The Devil's Candy (2017)
Horror
Directed By: Sean Byrne
How many horror films have you seen in the past five years that center around a family moving into a new home only to find it haunted by something sinister? It's a common plot device of the genre and we've seen it played out in dozens of different ways, yet The Devil's Candy offers us an entirely new look at the "haunted house" story. The second feature from writer/director Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones) takes us down a new path of demonic heavy metal horror we haven't traveled before.
Jesse Hellman (Ethan Embry) is a hardcore metalhead and professional painter struggling to get by and support his family. This leads him to take his wife Astrid (Shiri Appleby) and daughter Zooey (Kiara Glasco) and move into a new home in rural Texas. They get the house for a deal because, full disclosure, two old people recently passed away inside of it. It isn't long after moving in that Jesse starts to hear demonic voices in his head pushing him to do things he cannot understand. That's it, that's all you need to know and anything more would be detrimental to your viewing of this movie.
This is an atmospheric film, often times finding much of its tension in the fact that we as an audience know something bad is going to happen, but not knowing exactly what. From the moment this family moves into the house, we are aware that things are going to go poorly for them, but it could be in any number of ways. This instantly put me on edge watching this movie and once the story falls into place this feeling is only heightened by what's going on. It's a stress inducing film in the best way and it's sure to have you yelling at the characters for doing something you don't approve of.
Sean Byrne has delivered a clever script that turns an age-old horror trope on its head and is only topped by his execution of the idea. This is a movie that easily could have failed if it weren't made with total confidence and thankfully Byrne is all in on this story. You buy that this "metal" family would move out to the country for a fresh start and that they would continue to make the poor decisions they do.
The cast is headed by familiar face Ethan Embry (Cheap Thrills) who gives a fantastic performance as Jesse, the father. You latch on to his character early on and because of it are constantly rooting for him to beat the demonic voices throughout. His relationship with the daughter played wonderfully by Kiara Glasco is where the audience will find its big emotional connection as you feel their relationship crumbling as the film goes on. Its great character work and without it this film would fail to have much of an impact at all.
Though I don't want to say anything about his character specifically, it would be criminal not to mention the performance of Pruitt Taylor Vince. Once you watch the film and see who he is and what he's doing you will understand, he gives a haunting performance that is sure to stick with you. It's definitely stuck with me as this film had me on edge for the entire eighty minutes. I never knew who was safe or what was going to happen and because of it, I was treated to an intense movie watching experience.
If you were wary of another "haunted house" story that would play out like the dozen you've seen over the past few years, you can breathe a sigh of relief and go into this movie with confidence that you will be shown something fresh. They hook you with an old school story and then win you over with a clever new take on where it should go. The Devil's Candy is stress inducing in the best way, the way that makes the whole movie feel like a ride, and you will be exhausted by the end of it.
As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!
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