EIFF 2012: Lovely Molly

With horror there are no second chances. That tight strung wire of terror and suspense can be easily cut; as is the case in this impressive but flawed new film from Blair Witch director Eduardo Sánchez. So much is performed well. Sound design is exemplary, a foreboding mix of static and bass encompassing equine snorts and stamping hooves. Imagery again is well thought out. A toy lamb looks somehow sacrificial, dusty tools weapon-like. This is a film with serious intentions, amalgamating the sexual abuse of a revenant father with the self abuse of drug addiction. Molly is pursued by both on her return to a family home steeped in suffering. Are drugs feeding or starving her visions? Is that naughty horsey for real, or metaphor laid thick? As soon as we doubt her grasp on reality then that onscreen reality is up for grabs. As an originator of the found footage format, Sánchez uses the camcorder again, here moderately and effectively as a voyeuristic window into both past and present. If only he didn’t cut that wire. [Alan Bett]