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The Moth Diaries

Canada, Ireland

2011

85 Min
Color
English
  • Currently 1.7/5 Stars.
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DIR Mary Harron

EXEC Sandra Cunningham, Jean-François Doray, Norton Herrick, Zygi Kamasa, Louis-Simon Ménard, Edward R. Pressman

PROD Karine Martin

SCR Mary Harron, Rachel Klein

DP Declan Quinn

CAST Sarah Bolger, Sarah Gadon, Lily Cole, Judy Parfitt, Valerie Tian, Melissa Farman, Anne Day-Jones, Laurence Hamelin, Gia Sandhu

ED Andrew Marcus

PROD DES Sylvain Gingras

MUSIC Lesley Barber

Venice (Out of Competition), Toronto (Special Presentations), Abu Dhabi (Narrative Feature Competition)

Synopsis

Rebecca, a young girl haunted by her father’s suicide, begins her junior year at an elite girls boarding school, hoping for a fresh start. From the outset, her friendship with sunny, innocent Lucy is shattered by the arrival of Ernessa, a mysterious, dark and beautiful girl from Europe. As Ernessa consumes more and more of Lucy’s attention, the latter’s healthy young body grows pale, thin and weak – as if being drained of life itself.

Her friendship with Lucy slipping away, Rebecca develops a crush on her handsome English professor, Mr. Davies, who is teaching a course on supernatural literature. Obsessed with Carmilla, the vampire story that inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula, she grows increasingly suspicious of Ernessa’s odd behavior and Lucy’s wasting illness, and when mysterious deaths shock the school, becomes convinced that Ernessa is a vampire. Rebecca finds herself isolated when the other girls dismiss her suspicions as mere jealousy and Mr. Davies betrays her trust. As Lucy’s inexplicable illness turns deadly, Rebecca is left alone to battle with Ernessa for the life of her friend.

The supernatural elements in The Moth Diaries are rooted in the real experience of a young girl faced with her emerging sexuality and caught in a web of obsessive friendship, jealousy and betrayal. A powerful emotional drama where eroticism and death are entwined. –Wild Bunch

Director

Original

Mary Harron

Canadian writer and director Mary Harron first made an impact on the world of American independent cinema with her 1996 feature directorial debut I Shot Andy Warhol. The widely acclaimed film, which detailed the short, strange life of S.C.U.M Manifesto author Valerie Solanas, earned both an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Film and a Special Jury Award for star Lili Taylor at the 1996 Sundance Festival.

The daughter of celebrated Canadian actor Don Harron, she was educated at Oxford University and began her career as a rock journalist. One of the founders of Punk magazine, the first publication dedicated solely to punk rock, Harron was the first writer to interview the Sex Pistols for an American publication. She also worked for a number of British publications, including New Musical Express, for which she wrote a history of the Velvet Underground, and Melody Maker, for which she wrote a detailed history of Andy Warhol and the Factory.

Harron began her film… read more

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Justin Oakey

11Apr12

With Mary Harron at the wheel, it is extra unforunate to see such a promising project fall so flat. An isolated Gothic boarding school, the anxieties and angst of teenage years, supernatural mystery - all goes to waste with spotty acting and cheap effects. There were some very atmospheric moments (raining blood in the library, for example), but otherwise there was very little that stood out.

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msmichel

7Apr12

Oh to be a teenage girl again, the jealousies, the angst, the burgeoning sexuality, the vampires.....Silly and frankly often boring tale from the Rachel Klein novel that wants to be so much more than it is.Sarah Bolger well cast in the lead with good support from Sarah Gadon but found Lily Cole to be over-rated here and the teachers about as visible as Charlie Brown's teacher. Atmosperhic but empty.

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Scout

23Mar12

This film, more than any other movie I've ever seen, captures the feeling of a modern Young Adult novel; as such it's more than a little tepid, flirts with dark imagery, and completely ordinary. I commend Harron for making a film for/about teenage girls, but I do wish she brought some of her biting, nearly balletic sense of pop satire.

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    Scout

    23Mar12

    Though props on casting Lily Cole as a vampire - pitch perfect. She's a marvel, that one.

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speakingparts

6Sep11

from venice: awkward, unintentionally ridiculous, Twilight-esque

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Scary Monsters 2011, Round 3

By David Hudson on October 25, 2011

Lists, reviews of classic and new horror, news and interviews. Updated through Halloween.

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