Something has gone very wrong.
We’re never told exactly what it might have been, but civilization is gone and all that remains are a few scattered survivors trying to eke out an existence in the wastelands, the gangs, and the zombie-like supplicants (apparently so named because they go around on all fours like they’re begging).
Molly is one of the lonely survivors, but there is something special about her — special enough that Deacon wants her. He plans to have her battle in his arena where he stages deadly fights between supplicants.
None of his agents have ever been able to capture her, though — until, that is, Molly adopts a child whose parents have vanished.
They grab the kid and Molly comes after them.
But it doesn’t quite work out the way they expect.
Molly was the creation of Belgian writer/director Thijs Meuwese and his co-director, Colinda Bongers, who supposedly made the film on a very small budget.
I say “supposedly” because the two get a ridiculous amount of film out of their tiny budget, enough that you start wondering how they did it.
Thijs had a much bigger and more extravagant film in mind, but he found that he could instead get the backing for something a bit smaller instead. So he took the world he’d created, and came up with a smaller film which actually takes place after the film he wanted to make, in the hope that he would get to make his bigger film.
And what do you know, it worked.
Thijs made Kill Mode just last year, with Julia Batelaan back, reprising her roll as Molly.
And you know I’m going to have to watch it sooner rather than later.
After all, with an impressive advertisement like this, you just can’t say no.
It starts small enough, with Molly scrounging for treasures in the wilderness, but the fights get bigger and more complex as the film progresses, culminating in an epic battle which rages throughout Deacon’s headquarters in one, long, uninterrupted thirty-two minute take. Yeah, we know there’s a bit of digital editing here to create that magic take.
Now I really don’t get the impression that Julia Batelaan, who plays Molly, is an exceptionally good fighter but she plays her with undistilled ferocity, full of desperation and sheer drive. It leaves her fumbling at times and she gets hurt when she makes mistakes, but Molly always returns doggedly to the attack, no matter how bad her injuries are.
It is that very combination of desperation and vulnerability which makes us root for Molly. She seems little more than a child herself — even if it’s a child with knives, guns and homemade swords, who leaves a trail of bodies in her wake.
And that really is the best summary of this film: an appealing, childlike and vulnerable girl takes on impossible odds to save someone she loves — even though she barely knows her.
Only with superpowers.
rivets on the poster 
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