The Devil's Candy (2015)


REVIEWER RATING: 
7/10


After debuting with The Loved Ones back in 2009 Australian director Sean Byrne is finally back with his second feature, The Devil's Candy. It was clear from his debut that he was a filmmaker to keep an eye on and while I didn't find this to be quite as good as his freshman effort, it's still another solid genre piece to add to his resume.

The movie mainly focuses on a young family, specifically the heavily-tattooed artist father played by a nearly unrecognizable Ethan Embry, who recently moved his wife (Shiri Appleby) and teenage daughter to an old farm house and now uses the nearby barn as his painting studio. Meanwhile, a hulking mentally disturbed man named "Ray" can't stop hearing voices--voices that tell him to do heinous unspeakable acts to people and unbeknownst to the family, they're living in Ray's old home and he intends on going back to it.



Part possession flick, serial killer movie and home invasion thriller, The Devil's Candy is a really slowburn watch that may turn some people off by its pacing. I actually didn't mind it since the characters were interesting enough and director Sean Byrne managed to deliver a clever mix of metal music and horror, thanks to the music played occasionally throughout the movie and the uneasy foreboding atmosphere that's prevalent from start to finish.

Sadly the body count is minimal, along with the gore, but the short bursts of violence it offers works best with the overall tone and story, so it's not a completely negative aspect. Ethan Embry does a pretty stellar job as the father that just wants to do right by his family, but things (or voices) keep getting in his way and slowly begins to torment him over time, as evil voices tend to do. As far as the scares go, the filmmakers seemed to opt for atmosphere over scares, as there really weren't any, at least none that I noticed.

While not as good as director Sean Byrne's past effort (The Loved Ones), The Devil's Candy is a solid slowburn horror flick that successfully blends several subgenres together, resulting in an uneasy and very atmospheric watch.
OVERALL: 
While not as good as director Sean Byrne's past effort (The Loved Ones), The Devil's Candy is a solid slowburn horror flick that successfully blends several subgenres together, resulting in an uneasy and very atmospheric watch.


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