20131205: Horror Review--The Moth Diaries

The Moth Diaries

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Canadian/Irish live action feature length film, 2011, rated R, 82 minutes, horror.  Spoken word is in English.  Aspect is 1.85
2. IMDB: 4.8/10.0 from 3,410 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 15% on the meter; 22% liked it from 5,339 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 114,435 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Mary Harron.
6. Starring: Sarah Bolger as Rebecca, Sara Gadon as Lucy, Valerie Tian as Charley, Lily Cole as Ernessa, Anne Day-Jones as Rebecca's mother, Julian Casey as Rebecca's father, Scott Speedman as Mr. Davies, Judy Parfitt as Mrs. Rood.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Rebecca is at a boarding school with dress codes, early morning meetings, prayers, and the like.  Her friend Charlie gets kicked out for breaking a window, for instance; students get detention for being late for morning meetings.


2. Rebecca and Lucy were best friends until Ernessa came along.  Rebecca suspects that Ernessa is a vampire, but no one want to hear anything negative about Ernessa.  Rebecca's attempts to straighten this out only backfire as Lucy gets sick, then weaker, then dead.  Her attempt to confide in Mr. Davies results in his hitting on her; later, he reports her 'troubled' behaviour to Mrs. Rood to get ahead of any child molestation charges, one guesses.


3. Rebecca's own problems (her poet father committed suicide) are brought up frequently.  The school is concerned for her.  Some of her daydreams are ridiculous.


4. Will Rebecca stay in school?  Will she expose Ernessa?  Is the school complicit in Ernessa's actions?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Short script short on ideas, light on acting.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 A bit dark and fuzzy in some passages, but mostly fine.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.


3. Acting: 4/10 This film might appeal to teen girls; others, perhaps not so much.  The adults are all imperious or criminal.  Most of the teens are portrayed as short sighted.  Sarah Bolger portrays a deeply flawed individual, but is not all that believable.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 The story was short on ideas, and the few it had were not executed all that well.  Rebecca gets to do all sorts of things at the school with no detection, no reprimands, or even discussion.  It seems like she would have been expelled for any number of her actions.