Molly Hartley is not a well-known name on possession game, it's also a straight to DVD title which might not instill hope for quality. Surprisingly, it has a few nifty gimmicks at play as it tries to conjure different setup than most of its haunted peers. It also, sadly, falls face first with corny scares and unintentionally funny moment just when it needs to deliver the horror.
Story follows not only Molly (Sarah Lind), but also the disgraced Father John (Devon Sawa). After a botched exorcism, mostly due to his part, John is convicted and lost his faith. Meanwhile, Molly displays odd tendency for murder and unworldly pranks. Instead of going Vatican on her, they throw her to jail, which admittedly a rather realistic choice of action.
There are a few different developments that occasionally show glimpse of horror. It creates the right atmosphere, or at least the illusion of such, and with it the movie tries to pull off timely twists. This is already a better effort than some horror films, but unfortunately the execution betrays all the buildup.
The use of jump scares is appalling, almost despicably so. Molly is also keen on spewing her meals unto unsuspecting victims. The effect and make up are not well done, they only manage to be disgusting and not in horrifying way. Perhaps, the worst is amalgamation of shifty production and overacting that makes some of supposed intense moments into awkward parody of itself.
Watching this is like watching devil spawn trying to be full-fledged demon. It almost does horror correctly, but eventually falls down like a kindergarten kid tripping over his bike and puke all over the place. Then again, one can't help but to give some merit or leniency to the effort and buildup.
