The Moth Diaries

Way too serious for its own good.

Roiling with jealousy, suicide and latent lesbian urges, "The Moth Diaries" dances on the border between hallucination and reality without fully committing to either.

The Moth Diaries fails to frighten, titillate or otherwise engage the imagination.

Harron can do little with this bloodless drama, a shadow of such quiet vampire treats as "Let the Right One In" and "The Addiction."

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.

Where are the shivers? The girls are properly fragile, ethereal and neurotic, but the way Ms. Harron gingerly moves them around like porcelain dolls is too careful to stir up much terror.

Vamps-fans won't find much to gnaw on here.

I'd give this moth-eaten nonsense a miss.

There's a terrific sense of menace in this gothic dramatic thriller, which plays on the story's fantasy elements to take us into a teen girl's troubled imagination. It's beautifully shot too.

A redundant teen-horror romp which, in the space of its slender running time, actually begins to make you pine for the return of Bella and Edward.

The lacklustre script is so determined to spell out thoughts and emotions that it becomes insulting.

Like the central character, it's difficult to convince ourselves that this sinister nastiness isn't really happening. So we get increasingly unnerved as the story progresses.