The Moth Diaries (2012)

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Some decrepit old ghost/vampire lady-thingy impersonating a sexy young dyevochka is really a moth, or actually 1000s of moths (we're made out of atoms, she of moths), and she is like really old and stuff and likes to kill young girls for fun and she's like such a filthy old pervert that she even has sex with one of them, which is technically pedo territory, right? But you can't arrest moths for sexual molestation, can you?Anyway, Lily Cole Moth has her eye on killing Sarah Bolger Non-Moth - that's her ultimate goal, and one which Sarah figures out only at the end of the movie, way way way long after even the dumbest of us dumb viewers had already figured it out an hour earlier. So if Lily Moth wanted to kill Sarah all along, why did she wait so long and kill several people who aren't Sarah Bolger? No, Rachel Klein the author doesn't know and neither does Mary Harron the director. They don't bother to tell us WHY Lily came to that school to kill random people, nor why moths hate water (do they?), nor why moths are into same-sex activity. (If moths were inclined that way, wouldn't there be a LOT less of them?)In fact, there's a strong whiff of lesbianism permeating the entire movie which makes me suspect that either the director or the author are leaning that way. They even portray the only heterosexual encounter in the movie - the actual intercourse - as painful and unpleasant.And those of you who think that your patience will be rewarded with a grand finale Sarah vs Moth Lily, you're sadly mistaken, because Sarah sneaks up to Moth Lady real easy, sets her on fire, kills her, and that's pretty much it, and the whole movie was slow for no reason and it looked like a build up to a harrowing finale (which turned out to fizzle like a tiny firecracker) and quite predictable and Lily is far too tall for these small girls to be playing anyone but Godzilla or a ginger King Kong, and the make-up department should be hung for turning her into a brunette and giving her a goofy Goth-chick makeover - as if all mysterious vampire moth ladies are into Goth fashion - which made her look unattractive which is quite a feat because she's actually quite pretty (as is Sarah), and this movie is sort of like a stylized version of a lesbian slasher flick and there's not much more else to say about this mediocrity.

I watched this thinking it was a spoof of another film but it took itself seriously which made it extremely difficult to watch. It was meant to be a thriller or horror movie but we ended up laughing at the terrible dialogue and hilariously plot and continuity. I have enjoyed the other films by this director but this film was plain dumb and terrible. It is not worth watching at all and I do not recommend it at all. It deserves the 1 star I have given it and if I could rate lower I would. DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM. It deserves it's terrible ratings. Poorly acted and must have been low budget. Characterization changed completely and not in a good way

I randomly selected and streamed this film last night on Netflix, enjoyed it, and checked today to see what others were saying about it. I was surprised to find harsh words about the film, and they made me wonder why people would react this way to a well-made story like this. The cinematography is lovely. The music is so well suited that it plays unnoticed beneath the visuals – never clashing with the emotional content of the scenes. The sound editing is top notch. The young actors are all excellent. Set design is spot on for the story. No dialog is wasted. Etc. etc.So what was the problem? My personal reaction was quite good. When it started, I expected a bad film – another sappy story about girls at school. In fact, the only scene I didn't care for was the girls "partying" in their rooms. Such a cliché rendering. But the rest was endearing. The film seduced me, drawing me in further and further as I watched. It's not revolutionary, to be sure, but why does every film have to be revolutionary? We don't hold music to that type of criteria. "Oh, another blues song. That's been done…"Harron's achievement here is in the mood of this piece. I see people complaining about the connecting scenes, and I think about how much they must hate a film like Upstream Color or Tree of Life or Melancholia (though those films are rated quite a bit higher). The Moth Diaries is not like those films because it has a much more grounded story. Why are people down on this film? My best guess is that the negative reactions this film received are indicative of the altered nature of film itself. The Moth Diaries takes a different tack than contemporary blockbusters. It's not The Conjuring (a great horror film), which twists every few minutes and keeps throwing shocks at you, making you squirm in your seat. But it's not intended to be. It's not a shock piece. It is a mood piece, and Harron does a beautiful job of establishing a consistent mood throughout, a mood that captures appropriate emotional content for the age-rage of the characters in the story. Had this movie been released in the 1970s, it would have found a large, receptive audience. I, for one, found it refreshing to watch a film that takes its time building mood and environment and character. The strength of the film is its subtlety. Unfortunately, it appears that subtlety is lost on many contemporary film goers. For me, The Moth Diaries returned me to the days when movies could be captivating and sensory without abandoning story in service to "art." I liked it and I'll be tracking Mary Harron's work from now on.

This movie was extremely disappointing. The plot was poorly developed, as well as the characters, who were all flat and painfully insipid, and the script was a complete waste.I haven't read The Moth Diaries before, but from this movie and several summaries, I can tell where the story is going. And I can tell it has potential to be a good film. Not only because of the story line, but also because the cinematography of the entire movie was well done, which shows the director is capable of capturing the story.But alas, the story that is captured is bleak and lazily drawn out. Scratch that. More like said out. Rebecca, the main character, frequently voices over her thoughts and what she's found out, instead of showing the audience. The ending is abrupt and it almost seemed like I had been watching the storyboard of the movie's ending, rather than the real ending itself. Even though I knew what was happening, I didn't feel like I ever got any time to absorb any information. The plot was practically being thrown into your face.Some cuts in the movie were also very awkward. I had to go back to watch certain scenes again because I thought I'd missed something, but it turned out that the cuts were just really sudden. I believe that if some things had been dragged out a little longer, they would have left a larger impact on the viewer. One example would be a scene where Rebecca sees Ernessa in the library and Ernessa begins to sing to her. Right before Ernessa sings, she says something, then it immediately cuts to her singing in a split second. There is no slow tilting of the head forward or suspended glassy-eyed gazing, etc. She simply breaks into the song, which was sung creepily enough to know she was trying to be creepy, but not enough to creep me out.It was ridiculous for any genre of movie it was meant to be. Whether it was a psychological thriller or a horror flick, it failed to boggle my mind or scare me at all.