Lovely Molly  ★★½

CUBA’S Eduardo Sanchez is still to truly build on his original promise.

In 1999 he was a co-director of The Blair Witch Project, a cinema phenomenon that gave birth to the modern trend of found footage.

Two decades later it has become a staple sub-genre, particularly amongst first-time directors with low budgets.

But Sanchez has not progressed to achieve any great heights in cinema and for the past few years has instead plied his trade in television.

Lovely Molly, released in 2011, is a good example of his efforts that show promise but ultimately don’t deliver.

It’s a pretty standard story about a woman who is terrorised by something in the home that her dead parents lived in which she and her new husband have moved into.

Tim is a truck driver so he’s away a fair bit and Mollly doesn’t seem to do much at all, which is a problem when there might be a demon hanging around.

Or is it the case that Molly’s drug habit is behind her nightmarish vision?

Trying to work out what is real or not is probably the most interesting part of the film which is otherwise pretty non-eventful.

The story is well told, in terms of keeping you guessing, and Gretchen Lodge does a good job as Molly in what was her debut feature.

Once again, Sanchez knows how to make a movie but doesn’t seem able to lift it above the well-made and average.