Article by FisterRoboto of lefthandhorror.com

Written & Directed by Eduardo Sánchez

Starring: Gretchen Lodge, Johnny Lewis, and Alexandra Holden

Newlywed Molly moves into her deceased father’s house in the countryside, where painful memories soon begin to haunt her.

Holy shit, a horror movie that was actually scary? While I’ve enjoyed some current horror flicks, most of the competition is missing any real scare factor. Sure, creepy atmosphere, quality actors, and creative directing can take a certain type of horror movie a long way, but is it scary? It’s practically the entire reason these movies exist. I watched this home alone on the couch – not a light in the house turned on besides a candle on the coffee table. Add a pumpkin ale of your choice and you have the perfect setting.

Gretchen Lodge is the best thing about this film; make no mistake about it. In the title role, Lodge is a freshly married newlywed/recovering heroin addict moving back into her creepy rural family home. The first scene of the film shows a desperate Molly with a knife to her throat while facing a video camera. The film goes backwards from there, showing us how this happy bride came to this dark place. Molly’s husband, Tim (Lewis), is a truck driver and leaves her alone for nights at a time; plenty of time for both Molly and the viewer to become a paranoid mess. Molly’s supernatural happenings don’t wait around, using creepy angles, shadow, and sound design to make you break into a sweat. As Molly progresses into her madness, Lodge pulls everything from her playbook to make this character terrifying, but still be viewed sympathetically. I can’t stress how perfect Lodge is.

Lovely Molly deals with heroin addiction, isolation, fear, and long-hidden family memories. Throw in some mysterious sexually violent behavior towards women, and a weird demon stag scene – you have a pretty evil-to-the-core horror movie. I’m not adding it to my hall of fame, but Lovely Molly is a dark and ominous horror film with some new angles on evil. If you have a nice 5.1 home stereo system, you’ll love the chilling surround and booming bass. Lovely Molly sounds as good as it looks.

Have fun trying to figure out the weird demon stag scene. I’m still trying to figure out which origin story I think is the real one..and why.