- Aspect Ratio: 1:78:1
- Video Codec: AVC MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1,
- Subtitles: English, English SDH
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: R
- Run Time: 100 Mins
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
- Studio: Image Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: August 28th, 2012
- List Price: $29.99
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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:2.5/5]
Lovely Molly tells the story of Molly (Gretchen Lodge). Having recently moved into a home left to her by her late father, she soon finds the house is haunted, with demons striking at each and every corner of the home. Molly quickly becomes overwhelmed with this evil, transforming her into something that will shock, and horrify everyone. From the man who brought us The Blair Witch Project, Molly uses the modern ‘found footage’ concept rather convincingly with true scares, fears and twists that, while not impactful in the manner Director Eduardo Sanchez may have hoped for, do leave somewhat of a chill in our bodies.
With The Blair Witch Project being the first example of this ‘home-video footage’ style genre, there have since been numerous, almost too many name, entries into style of filmmaking. Some have been successful, like the original Paranormal Activity, while some are somewhat decent, like Lovely Molly. Where Activity succeeded (at least in my eyes) of creating true, genuine horror at times (well, mostly due to jerky camera movements), Molly doesn’t have that same feel to it. The scares, while some did seem horrifying, felt bland, unoriginal, really lacking any sense of purpose to them.
The really great horror films don’t need to overly rely on ‘jump out of your seats’ thrills. The original Activity was able to succeed because it was, somewhat I’ll add, original in its approach. The sequels, well I won’t really get into those. I’ll easily say I had a high amount of excitement going into this one as I enjoyed and found The Blair Witch Project to be original, creepy, and truly terrifying at points. Akin to that of numerous other entries, it seems like Director Eduardo Sanchez is a one-hit wonder as Lovely Molly does work for a bit of the movie, but overall it just feels like something we’ve seen before.
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Shot using the Red One Camera, this 1:78:1 framed, AVC MPEG-4 encoded transfer is quite solid throughout. The mix of stock footage with modern film results in, obviously, the newer material having finer detail and clarity. That’s not to say the handheld shot film looks terrible. These sequences have a large amount of noise to them, a heavy layer of film grain. But, this is really how this is suppose to look in order to give the footage that ‘old’ look, that idea that this has been occurring for some time now. The newer footage, as expected, holds a greater amount of clarity. In particular, these scenes have fine contrast levels, clarity, detail, and accurate flesh tones. Some of the darker sequences do lose a bit of detail, but nothing that is overly distracting. Color wise, the film tends to focus on earth tones with browns and blacks dominating, both of which do look just fine throughout. All in all, this is a good effort from Image.
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Arriving with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, this lossless mix all but helps to bring the fears, the chill, the scares home in a manner that is, occasionally, truly frightening. Dialogue is well reproduced via the center channel, with no instance of drop out. Discrete effects and atmosphere are what really make this track shine. Sound design, especially in a horror film, is crucial. Luckily here the sound designers have put together an excellent mix. Creaks of the floor boards, or heavy breathing by Molly throws the viewer right into the middle of the horror. LFE is great with deep, immersive bass giving us the kind of low-end that all but helps to create the fear, and horror tingling through our body. All in all, this mix is great and I must give kudos to the sound team behind this mix.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3/5]
The included supplements are featured in High Definition:
The four included features, outside of the filmmakers commentary track, serve as kind of a mockumentary covering different aspects of the film’s story.
- Path to Madness – This runs 7:02, offering some insight into how exactly the demons infested the house.
- Haunted Past – Running 7:24, this looks into exactly why the house was haunted.
- Demonic Forces – At 7:23 in length, we’re given a bit of information on the kind of demons these are.
- Is It Real? – This last feature runs 6:38 and questions whether or not the demons were real.
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Producer/Director Eduardo Sanchez and Co-Writer Jamie Nash
- Trailers – The film’s trailer (2:03) is shown.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
Using the ‘found footage’ horror tool typically fails as filmmakers rely on it way too much, forgetting about plot. Sanchez uses this concept in a manner that, unfortunately, we’ve seen before. Image Entertainment’s Blu-ray for the film features a fine video transfer, an excellent audio presentation, and a few solid features. If you’re a fan of the film, definitely pick this one up, otherwise I’d say the curious should add this one to the rental queue.
Additional Screen Captures
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Purchase Lovely Molly on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
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[amazon-product]B007USWCMY[/amazon-product]
Purchase Lovely Molly on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:3/5]
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