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Candy Corn
USA 2019
produced by Josh Hasty, Courtney Gains, Matt O'Neill, James Claeys (executive), Tony Todd (executive), Johnny Cooper (executive), Lindsey Kowalski (executive), Justin Mabry (executive), Benjamin Scrivens (executive), Nick Ford (executive), Brandon Cooper (executive) for Local Boogeyman Productions, Dread Central
directed by Josh Hasty
starring Courtney Gains, Pancho Moler, P.J. Soles, Tony Todd, Nate Chaney, Jimothy Beckholt, Madison Russ, Cy Creamer, Caleb Thomas, Sky Elobar, Justin Mabry, Patrick Ryan, Matt O'Neill, Jaime Gallagher, Ben Grimm-Wilson, Lovlee Carroll, Daniel Ramirez, Aaron Lewis, Josh Arnold, James Claeys, Jessica Olmstead, Bo Cooper, Nick Ford, Colin MedicineHorse, Christopher Kucherer, Erik Porn, Jamaal Hollis
written by Josh Hasty, music by Michael Brooker, Josh Hasty
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Halloween's around the corner, and Mike (Jimothy Beckholt), Steve (Cy
Creamer), Bobby (Caleb Thomas) and Gus (Sky Elovar) have a weird
tradition, to beat up the local "freak", Jacob (Nate Chaney),
just because ... well, just because they're assholes I guess. Steve's
girlfriend Carol (Madison Russ) is dead set against it, but Steve insists
it's tradition, so they have to. Problem is, this year around, Jacob
fights back, which only makes the guys beat him even harder - and beat him
to death, actually. Carol is shocked, and eventually she reports
everything to the police, but since the Sheriff (Courtney Gains) is Mike's
dad, he doesn't take much action - sure he stops by the carnival Jacob has
recently started to work at, but when the carnival ringmaster "Dr.
Death" (Pancho Moler) tells him Jacob's fine, he doesn't investigate
any further. Dr. Death of course has sinister motives of his own, as he
resurrects Jacob from the dead to wage war against the outside world, as
in those who look down on him and his gang of carnival attractions, and he
lets Jacob start with taking those out who have murdered him. Confronted
with the murder spree, the Sheriff soon enough figures it must have
something to do with Jacob, but he cannot even begin to suspect the scope
of it all - until it is way too late ...
P.J. Soles plays the police station's dispatch, Tony Todd Dr. Death's
right-hand man.
If you haven't noticed already from my synopsis, Candy Corn
is a slasher movie, and as such, it ticks all the boxes, from a gruesome
killer to gory murders, (intentionally) annoying teens and baffled cops,
and a rather awesome line-up of genre veterans in guest roles is of course
an added bonus. What sets this movie apart from your usual genre fodder
though is a certain moral ambiguity: This isn't a simple case of good vs
evil, as in an eye-to-eye sort of way, the kids deserve what's coming to
them, and it's rather understandable that Jacob wants revenge on those who
have killed him. Likewise the Sheriff's more interested in shielding his
son than solving the crime, while Dr. Death's urge to protect his folks
against the ones who threaten them is at least understandable, even if his
methods are questionable. All that said, I wouldn't go as far as calling Candy
Corn a "thinking man's slasher", but it's really nice to see
a slasher that's not only effectively made but also has some depth to its
story!
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