Lovely Molly (Eduardo Sánchez) [Archive]

Stay Puft

05-27-2012, 02:16 AM

A brief exchange from TIFF last year:

Oh shit, I didn't know Eduardo Sanchez had a new movie playing. His last effort, the horror movie Seventh Moon starring Amy Smart, had some elements I liked, but was utterly ruined by some of the worst handheld cinematography ever, and I say that as someone who loves Blair Witch.

I haven't seen any of Eduardo's other films (other than Blair Witch, which I also liked a lot). The camerawork in Lovely Molly never bothered me. A fair amount is handheld since part of the visual strategy is having the protagonist film what's happening to her to prove to her family that she's not crazy (because she was committed last time she encountered the demons or whatever). The worst parts of the movie are in the first half and play a bit like Paranormal Activity (which I hated). The second half has some good payoff, though.

I recently watched Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which Lovely Molly now sort of resembles in my mind, insofar as both films use the horror genre to explore the fallout of childhood abuse, more specifically:

Both films feature female protagonists who are sexually abused by their father, who is possessed by an evil spirit; horror as metaphor, etc.

However, Eduardo is obviously no Lynch. Indeed, my biggest beef with the film at the time was the way the film attempted to tie together a thorny theme like childhood abuse with the genre trappings of ghost stories / demonic possessions. It never really tackles the thorny issues head on, and the genre trappings (particularly the lame Paranormal Activity stuff I mentioned in the first half of the film) undercut my emotional investment. The second half of the film is much better than the first half, but at the same time, it kinda throws the abuse stuff out the window. It works purely as a genre exercise at this point, but a somewhat disappointing one given the potential. I'm convinced an approach like Lynch's is really the only way something like that could have worked, at least for me. I'd be curious to hear what the horror fans here on Match Cut have to say about this one.