DVD Review: The Moth Diaries is Worth the Watch

A teenage girl’s life is never easy, particularly when she has great trauma to deal with. Troubled friendships, uncertain love interests, a creepy girl that might be a vampire…all normal things that Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) goes through in The Moth Diaries. Except that vampire part. That’s not so normal. But it’s what makes The Moth Diaries such a strong film—that the supernatural confusion that Rebecca deals with (as well as its consequences) are a perfect metaphor for her struggles as a teenager. And it is an absolute joy to watch.

While normally my review discusses the myriad of technical achievements (and failures) in a film, this film is a rarity in that the eye is not naturally drawn to the pretty lighting effect or the cool-looking shot. The shots are simple and unremarkable, but serve the purpose of enhancing the narrative quite well.  However, when special effects are used, such as flying or a torrential rainfall of blood, they look seamless (not always beautiful, due to the mediocre cinematography) and as real as such effects could possibly be. Stylized effect shots are used nicely as well, particularly the ones dealing with flashbacks. Be it slow-motion black and white or fast-paced editing, if a flashback intends to evoke a specific emotional reaction from the audience, the appropriate device is used to ensure the audience feels the sadness or fear that would allow them to enjoy the story to its fullest extent. While that does not seem like such a remarkable achievement, considering the film has issues evoking horror at certain points, mainly due to inappropriate editing and a weak score (in regards to horror at least), when the film understands how to get a reaction correctly, the filmmakers should be applauded.

The film’s strongest point is easily the script, in which Rebecca is coming to terms with her own adulthood, as well as her father’s death, at the same time her best friend Lucy (Sarah Gadon) is becoming closer and closer to a weird new student named Ernessa (Lily Cole). Ernessa is knowledgeable to the point of creepy, making comments that deeply get under Rebecca’s skin, and having insights to concepts like death that no one else has . As the friendship between Ernessa grows, and Lucy gets sicker and sicker, Rebecca begins to suspect that her best friend is hanging out with a vampire. It works beautifully– there is often just enough evidence that the viewer wonders if Ernessa is truly a vampire, or if Rebecca’s paranoia is merely a metaphor for the confusion and soul-searching one encounters during adolescence. This constant tension between reality and fantasy is what makes the film work–the viewer is constantly left wondering…

…Until when the film falls apart because the spell of ambiguity is broken. The script’s power hinges on the viewer not being able to tell the difference between reality and fantasy, but director Mary Harron does all the little things to let you know the creepy stuff is real, from showing others seeing Ernessa’s weird actions, to having Rebecca see Ernessa walk through a window in a context where it is impossible dismiss as a dream.  Once the “truth” is revealed, the subtext of the film evaporates, and we are merely left to watch a shallow, albeit entertaining, conflict between Rebecca and Ernessa, enhanced tremendously by Lily Cole’s fantastic performance.

DVD Features: A featurette and some deleted scenes. Entertaining to watch, but they definitely do not redeem the film’s flaws.

Film rating: Had the potential to be a superb film, but its flaws bump it down to just very good. Absolutely worth watching (8/10)

DVD rating: 4/10