THE DEVIL’S CANDY
US, 2015, 79 minutes, Colour.
Ethan Embry, Shiri Appleby, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Kiara Glasco, Tony Amendola, Leland Orsa.
Directed by Sean Byrne.
This is a brief, often graphic, horror film, quite effectively made in its genre, written and directed by Tasmanian, Sean Byrne, who had made number of short films and then the Australian feature, The Loved Ones. After The Devil’s Candy, no more filmmaking.
It has a strong cast, led by Ethan Embry (a long way from his previous juvenile roles) as a hippy style artist looking for a new house and a studio with his wife and daughter, Shiri Appleby and Kiara Glasco. The audience has seen his avant-garde style of painting.
The audience has also seen an insane fat man, Pruitt Taylor Vince, playing electric guitar, his mother pulling out the plug, his killing her, travelling to a motel, playing the guitar again with the police coming to warn him against the noise.
All seems reasonable with the new arrangement, the family moving in, the artist doing his work. However, he is troubled by voices, coming from the walls of the house which was previously home of the guitar player. We have seen a crucifix on the wall and its being turned upside down. We also hear the man in his motel room listening to a television broadcast with a priest explaining the action of the devil. There are also glimpses on television of papal ritual ceremonies.
The artist is possessed by the spirit of the sinister man who also comes to visit explaining that it is his family house – but he is rejected by the artist. The daughter is more sympathetic.
What happens is that the artist is possessed by the devil,, the spirit of the sinister man, who goes around abducting children from playgrounds, killing them, burying them. He then threatens the artist and daughter. While the artist is possessed, he loses a sense of time and his daughter is disappointed in him. But he also paints the crimes, the anguish of the abducted children, including his daughter. They escape his first attempt at attack, the police helping them, but those on guard outside the house killed and the man entering the house, tormenting the daughter, confronting the artist and his wife, shooting, setting the upstairs on fire – with the artists finally rescuing his daughter who has to leap through the flames.
The artist had been offered a financial deal by the manager of The Belial Art, himself a sinister devil figure.
Brief, grim, a rather creepy narrative and performance by Pruitt Taylor Vince, for horror fans only and very well-made for this target audience.
