Candy Land Review

Candy Land review.

Candy Land is a surprisingly straightforward slasher with an old school feel. On the surface it pits cult religious puritanism against the perceived sin of sex work. Quietly, it’s about family and acceptance.

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Candy Land

Directed by John Swab

Written by John Swab

Starring Olivia Luccardi, William Baldwin, Sam Quartin, Owen Campbell, Virginia Rand and Guinevere Turner

Candy Land Review

The sex workers and their clients in Candy Land are being judged…but rarely by the film itself.  Unless you happen to be a part of a religious cult or partake in the sex trade…you aren’t really represented in the story.  It’s done for simplicities sake, of course.  But it feels strange to have only three types of people ever appear in the story.  People who looking for sex, people providing sex for money, and people who view the transaction as a sin before God.  It doesn’t request the view or opinion of anyone else.  Even the sheriff, in place to represent the law of the land, fits into one of these categories.

When Remy (Olivia Luccardi) is cast out of her religious cult, she falls in with a group of truck stop sex workers.  The catch is that in order to stay and be a part of this new family…everyone must work.  While struggling between the beliefs of the family that threw her out and the one that took her in…someone starts to pick off clients one by one.  Permanently.

Traditionally, a movie with a set up like this would be a mystery slasher.  Candy Land dispels the mystery almost immediately.  We get our answer after only a couple of scenes.  It’s a bold move to immediately defy audience expectations as it does.  Even leaving a mystery for a couple more kills would have been understandable.  Candy Land wants you to understand exactly who is doing this…and why.  It certainly helps that the most memorable kill in the movie is the one that reveals whodunnit.

Narratively, it makes more sense for the movie to have you follow the killer’s journey at that point.  It strengthens the story’s message and leads to a great climax.  The power of the final chapters of Candy Land would be undercut some if we were dealing with a clumsy late act reveal of what we would have no doubt figured out by then anyway.  Still, it’s to writer/director John Swab’s credit that he confidently pushes forward with a more straightforward approach…stripped of the smoke and mirrors the genre usually relies on.

Swab takes his time with the first act of Candy Land.  He guides us trough his world of truck stop sex workers, letting us spend time with the characters.  These include Sadie (Sam Quartin), Riley (Eden Brolin), Liv (Virginia Rand) and male prostitute Levi (Owen Campbell).  They are an unconventional family who look after each other.  Each is given at least a little something to flesh out their character.  Levi may be the most interesting just given the nature of facing different risks and challenges throughout the story. 

After dispatching of some patrons…the sex workers inevitably become targets.  This is where Candy Land raises the bar for itself.  Swab opts to portray scenes with realism instead of the heightened slasher movie standard.  There’s no suspenseful chase or slow stalking.  Just the swift, brutal death of characters we assumed would eventually be gotten to.  But he doesn’t stop there.  He saves his finest two decisions for the end of the film.  We can’t go into specifics for obvious reasons, but Candy Land ends on a couple of high notes.  Notes played by a musician who isn’t interested in copying the usual final girl/killer song.

True to its vision from beginning to end, Candy Land invites us into a world we probably don’t know much about.  It accepts us into the world despite our background, much like it does Remy.  Candy Land doesn’t shy away from the risk of sex work or showing us the work that is being done.  It also doesn’t stop to crack a smile, much less a joke.  It takes its story seriously…perhaps a little too seriously to be as entertaining as it could have been.  But that’s also what makes it work.  It isn’t showing us lives filled with joy and humor. It isn’t interested in delivering a movie that inserts tricks and jokes so it can be more traditionally entertaining or comfortable.  What it is interested in doing, however, it does well. 

Scare Value

Candy Land doesn’t waste much time revealing who is behind the murders at the truck stop. It could have carried it further and added a layer of mystery to the proceedings. But mystery isn’t the point of Candy Land. It has a more purposeful message under the surface than holding out to surprise you. Candy Land finds its shock value in the suddenness of death and how fragile we are when alone.

3.5/5

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Candy Land Trailer

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