Scott Speedman, Lily Cole & Sarah Bolger Join Mary Harron’s Lesbian Vampire Flick, ‘The Moth Diaries’

After a five year vacation from cinema (ten if you don’t count “The Notorious Bettie Page,” which no one will judge you for), indie filmmaker Mary Harron (“American Psycho“) is finally set to return for “The Moth Diaries,” a gothic-horror based on the debut novel by Rachel Klein. The cast has just been announced: Scott Speedman (“The Strangers“), Lily Cole (“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus“), Sarah Gadon (“Charlie Bartlett“) and Sarah Bolger (the little lead girl from “In America” all grown up). Bolger will play the main student, with Gadon and Cole playing the two colleagues that capture her interest. Speedman is a professor Bolger’s character has the hots for.

The book follows a sixteen-year-old girl at an exclusive boarding school and her obsession with her roommate, Lucy, and a new classmate named Ernessa. The mystery behind this new student, such as why she has a moody aura about her and has pale skin, is all recounted in the narrator’s diary, which shapes the structure and POV of the story. The mystery only deepens when the inexplicable relationship between Lucy and Ernessa develops, Lucy begins looking and acting more like her friend, and fear spreads throughout the boarding school.

To put it simply, we have another vampire movie on our hands.Ugh. We would love to get behind Harron on this one, but the subject matter has been creatively bankrupt for a long time now and it really doesn’t seem like the source material will be taking this to new or even interesting levels. In fact, in an interview with ScreenDaily, Harron seems a little too excited about such mediocre material: “This is a chillingly atmospheric horror story with real emotional depth. I’ve tried to stay true to Rachel Klein’s novel in the way it re-works and updates the Gothic tradition and the whole notion of girl-on-girl vampires.” Lesbian vampires honestly aren’t as emotionally deep as filmmakers seem to think.

Sure, “American Psycho” was great: it had a bizarre tone, upbeat yet deranged, that Harron masterfully carried throughout. It also had solid acting with some truly memorable performances and scenes. But let’s not forget that its source material also had depth to it, and that it was a fresh take on the serial killer milieu. It doesn’t seem that Harron wants to push “The Moth Diaries” to new levels, which is a shame because this is the exact kind of film that needs energy. Judging from the quote, Harron is only interested in making a straight up horror film. And, of course, girl-on-girl vampires. Sigh, has it come to this for struggling indie filmmakers these days? We weep for what reeks of C-level “Twilight” nonsense.

Currently shooting in Montreal, the film will wrap principal photography around October 8th.