The Moth Diaries Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

The Moth Diaries Blu-ray Movie Review

More like The Sloth Diaries, amirite?

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater August 30, 2012

From Mary Harron, the acclaimed punk-feminist director of I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho, and The Notorious Bettie Page comes...a disappointing girls boarding school thriller that botches every chance to be scary, compelling, or seductive. Based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Rachel Klein, the film wants to be steeped in gothic unease, but comes off as Twilight-lite, tame and suspense-less. The film's issues are largely a matter of approach, rather than content. Though the building blocks of the story suggest a wicked coming-of-age horror movie—possible vampirism, budding sexuality, competitive teen girls cloistered in a former hotel with overtones of The Shining—Harron bungles the execution by being far too obvious in just about every regard. This is no Picnic at Hanging Rock, enigmatic and unexplained. Every mystery is tidily resolved, the dialogue is often cringe-worthily on-the-nose, and there's no psychological subtlety to the characters' relationships at all. On top of this—or perhaps because of it—the film is witheringly dull, all set-up and no pay-off.

Lily Cole, living china doll.

The Moth Diaries takes place at Brangwyn, a posh all-girls private school that used to be a resort for rich folk—a la The Overlook Hotel—tucked in the woods of what looks like rural New England. (The film is an Canadian-Irish coproduction, so maybe eastern Canada is more accurate.) Despite the fact that her poet father has recently killed himself, sixteen-year-old brunette Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) is starting the school year with high hopes, eager to reconnect with Lucie (Sarah Gadon), her pretty blond BFF. Like all "besties" in the movies, they each wear one half of a broken heart pendant and spend every waking hour with one another. Hugs!

Alas, their girl-talk-fun-times are interrupted with the arrival of raven-haired new girl Ernessa, played by model-turned-actress Lily Cole, a Brit with the wide-set eyes and tiny puckered mouth of an antique porcelain doll. Cole has long been attached to star as Alice in Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, Marilyn Manson's oft-delayed directorial debut, and you can see why—with her otherworldly allure, she looks like an illustration from a dark fairytale. Here, her character is aloof and "incredibly smart," a mesmerizing presence that draws Lucie in like, yes, a moth to the proverbial flame. In the most generalized manner possible, the film exploits the adolescent tension of losing a best friend, with Lucie growing increasingly distant and Rebecca wallowing in lonely jealousy.

Ernessa seems to be draining away all of Lucie's time, but the question soon arises as to whether she's a metaphorical vampire or a bonafide bloodsucker of the sleeps-in-a-box-of-dirt-and-has-supernatural-powers variety. After a series of odd incidents—vivid dreams, on-campus deaths, a room impossibly filled with fluttering moths—Rebecca's suspicions lean progressively towards the latter, though she's possibly under the spell-like influence of the heady gothic novel her hot young literature teacher (Scott Speedman) has assigned.

Published in 1872, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Camilla is a sapphic-themed vampire story that actual predates Dracula by 25 years, and The Moth Diaries draws all-too-literal inspiration from both books. It's no coincidence that Lucie begins to physically waste away exactly like her namesake—Lucy Westenra of Bram Stoker's novel—and the lesbian sensuality of Camilla manifests itself in the pent-up hormonal hothouse of Brangwyn, where the short plaid skirt and knee-sock-wearing girls obsess about sex and virginity, appearance and, yes, one another. Unlike Le Fanu and Stoker, however, Harron—who adapted the screenplay from Klein's novel herself—fails to generate any real sexual tension or scares. The film is as plastic and unconvincing as dollar-store Halloween mask.

Harron's script is creaky with structural problems, first and foremost being the over-reliance on Rebecca's voiceover excerpts from the titular diary. The film is told from Rebecca's perspective, and Harron misses the opportunity to play up her possible unreliability as a narrator. Instead of urging the audience to question what Rebecca sees, or insinuating that she may have an overactive imagination—or even remaining entirely neutral, which would be preferable—the film takes Rebecca's observations at face value. We never doubt her for a second when she starts to suspect that Ernessa is a mischief-making vamp, and consequently, any atmosphere of suspense the film does have vanishes by the second act. And then there's the stagey dialogue, a mix of dated teen-speak and superficial proclamations intended to pique curiosity, like when Ernessa says, "I used to study Latin and Greek. I was very serious, though I was a girl. But then...[absurdly dramatic pause]...other things intervened." Don't worry, we find out exactly what those other things were; this is a film that doesn't want to leave anything for the audience to suss out themselves.

The Moth Diaries Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Moth Diaries flutters onto Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that might not be considered eye candy but at least seems faithful to source. Shot on 35mm with spherical lenses and a semi-grainy stock, the picture isn't quite as sharp or slick as some modern horror efforts, although it has a naturally filmic look that's becoming rarer and rarer these days. IFC has steered clear of any digital noise reduction or edge enhancement, and the disc seems free of overt compression or authoring issues. Overall, the image is slightly soft—especially compared to most anamorphically shot films—but there's plenty of high definition detail in close-ups, more than adequately revealing facial and clothing textures. The film's mostly icy color palette is reproduced well—expect lots of chilly nighttime blue/greens—and the Carrie-esque blood-raining scene in the school library is appropriately vivid. Rebecca's dream sequences are rendered in intentionally oversaturated hues, and flashbacks to Ernessa's past are given an aged, washed-out-looking black and white treatment. There are spots where the picture perhaps feels a bit too dim—with slightly crushing shadows—but as long as you're not watching the film during the day with a large, glare-casting window immediately behind your TV, you should be fine.

The Moth Diaries Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Don't expect a bombastic, jump-scare-riddled horror movie mix from The Moth Diaries, which arrives on Blu-ray with a relatively somber DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. The film is very quiet for long stretches, but it's clear that at least some thought has been put into the sound design. The rear channels do deliver subtle ambience throughout—spurts of raining blood, fire licking in the rears, moths fluttering through the soundfield—and Lesley Barber's (Mansfield Park) uneasy score fills in the gaps. Dynamics are limited—there are no subwoofer-shaking, dread-underscoring moments here—but the sense of clarity is great overall. Dialogue is understandable, if occasionally husky-sounding—if that makes sense—and the disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles for those who might need or want them. You'll also find an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 mix-down for those who have no need for a multi-channel mix.

The Moth Diaries Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (1080p, 18:15): Your usual assortment of cast and crew interviews and on-location footage. Nothing particularly revelatory here.
• Video Diaries (SD, 12:54): The film's young actresses document their own behind-the-scenes material, including the filming of the Rock Band sequence.
• Featurette (1080p, 2:10): A short EPK-style promo.
• Trailer (1080p, 2:21)

The Moth Diaries Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Considering the quality of Mary Harron's previous films—I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page— The Moth Diaries comes as a massive disappointment, a sub-Twilight would-be supernatural thriller that's scare-less, suspense-less, and dull. The only thing it has going for it is Lily Cole's inborn creepiness, but even this is overplayed to cliche effect. IFC's Blu-ray is undoubtedly the best way to watch the film, but let's be honest—unless you're a hardcore Harron or Cole fan, the film probably won't be worth your time. I'd recommend a rental for the still-curious, but a pass for everyone else.