The Haunting of Molly Hartley

“The Haunting of Molly Hartley” might do well to take a page out of the “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” book. In the latter, the title says it all. You buy a ticket and expect to see Zack and Miri, at least, attempt to make something slightly pornographic. When it comes to “The Haunting of Molly Hartley”, no one’s haunted and it’s not even remotely haunting.

File this movie with a big, fat sticker that says, “typical, teen scream-fest.” It’s typical that the acting is one-dimensional, the actors look, suspiciously, like they’re older than 17 and the movie’s plot makes very little sense.

Molly Hartley and her father move to a new town and a new school to escape a traumatizing past. Molly hears voices, gets bloody noses and witnesses intense hallucinations. I would too if my mother attempted to kill me and was now locked in a psych ward. As the new girl, she’s the gossip of her ritzy prep school. As usual, the popular people hate her. The bad girl with ripped fishnets wants to befriend her. The friendly bible-thumper wants to convert her, and the jock wants to sweep her off her feet. All the while, she’s clearly unraveling before her father’s, teachers’ and friends’ eyes.

And herein is where the problem lies. It’s hard to judge the work of any of the actors when the writing is so derivative and the storyline is as scary as a pink, fluffy bunny. Molly Hartley, played by Haley Bennett, (“Music and Lyrics,” “College”) does what she’s supposed to do. She cries, freaks out and looks terrified, but the audience isn’t really afraid of the same thing she’s afraid of so the emotions are lost. While she fears her mother and the possibility of her insanity, we fear the movie may never end.

The other actors play their stereotypes, imbued with no depth or imagination. It seems as if John Travis and Rebecca Sonnenshine, the writers, believe that today’s teenagers only want to see the pretty faces of actors they’re used to seeing on TV and that will be enough to draw the young’uns to theaters. You wouldn’t have to think hard to imagine the characters Chace Crawford (“Gossip Girl”) and AnnaLyne McCord (“90210”) were hired to play. We see the exact same characters every week on the CW.

It’s almost painfully obvious this is Mickey Liddell’s directorial debut. He relies heavily of the classic techniques to play up the audiences’ fears. There’s a plethora of people popping out from behind corners, sudden loud noises and creepy whispers. The writers gave him very little to work with, though, so it’s hard to tell if even Alfred Hitchcock could have done better.

At its base, the film draws on a belief in an eternal war between God and Satan on earth. The use of the book Paradise Lost, a class English assignment, further depicts the battle between destiny and free will. Many of the characters, also, comment of the difference between religious zealotry and religious belief, but sadly, none of these subjects are scratched at beyond the surface.

In comparison to some of the scarier or better movies of this genre like “Carrie,” “Scream” and “A Nightmare of Elm Street,” “The Haunting of Molly Hartley” can’t compare. Whether it was the main character, an unseen force or a killer, at least, those films provided the audience with something to be scared. This film provides none of the above.