in that house was probably even a greater risk (considering her past as an addict and history of psychiatric problems) than just deciding to live there with her husband. Going through a photo album, and reawakening memories perhaps better left repressed, the process of torment will accelerate, particularly when Molly opens the closet door where she hid as a child. When one sister is victimized, the older (Hanna (played by Alexandra Holden, in another solid, heartbreaking performance of a sister who is powerless to stop the descent, and her helplessness in trying to rescue Molly is right there in all its weariness on screen)) must step up to play heroine, putting down the beast after the damsel has been used and abused. Sánchez takes us right into the darkness that engulfs Molly. Those “hoofbeats” and that eerie voice of the father, we experience what only Molly seems to as others (like her husband, Tim (Johnny Lewis)) are oblivious to whatever is psychologically torturing her.

And what I liked (no, check that, loved) about Lovely Molly is how it just doesn't pull those punches. It sure as hell isn't easy to see a nice girl go through absolute hell thanks in large part to that sorry bastard from her past. I think it is an authentic document on what abuse does to people. Does that rat bastard who sneaks into the bedroom in the middle of night return after death to further torment her? Perhaps in the nightmares. That shit doesn't just go away; how long can anyone repress that horror? Lovely Molly takes what sexual molestation does and adds a supernatural component...or does it? We are given a look into all of that; when she flips out because Tim can't see "him", with that odor so noxious it nearly knocks him for a loop, there's a hint that "he" is there. You can't see him necessarily like Molly, but that smell is very real. Perhaps such a toxic smell identifies the father because he was a piece of shit?

I want to talk just briefly about the score. I think a score sometimes interferes in a film instead of enhances. It calls attention to itself at times so loudly, what happens on screen feels less significant because of it. I think the minimalist score in Lovely Molly suits what happens in it perfectly. It's often mere pings and a mild vibrations, with a slight melody that doesn't provide the cutes but the menace. Sometimes an unobtrusive score is the way to go.

Tim's committing adultery when he confides in a neighbor regarding his marriage's plight and Molly's downward spiral and she gives him oral pleasure as the wife records from her camcorder (the recordings are the most voyeuristic and creepy of the film next to seeing Molly's losing battle with her wits) only provides the proper incentive for the mental breakdown to flourish instead of calm. His grisly fate (and it is rather disturbing) done so matter-of-factly proves what we kind of figure would happen (after that nasty bit of business involving the lip bite) if Tim continued to enter Molly's unstable orbit. The preacher gets what's coming to him because he couldn't resist his attraction to her. His fate is even nastier than Tim's. The bites and stab wounds on him are certainly intense and numerous...recorded by her after the fact only heightens its unsettling power.

All the business with the horses fascinated me. Because Daddy loved his horses, had a stable for them, and seemed to even worship them (he has a statue under the floorboards of the barn that hides from plain sight and further explains his equine passion), they are very important to  "announcing his appearance". The smell could be manure, the hoofbeats start up upon his arrival, and the later final sequence where horseheads cut from magazines "replace" the face of Daddy in the photo album found in the middle of the bedroom where the closet seems to house a presence that "calls" to Hannah. The horses were a very vital part of Daddy's life so it is only understandable than in death they would still remain important.

Obviously, you can tell I have a lot of guesswork. I had mentioned that the smell that accompanies Daddy could be because he's a piece of shit or horse manure. I have an idea that it was an actual presence ruling over Molly, taking her will and control, but it could just be a mental breakdown...she has a history of it. She's using (heroine articles lay open on the dinner table), so that only contributes to her decline. Was she actually raped by an invisible force or was she just reliving a past molestation? Not knowing exactly one way or another can either irritate or impress those watching. I see a mixed reaction to this film the same way as Blair Witch.

I praise Gretchen for going the distance in this difficult role. She spends time naked and openly wounded, baring her flesh and soul of this troubled and scarred character, sometimes agonizing, sometimes fighting with what wants to totally ruin her, often quite hysterical. We see a recording of her wedding and the celebratory ceremony afterward. By film's end, their promise of a good life ends with a bat to the skull and a screwdriver plunged into the brain.

 I think this will be a frustrating experience for some viewers due to its rather ambiguous conclusion. What happened to a naked Molly as she walked, trance-like, out of her house into the darkness of night? What was the intentions of the disturbing pervasive force overcoming Molly? Besides just being an asshole, what would be Daddy's motive for just tormenting Molly beyond the cruelty he seemed to inflict when mortal? And why would Hanna return to that damned place once Molly "vanished" (what truly happened to her is not elaborated; this is that open-ended Blair Witch type ending that leaves so many fuming because Sánchez opts not to spoon feed us a definitive conclusion  that provides easy answers)? It's been quite established that this place holds something sinister, something insidious. Then there's the child's (of the young woman who initiates a sexual encounter with a vulnerable Tim) tragic fate, found by firefighters and police, with "Molly" (or something/someone else) video recording it deep in the woods (I found the use of the camcorder as a pair of secret eyes rather disconcerting because it indicates that whatever has taken hold of Molly will probably execute a hostile plan in time). It seemed as if the woman and her child were just random people spied on by a curious voyeur, with the film eventually telling us how they fit in to the grand scheme of things. With Hanna seemingly overtaken by the same evil presence as Molly, there's nothing to say that Daddy has any plans to return to his "happy place", and the house, unless bulldozed, will only welcome others to the same fates as those two daughters who thought they had put the past behind them.