Moth Diaries , The

Not a very original plot but done in a way to keep it interesting. Teen girls will like it. I thought it was OK. I say B-.
"It's like she's invading my mind, even when I'm alone I can't escape her." Rebecca (Bolger) is ready for her new school year to start. After the death of her father she is grateful to get back to her friends. She is surprised when a new girl, Ernessa (Cole) shows up. What starts off as a new girl trying to make friends turns into something much more dangerous and Rebecca becomes suspicious of her when her friends turn up missing, or dead. I will start by saying that this movie is overall not that bad. I also once again have to say that I'm pretty sure I am not the audience this movie was made for. This is a horror movie about an all girls high school. Being a 30 year old man I couldn't relate. The movie did have an overused idea, but pulled it off in a way that made it feel interesting. There are some pretty creepy parts in this and Lily Cole is perfect in this role but I had a hard time getting into it. If you like movies like "The Roommate" you will probably like this one as well...

Supernatural Silliness And Sapphic Subtext Can't Salvage This Exercise In Tween Angst
Feminist filmmaker Mary Harron has made some bold and provocative choices in past films such as "I Shot Andy Warhol," "American Psycho" and "The Notorious Bettie Page." She is not afraid to push things to the edge of reason and watch them topple over with an in-your-face glee. So I'm shocked by the tepid and somewhat unfocused "The Moth Diaries." The film seems to be borne of some interesting ideas, but it never effectively builds in intensity. The picture is lovely, to be sure, with breathy performances, gauzy flashbacks and ethereal fantasy sequences--but does it amount to much? I didn't think so. Pretty, but empty. That's the first phrase that popped into my head as the credits started to roll. Taking a popular young adult novel by Rachel Klein, Harron's choices here appear content to ape the underdeveloped emotions inherent in the Twilight saga as opposed to creating something that felt distinct or unique.

Set in an all-girl boarding school, "The Moth Diaries" opens...

A mixture of various horror plot themes and images
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. The film tries to explore life and death through a mixture of horror plots and images. Some of these themes are metamorphosis, hence the moth theme (The idea of a butterfly or moth as the soul is found in traditional cultures of every continent) and ghost story - the soul touched by divine love, but which, by reason of the mistakes made, must undergo some tribulations before having access to happy immortality. Other horror theme works it draws upon are from Sheridan Le fanu's Carmilla (Ernessa selects exclusively female victims, though only becomes emotionally involved with a few. Ernessa has nocturnal habits, but is not confined to the darkness. She has unearthly beauty and able to change her form and to pass through solid walls and sleeps in a coffin), shades of Poe's William Wilson (theme of the double who haunts Rebecca and leads her to insanity and also represents her own insanity) and Henry James' Turn of the Screw (the reality of the ghost and...

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