The Moth Diaries takes place at Brangwyn School, an exclusive prep facility. Rebecca (Sarah Bolger) is returning for her second year at the school and can't wait to see her best friend, Lucie (Sarah Gadon). The two are reunited and find that they are suitemates. Rebecca looks forward to a great year with Lucie and their other friends, Dora (Melissa Farman), Charlie (Valerie Tian), and Sofia (Laurence Hamelin), and leaving behind her troubled past, which included the suicide death of her father, who was a respected poet. However, things change abruptly when Ernessa (Lily Cole) moves in across the hall. She is quiet and strange and Rebecca immediately distrusts her. Lucie, on the other hand, takes an immediate liking to Ernessa and the two begin to spend a lot of time together. Feeling shunned by her best friend doesn't help Rebecca's feelings toward Ernessa. Things get worse when people begin to die on campus and Lucie becomes physically weak and apathetic. Rebecca begins to suspect that in addition to being a nuisance that Ernessa may be a supernatural creature.

Based on a novel by Rachel Klein, The Moth Diaries takes an interesting look at how young women interact. Sequestered at this boarding school, their lives revolve around each other, and emotions run high. Rebecca becomes very jealous about how Lucie and Ernessa bond, and that jealousy quickly grows into paranoia as Rebecca becomes convinced that there is something which is not quite right about the new girl. At first, others dismiss Rebecca's feelings as simple jealousy. They then point to the fact that she's yet to get over her father's death, thus leading to odd, perhaps even psychotic thoughts. Instead of convincing others that Lucie needs help, Rebecca's behavior begins to separate her from the other girls and draw the ire of the staff. Even the deaths on campus don't raise the red flags which Rebecca wants. Granted, we are seeing the events through Rebecca's eyes and we must trust her views, but the movie does a good job of showing how girls this age run hot and cold and can easily turn on one another.

While the film does a fine job showing how teenage girls interact, screenwriter/director Marry Harron can't decide exactly what kind of movie she wants The Moth Diaries to be. At the outset, this seems to be another prep school drama. However, it soon becomes clear that Rebecca is convinced that Ernessa is a supernatural creature, perhaps a vampire like the ones she's learning about in lit class. It's clear that the film's goal is to be somewhat ambiguous...save for two scenes which clearly show Ernessa doing something unearthly. So, that whole ambiguity thing sort of goes out the window (or through it). Then it becomes a question of whether or not Rebecca is crazy...except the film never really pushes this point. Others wonder if Rebecca is OK, but as far as the audience is concerned, she's perfectly sane. Harron will take the movie down one path and then decide to go elsewhere. These aren't plot twists, they're simply meanderings. This made weirder when a few scenes feel as if they've been edited in out of order.

But, it's the ending which ruins the movie. The Moth Diaries has gotten some low ratings on-line and I guarantee that a lot them are tied to the finale. After creating a sense of tension and introducing us to some interesting characters, the ending simply goes nowhere. It's both to the point and ambiguous, leaving us with little idea of what did happen and what is going to happen. In short, it won't satisfy anyone. There's nothing worse than a movie being ruined by a bad ending, especially one like this which has a nice location, good acting, and an intriguing story. If you go in with lowered expectations, you'll find a movie which puts a dark, gothic twist on the "mean girls" formula, but can maintain the tension throughout.

The Moth Diaries makes you wonder what school for girls has a vampire novel class on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of IFC Films/MPI Media. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 25 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no overt grain and no defects from the source material. The colors look good, especially the red blood in very, very bloody scene, but the image is somewhat dark at times. The picture is nicely detailed, and depth is very nice is some shots, especially the exteriors on the school lawn. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are handled well, especially when Rebecca hears sounds coming from Lucie's room. The surround sound effects come into play during crowd scenes and during the "supernatural encounters". I didn't note much in the way of overt subwoofer effects, although this shouldn't imply that there was a lack of bass.

The Moth Diaries Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. "Behind the Scenes" (18 minutes) contains interviews with the cast and filmmakers. We hear how the project began and the actors then discuss their characters. The piece then looks at director Mary Harron and her working style. We then go on-set to see how two of the film's main set-pieces were pulled off. "Video Diaries" (13 minutes) offers on-set videos shot by the actresses. Most of this is silly, but we do get some interesting comments here and there. "Featurette" (2 minutes) is simply a brief EPK which comments the same comments heard in the "Behind the Scenes" segment. The final extra is a TRAILER for the film.