The Moth Diaries
Tags: suicidal

Plot synopsis:
At an exclusive boarding school for girls, Rebecca (Sarah Bolger), a sixteen-year-old teenage girl, records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. Two years ago, Rebecca's father, a gloomy poet, took his own life by slitting his wrists. Her mother transferred Rebecca to the school, hoping to help her daughter escape the dark memories of her father's death. With the help of her best friend and roommate, Lucy (Sarah Gadon), and many other girls, Rebecca soon recovered.
But this year will never be the same. A mysterious, dark-haired girl named Ernessa Bloch (Lily Cole), enrolls into the school. Lucy quickly becomes best friends with Ernessa and becomes distant from Rebecca. Ernessa's presence makes Rebecca feel uneasy. She tries to confront Lucy about Ernessa's dark secrets, but her pleas are dismissed as pure jealousy. Eerie things start to happen. First, Charley (Valerie Tian) gets expelled because of Ernessa. Dora (Melissa Farman) dies in a freak accident shortly after spying on Ernessa's room, and a teacher is found murdered in the woods. Tension starts to grow at the school.
To Rebecca, Ernessa is an enigma. She seems like she can walk through closed windows, and she is often seen lingering around the basement (a place that all students are forbidden to go). Rebecca thinks Ernessa is a vampire.
Ernessa slowly gets rid of Rebecca's close friends, leaving Rebecca to find out what is happening by herself.
A new English teacher, Mr Davies (Scott Speedman), arrives at the school. Mr Davies shows particular interest in Rebecca. The two share ideas on Romantic literature and poetry. Rebecca soon learns that vampires don't necessarily drink blood, but they can drain the lively spirit out of their victims. Mr Davies addresses himself as a fan of Rebecca's poet father. Rebecca turns to Mr Davies for help, but it is no use. During their conversation, the two kiss but Rebecca pulls herself away.
On several occasions, Ernessa confronts Rebecca in the library, and one time, presents Rebecca with a sharp razor and elaborates on the pleasure of death. Another time, Ernessa sings a disturbing nursery rhyme about "The Juniper Tree" then slits her own wrists, causing blood to rain down on her and Rebecca. Afterwards, Ernessa and the blood disappear.
One day, Lucy is sent to the hospital, but only Rebecca knows that Lucy is sick because of Ernessa. Rebecca tries to convince Lucy that Ernessa is the root of all their problems, but Lucy refuses to listen and profanes at her. Although Lucy recovers for a couple days, she soon dies after Ernessa completely drains the life out of her.
Rebecca steals the keys to the basement, and after entering, sees an old stone coffin with Ernessa's full name engraved on it. From an old diary, Rebecca learns that many years ago Ernessa's father also killed himself; and Ernessa, unable to cope with the grief, took her own life thereafter. Rebecca soon learns that for the whole time, Ernessa has wanted Rebecca to kill herself. In other words, Rebecca is the target victim, and not Lucy.
Shortly after, Rebecca returns to the basement to discover Ernessa sleeping in the stone coffin. Rebecca pours kerosene on Ernessa and around the coffin she is still sleeping in, lighting the kerosene before Ernessa wakes up.
Rebecca then walks outside to see a fire truck present and her classmates standing around. Through a door she sees the ghost of Ernessa, who slowly turns around and walks into the sun before vanishing.
Narrating that the authorities are suspicious of her, Rebecca is comfortable in the knowledge that Ernessa will not have left any remains. During her transportation to the police station she pulls a razor blade out of her diary and secretly drops it out of the car window, deciding that she will not do the same as Ernessa. Rebecca looks blankly out of the car window as the film fades to black.

Review: 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.
When it started, I expected a bad film – another sappy story about girls at school.
The Moth Diaries is not like those films because it has a much more grounded story.
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..
Director Mary Harron works more frequently on the TV, but I have always found her films (I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page) interesting mainly because of their mixed focus, commercially accessible and also with enough personal vision in order to bring them an unusual artistic varnish.
Sarah Gadon also makes a perfect work as Lucie, and I also liked Lily Cole's performance very much.
Director Mary Harron ("American Psycho," "The Notorious Betty Page") tackles neo-Gothic horror in her latest film, an adaptation of Rachel Klein's novel "The Moth Diaries." Set at a remote Canadian BoardingSchool for Girls, "Diaries" is the story of Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) and Lucie (Sarah Gadon,) really, really, REALLY close roommates who are looking forward to spending their last year at school together.
Coincidentally, one of the books being taught by the new hunky English teacher (Scott Speedman) is "Carmilla," a Gothic novel about a female vampire and her prey (that actually predates Stoker's "Dracula" by about a quarter of a century.) Is this a case of life imitating art?
Harron does her best with the material, and the film does a good job of establishing an overall mood of dread with several effective set pieces.
The Moth diaries is a chilling story of Rebecca (Sarah Bolger), a young girl who, haunted by her father's suicide, enrolls in an elite boarding school for girls.
Before long, Rebecca's friendship with the popular Lucy (Sarah Gadon) is shattered by the arrival of a dark and mysterious new student named Ernessa (Lily Cole).
As the bodies of young girls pile up and the line between reality and the supernatural starts to blur, Rebecca decides to take matters into her own hands and get rid of Ernessa.
(RT) Girls or boys living in boarding schools are not a new concept for movies.
I can't exactly put my finger on it, but there is something quite beautiful and unique about "The Moth Diaries".One thing anyone seeing the movie should know is that it is NOT a horror movie.
The actors did do a good job of portraying the characters as I imagine.Will everybody like "The Moth Diaries"?
Moth Diaries is a supernatural horror set at an all girl boarding school where young Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) is sent after the suicide of her writer father.
She befriends the pretty Lucy (Sarah Gadon) and all seems well until the arrival of the strange Student Ernessa (Lily Cole).
Lucy is drawn to Ernessa and the more Sarah tries to find out who this mysterious new girl really is, the more she begins to believe that she is faced with the very type of vampiric creature that she is reading about in her literature class.
Director Mary Harron tries to give it the same period feel of a Dracula story despite being set in modern day.
The film probably could have used some of the sly humor that Harron used to perfection in the classic American Psycho but, here the tone comes across as a little too serious and it also can't decide whether it wants to be a straight horror or something more along the lines of a Twilight movie with it's melodramatics(Such as Rebecca's relationship with Scott Speedman's literature teacher that goes nowhere).
Here is a film that attempts to cover female friendship, hetero- and homoerotic longing, suicide, coming-of-age, murder, love, betrayal, jealousy, familial separation, grief, empathy, and much more in a single 85-minute vampire fantasy.
Its downfall is largely due to the piling up of explication upon explication as if Harron does not trust viewers to follow a simple but sexy storyline virtually styled after the famous made-for-television after-school movies of decades past.The film opens with teenage girls joining one another for a new term at a Catholic boarding school.
Most of the girls we meet know each other from previous terms – this is especially true for best friends Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) and Lucy (Sarah Golden).
Viewers are led to believe that this dependence has grown since Rebecca's famed poet father committed suicide a couple of years before the film's opening scenes.
The close relationship between the two girls is forever interrupted by the arrival of a new British student named Ernessa (Lily Cole).
Early on, the oft-seen triangle is in place with Rebecca as heroine, Ernessa as foe, and Lucy as victim.This triangle can be found in numerous teenage girl stories.
The fanciful twist here is that Ernessa is a vampire-like creature who forces her way into the existing friendship to prey on Lucy.
The movie really has some bad editing in it and at times it even feels like scenes are completely missing.
It does feel a bit like an incomplete movie.Thing that I did like about it was the fact that it featured an all girl cast.
It gives the movie already a special sort of atmosphere and the way the girls interact with each other feels genuine.
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.
The third reason, is that I am always a sucker for any movie set in a girls' boarding school.
Before you label me a pervert, however, let me stress that the actresses playing "girls" in these movies are usually in their twenties and far, far sexier than ANY actual schoolgirls.The movie does resemble "American Psycho" in that it's left very ambiguous whether what is happening--the protagonist (Sarah Bolger) suspects a new arrival to the school (Lily Cole) of being a vampire when tragic events befall her friends--is really happening or is all in the troubled protagonist's head (and perhaps the real cause is more mundane adolescent problems like anorexia nervosa).
The morbid eroticism and repressed desires of the classic story do fit in well with what is actually going on in the school (as do the intimations of lesbianism and lesbian jealousy).Sara Bolger is pretty if also pretty young (she was a little girl in "In America" only a few years ago), but the real problem is she is not quite a strong enough actress to pull off such a complex character (she's certainly no Christian Bale).
Beautifully Shot, But Just Never Goes All the Way. Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) is suspicious of Ernessa (Lily Cole), the new arrival at her boarding school.
But is Rebecca just jealous of Ernessa's bond with Lucie, or does the new girl truly possess a dark secret?
I feel like there was more to him than the film ever let on (should I read the book?).In fact, the film stumbles (in my opinion) because it has lots of loose ends, such as the scene with Rebecca's period (what was going on here?) and why does it matter that her father was a respected author?
They refer to Rebecca as a "college senior" (she is sixteen, in boarding school) and says that Ernessa may be a vampire -- she is not, nor does anyone ever think she is..
Ernessa Block (Lily Cole) is the new girl and she befriends Lucy to the dismay of Rebecca.
There is also a new teacher Mr. Davies (Scott Speedman) at the school.This could have been a creepy Gothic horror movie.
Good Mix of Horror and Art. The Moth Diaries (2011) *** (out of 4) Mary Harron's impressive re-telling of the Carmilla tale takes place in an all girls boarding school where Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) begins to feel that new girl Ernessa (Lily Cole) is killing her friends in some sort of weird attempt at getting to her.
I'm really a little surprised that this film drew such mixed reviews but I guess some are going to be disappointed that the horror elements aren't more graphic while others aren't going to be thrilled with teen vampires that aren't a part of the TWILIGHT crowd.
I'm not sure what boarding school this was but it's the darkest I've seen in any movie and the director did a terrific job at really making you feel the coldness on the inside.
I thought she was extremely good play the various emotions that her character has to and she easily carried the film.
THE MOTH DIARIES isn't a masterpiece but I think it's one of the better horror films in recent years..
And THE MOTH DIARIES isn't even particularly creepy or atmospheric to make up for it.The reliable Sarah Bolger (INTO THE BADLANDS) stars as a prim and proper young student who soon realises there's something odd about her new classmate, played by model Lily Cole (who's no actress on the strength of her non-performance here).
And whoever thought the scenes with the silly CGI moths were a good idea wants removing from the film industry..
I read a lot of teen books but not The Moth Diaries, going in to the movie I had no idea where it was heading.
Admittedly I was expecting a little more Single White Female and was surprised when the supernatural elements started appearing.I'm not sure Lily Cole was a good fit for this role.
That's just my personal opinion and I think the movie wanted me to believe Rebecca's story, despite the numerous weird hallucinations.
Overall, a fairly decent movie to watch if you're bored but I didn't feel like it went anywhere..
Mind you, it fits perfectly in the film as everything is diluted beyond value.Periodically we are treated to pained expressions from the 'actors' but, though they probably represent the sum total of the mastery of their craft, they are nothing compared to the agony my companion and I suffered.The Moth Diaries isn't even so awful it's good (in a Gigli kind of way).
If, unfathomably, you're intrigued then flick through the trailer but don't blow 82 minutes of your life on this tosh.To be fair, it's possibly the best film ever (since The Host) as long as you're a lobotomized twelve-year-old girl.For more reviews from The Squiss, subscribe to my blog and like the Facebook page..
Lily Coles performance alone makes this movie worth watching.
Going back to their boarding school for a new semester, a young girl finds that her best friend has fallen under the spell of a seductive newcomer and begins acting strangely under her spell while a rash of murders on campus point out the real truth behind the new student.This was a pretty disappointing and eventually not that worthwhile vampire effort that has precious little going for it.
While the romance and seduction of the student is nice, it's got the wrong victim as the lead is more damaged than the friend and is therefore more susceptible to the charms and advances, and moreso it doesn't show anything at all despite being set at an all-girls' boarding school as the whole romance takes place off-camera or behind closed doors.
I collect/watch films that have been adapted from book, whatever the genre so next on my list was The Moth Diaries.
I liked the look of the film and I thought the acting was decent throughout.
The latest The Moth Diaries, implies some aspects of being a vampire film, but could be misdirection to something completely different.The Moth Diaries follows a young girl at an all-girl boarding school who is haunted by her father's suicide.
Her friend slowly begins to abandon her as she becomes obsessed with this new girl leading her to thoughts of jealousy and suspicion that she may a vampire.
As the film moves forward you are thrust into these young girls lives with a gripping slow build up letting you know something else is going on, but not quite sure what.
Yeah there is an ending that is pretty clear with the exception of what really was going on and why which then made the film almost feel like a waste of time.There is a clear side by side story related to a book they are assigned in the film to the story itself, but almost seems to clutter what could have been a really intriguing twist on the genre.
"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.
This is a horror movie about an all girls high school.
The girl is Rebecca (Sarah Bolger), and she's still dealing with the trauma of losing her poet father to suicide, so she seems to invest all of her time and emotion into her friendship with fellow student Lucie (Sarah Gadon).
It's a new year, Rebecca has her circle of friends, there's a hot new English teacher at school (Scott Speedman), and by all accounts, it seems like it's going to be a great year for her.
Is Rebecca overreacting, or does Ernessa have ulterior motives?I'm going to be frank here; with Mary Harron (the woman behind "The Notorious Bettie Page" and "American Psycho") penning the screenplay for this and directing it, I expected more and got less.
Since the film is based on a book that was written in journal form, Harron opted to use internal dialogue and asides from the Rebecca character, drawn out of her diaries.
The incredibly good-looking Scott Speedman is awkward as the English professor whose oh-so-convenient literary insight provides the film's classic vampire arcs, but I think his on screen stiffness is more a fault of the script than his acting ability.
The Gothic overtones and the atmosphere of the school take center stage through the cinematography, and there are several sequences that do impress- the raining blood scene in the school library is the standout scene in the film; visually disturbing as well as thematically relevant.I'd also like to point out the very obvious allusions that the film makes, the biggest one being to Carmilla, the classic precursor to the vampire novel, and an inspiration for countless horror films.
Rebecca, living in an all girls boarding school, struggles with her sanity as she fears a roommate of hers is a vampire..
I feel like many people come into this movie with a set perspective because they see that its about vampires and they automatically associate it with the Twilight saga.
The film also has a ambiguous element to it, as you are constantly wondering whether Rebecca is mad or if Ernessa really is a vampire.
Fans of slasher films or torture porn certainly won't find what they're looking for in this movie, and for all that The Moth Diaries is marketed as a vampire film it's debatable--even doubtful--if it's really even that.
We're obviously being manipulated, and yet it's done with such passion and cleverness that we find we don't much care.Adapted from the novel by Rachel Klein, it tells the story of Rebecca (Sarah Bolger), a sixteen-year-old starting a new semester at a very posh all-girls' boarding school, which was a hotel over 100 years ago.
From her perspective, Ernessa is stealing Lucie away from her.The new English teacher, Mr. Davies (Scott Speedman), is an outspoken admirer of Rebecca's father.
Lily Cole and the actress who played the main character are pretty good.
The movie has Ernessa changing into moths, but again, we're not told why.
It lacks the silliness or shock tactics and silly romance of some of the other vampire movies jumping on the Twilight bandwagon.A subtly chilling atmosphere is set up in a girl's boarding school.
Sarah Gadon pale and beautiful plays Lucy a bright cheerful girl who befriends creepy looking newcomer Ernessa played by the strangest looking actress Lily Cole.
Lucy's friend and the central character is Rebecca played by the sweet Sarah Bolger.
Scott Speedman plays a new English teacher.Faults: a few too many dream/hallucinations.This isn't a big movie with lots of effects but it's well done in a classy way for the genre.
They'd just slip through the bars and then proceed to seek out new girls.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 thickest of us thick viewers had already figured it out an hour earlier.
plus a title similar to that of the TV series The Vampire Diaries, and a poster showing the face of a mysterious female vampire and promises of an interesting story.Sadly, this pathetic film is simply not my cup of tea.The acting on Rebecca's part is awful, awful, awful...
I thought there could be an epic battle somewhere towards the end, but then suddenly Ernessa was burnt and the film was over.Rebecca was an extremely annoying and irritating character, and I just hoped Ernessa could torture this lame girl to death slowly because that is what that awful awful awful Rebecca deserves.When I look at Rebecca's face on the poster, I only feel the sense of repulsion..
Much better premise than a generic vampire film like twilight.
As a fan of TV shows like the X-files I appreciated the mysterious approach to that aspect of the story.The main gripe I have with this film is it is simply not long enough.
The film itself is vampire cliché 101 and the acting is spotty at best.