Like most horror movies aimed at teenagers, The Haunting of Molly Hartley was not screened for critics. They did get a look at it with everyone else over the weekend and have now turned in the expected horrible notices. Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times begins her review by calling the movie "unexpectedly cynical" and ends it by calling it "tame and inoffensive." In the Los Angeles Times Sam Adams refers to it as "a dead-on-arrival thriller that resolutely fails to come to life." But Chelsea Bain in the Boston Globe gives it a mixed report card, writing that it is "dull at worst and surprisingly spooky at best." And Tony Wong sums up in the Toronto Star "If you get past the retro Nancy Drew title, this is a worthwhile effort."

03/11/2008