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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!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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