The Devil's Candy

This creepy satanic horror from 2015, infused with a generous dose of heavy metal, has recently been released as a Dual Format 4K UHD/Blu-ray Limited Edition and as a Dual Format Standard Edition. Pruitt Taylor Vince delivers a nightmarish performance as a deeply disturbed individual under the spell of ‘Him’.

Raymond Smilie (Pruitt Vincent Taylor) lives with his mother in an isolated country house in a rural part of Texas. Thing is, Raymond is no longer a teenager and right from the outset we guess correctly that judging from his entire behaviour he seems to be a  troubled individual, to put it mildly… Overweight, odd and altogether creepy in his demeanour. An obvious loner who doesn’t appear to have any friends and well, he doesn’t. Apart from mother (and we all know how that usually ends, in horror films anyway) and ‘Him’ (take a wild guess who ‘Him’ is). ‘Him’ talks to Raymond and whispers weird s**t to him. Not really of course, but in Raymond’s mind he does. In order to ignore the voices, he cranks up his Flying V electric guitar and plays metal music extremely loud in front of an upside down crucifix on the wall (as you do). When Raymond’s long-suffering Mum enters his room and asks him to turn the noise down, he tries to explain that the music is loud so he doesn’t have to listen to ‘Him’. Poor Mum has just signed her death warrant by suggesting to Raymond he needs to return to the local mental hospital, and minutes later he pushes the poor woman down the stairs and she is no longer. Wandering off into the night, wearing his bright red track suit (the colour red is always a giveaway in films with a satanic theme) and his Flying V (also bright red), the corpse of Raymond’s mother is discovered some time later. 

A few months have passed since the grisly and tragic events took place, and the house is up for grabs surprisingly cheap. Cue for Jesse Hellman (Ethan Embry), a heavy metal lover and painter yet to make his big entrance in the fickle world of art, his wife Astrid (Shiri Appleby) and their teenage daughter Zooey (Kiaro Glasco), who takes after daddy when it comes to her taste in music. The estate agent deliberately lies to them (don’t they aways) by claiming the previous residents were an old woman who died falling down the stairs, and as a consequence, her husband killed herself as he couldn’t cope with the tragedy. And what a bargain the house is! After some hesitation, the Hellman family agree to the purchase and move into their new home, delighting in adding their own personal touches. At first, they are blissfully happy, in particular Jesse, who has plenty of space and privacy to get cracking on new paintings. He hopes to impress Leonard (Tony Amendola), the owner of the Belial art gallery (look up Belial and you’ll know what kind of man Leonard is…). Together with his young female assistant (yes, another one with red hair and a red dress…) they have rejected Jesse’s paintings so far, but that’s about to change because by coincidence (nah, not really) Jesse discovers a crucifix-shaped big stain on the wall, it’s the one from Raymond’s former room. Before Jesse can say ‘Beelzebub’, he too begins to hear voices and his entire style of painting begins to change, much to the shock of wife Astrid. 

Meanwhile, Raymond, currently dwelling in a motel room where he listens to either demonic messages on tape or watches TV-preachers on the idiot box, decides to visit the Hellmans. When he rings the doorbell, the unassuming Zooey opens, with Jesse and Astrid curious as to who rang. When Raymond utters that this is his former house and he needs to return home, it’s obvious that he is a confused individual who borders on unhinged and when Jesse, who explains that this is now his family home, threatens with calling the police, Raymond leaves. For now. Soon we find out though just how unhinged he really is, because ‘Him’ orders him to kill children (the 'devil’s candy'), whose corpses he dismembers and packs away in suitcases, which he buries in the surrounding area. When Jesse’s paintings begin to look ever more alarming, in one case he paints dead children with demonic faces, it’s clear he no longer has any control over what he’s painting though it goes without saying that gallery owner Leonardo is finally impressed! We never quite find out what the link is between him and the voices Raymond hears in his head. Raymond also leaves his Flying V guitar at the garden fence of the Hellmans and when Zooey spots it, she wants it, with dad putting his foot down. Things then begin to get from creepy to very nasty indeed, namely when Raymond attempts to kidnap Zooey to add to his buried suitcase collection though luckily, her screams waken her parents and Raymond flees into the night. Despite her being placed under witness protection, Raymond makes another attempt in kidnapping the frightened teenager and this time succeeds. The scene in which a terrified Zooey, who is bound head to toe with gaffa tape and held captive in Raymond’s bathroom, desperately tries to free herself while he gets ready to dismember her with his saw, has got to be among the tensest in the entire film. Incredibly, Zooey manages to free herself and escape through the bathroom window by the skin of her teeth but Raymond won’t give up easily… The climax is admittedly far-fetched but it's nail-biter fur sure. 

This is really gripping stuff with convincing performances by all and Pruitt Taylor Vince, no stranger when it comes to playing disturbed psychos, terrifies from the moment he appears on screen. Maybe the various nods to the devil (red guitar, red tracksuit, the gallery assistant’s red hair and sexy red dress etc) are too many obvious nods, then again, director Sean Byrne clearly had fun with it. Or perhaps he simply likes the colour red.
Plenty of bonus material here, including a rigid slipcase with a 120-page booklet and six art cards (Limited Edition). Other special features (both editions) include audio commentaries, interviews, Behind-the-Scenes featurette plus two shorts by Sean Byrne.