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The Devil's Candy
USA 2015
produced by Jess Calder, Keith Calder for Snoot Entertainment
directed by Sean Byrne
starring Ethan Embry, Kiara Glasco, Shiri Appleby, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Deborah Abbott, Tony Amendola, Arthur Dale, Diane Dearsan, Jack Dullnig, Ken Gaston-Kilgore, Shiela Bailey Lucas, J. Alan Nelson, Craig Nigh, Leland Orser, Marco Perella, Richard Rollin, Mylinda Royer, Ash Thapliyal, Jamie Tisdale, Jose Villareal, Orion West
written by Sean Byrne, music by Mads Heldtberg, Michael Yezerski
review by Mike Haberfelner
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For long now, Ray (Pruitt Taylor Vince) has been hearing voices that
told him to kill and bury children, to this way feed them to the devil,
voices that seemed to originate from the house he lived in with his
parents. This eventually got him to jail, and when he came out he killed
his parent but made it look like an accident and suicide. Then he ran -
but couldn't escape the voices other than playing his electric guitar
really loudly ... which not everybody approved of, understandably. Now
Jesse (Ethan Embry) moves into Ray's house with his wife Astrid (Shiri
Appleby) and daughter Zooey (Kiara Glasco) - and he hears the voices too,
but being a painter of the heavy metal variety, he takes the voices for
inspiration for truly nightmarish paintings. Eventually, Ray returns home,
but at first Jesse throws him out, then when he breaks in to kidnap Zooey,
he's chased away by the police ... but the next day, he manages to pick
her up from school when Jesse is late due to a car accident, and only by
luck does Zooey manage to make an escape. But when she and Astrid are
packing their things to leave the place for good (and thus shake Ray), he
manages to get a hold on Zooey again - and this time he's brought a can of
petrol and a lighter ... Now I have to say, The Devil's
Candy is not the most perfect of films, it's not quite free of
clichés, the heavy metal references seem a bit forced at times, and
especially the happy ending seems rather forced - but dang is it scary.
Now the situation of a family threatened by a psycho might not be
especially novel, but Pruitt Taylor Vince's overpowering physique fits the
character rather perfectly, while his performance evokes sympathy, making
his character all the creepier. Plus, his actions all are of an extreme
gruesomeness, without being just sensationalist. So don't expect a
masterpiece ... but expect to leave your light on when going to sleep
after watching that one for a whole week just as well.
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