- courtesy of Image Entertainment
When The Blair Witch Project was released in 1999, it broke all sorts of molds. The creepy faux-documentary, about three student filmmakers who get lost in the woods, was the first to leverage the “found footage” idea into a full-length, mainstream horror movie.
The film also employed new digital age promotion techniques, using fake websites and viral marketing strategies to build buzz. By some accounts, it’s still the single most profitable movie ever made, earning $240 million worldwide off a $50,000 production budget.
Blair Witch co-director Eduardo Sanchez is back this week with the home video release of LOVELY MOLLY, available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download.
The gist: Recovering addict Molly Reynolds (newcomer Getchen Lodge) has just moved back into her childhood home with her new husband, Tim, and her tenuous sobriety. When Tim has to leave for several days for his truck driving job, Molly must confront her demons — figurative and otherwise.
It soon becomes clear that Molly’s childhood in the house was not a happy one, and dark allusions are made about her abusive father, her mother’s death and some disturbing artifacts in the basement.
Lovely Molly takes elements of the haunted house story and the demonic possession story, then elevates them with the intriguing addiction angle and an absolutely fearless performance by Gretchen Lodge. Horror movies traditionally feature imagery of their lead actress, bloodied and frantic, usually in a sleeveless shirt. But Sanchez and Lodge go one better — Molly is totally naked in several key scenes. These sequences are about vulnerability, not sex, and the good news (I suppose) is that the blood Molly’s splattered with isn’t hers.
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