The Hardest of Hard Candies

Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson took a look at and deconstructed the slasher film with Scream in the mid nineties. The characters where cannily switched on to the conventions of the staple of the horror genre and the culprits played up media obsession with the influence of violence on young minds.

It was a breath of fresh air in a tired market but if you really want to see the stalker sub genre turned inside out and upside down then it's 2005's Hard Candy you want to see.

Director David Slade and writer Brian Neslon (who later teamed up for the entertaining 30 Days Of Night) bring to screen a tale of a young girl and the older man she meets through an Internet chat room. In the first third of the film we feel uncomfortable as we try to figure the man's true intentions (is it really what we think it is and hope it isn't?) and squirm at the girl's flirtations as she seemingly seems intent on plunging herself headfirst out of her depth.

But as things progress as the tension remains constant new questions emerge about the intentions of the two parties. Slowly but surely the tables are turned and, as cliche as it to say it, the hunter becomes the hunted.



Suddenly we find ourselves both rooting for the girl but strangely also empathising with the man (whose intentions are still unclear) as he is chased, terrorised and tortures. Yes Sidney Prescott may have fought back but she never tied the killer down and exacted such shocking revenge.

Most would probably baulk at calling the film a horror but this two hander with excellent central performances from Ellen Page (forget Juno, this is what put her on the map) and Jeff Kohlver starts out with an uncomfortable tension and then ratchets it up from there, not once letting let go with even the lighter moments laced with threat and a sense of foreboding.

It truly does invert the traditional roles of the slasher film and plays out the scenario intelligently enough to leave the audience unsure as to whose side they should be on. Highly recommend but be warned it is a tense experience and one sequence in particular goes far and beyond Reservoir Dogs' infamous ear cutting.