The Moth Diaries
IFC Films | Release Date: April 20, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
38
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
5
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Boxoffice MagazineJoseph Jon LanthierApr 15, 2012
With bubbles of nascent arousal frothing at the film's feminine surface, Moth Diaries' commercial potential is likely to hinge on whether or not audiences can stand to be confronted with the confusion they felt as adolescents. Read full review
70
MovielineStephanie ZacharekApr 19, 2012
It offers glancing pleasures of the atmospheric kind – the impact is the equivalent of a filmy cobweb brushing against your cheek. It tickles more than it bites. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineAndrew SchenkerApr 14, 2012
This is one vampire film whose sexless, generic ending betrays a promise of revisionist complexity. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisApr 19, 2012
Roiling with jealousy, suicide and latent lesbian urges, The Moth Diaries dances on the border between hallucination and reality without fully committing to either. Yet the film's narrative frailties are offset by impeccable performances and a consistently eerie tone, helped along by a location as forbidding as the "Overlook." Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumApr 14, 2012
Her (Harron) torpid adaptation of Rachel Klein's novel about female sexual desire, jealousy, death wishes, and vampires at a girls' boarding school defeats Harron's talent for exploring darkness on the edge of kinkiness. Read full review
40
TimeRichard CorlissApr 23, 2012
All three give performances that would suit a better movie than this pallid shocker with little heart and no bite. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterNeil YoungApr 15, 2012
Suspenseless, uninvolving and underdeveloped, it wastes the talents of an almost entirely distaff cast that deserves much stronger material. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangApr 15, 2012
The body count runs high at Brangwyn boarding school, but tension, surprise and viewer interest are the real casualties in The Moth Diaries. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasApr 18, 2012
Writer-director Mary Harron, a supremely intelligent adaptor who did wonders with the screen version of Bret Easton Ellis' "American Psycho," simply doesn't have the chops to give this story the florid kick it needs. Read full review
30
Village VoiceNick SchagerApr 17, 2012
There's no surer way to murder horror than to literalize it, a mistake incessantly made by The Moth Diaries. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubAug 9, 2012
Way too serious for its own good. The best vampire movies are some combination of sexy, scary or campy. This one is 100 percent earnest, and the hazy mysteries taken from Rachel Klein's book aren't strong enough to keep the audience engaged. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 19, 2012
Director Mary Harron ("American Psycho") can do little with this bloodless drama. Read full review
20
Time OutDavid FearApr 17, 2012
They've taken an intriguing story about female neuroses with gothic overtones and turned it into a graceless, butt-ugly attempt at Twilight-lite. Read full review
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