Review of Hard Candy (2005) by Nick O — 29 Jul 2012

Is there anything more insanely scary than your private pleasures betraying you and becoming your worst fucking nightmare? That hits both ends of the stick. Shit becomes self-aware and ready to blame, and there you are, pants down and hands elsewhere than the cookie jar.

That's why throughout David Slade's "Hard Candy" it plays like turning tricks in hell. Slade and screenwriter Brian Nelson give us a devastating indie built of psychological set pieces that wouldn't feel out of place in "Seven", sun-soaked images of innocent afternoons and Tuscan-like skies.

I'd be loath to say more. The third act uses more conventional horror tropes, but Page and Wilson are so convincing in the lead roles it's impossible to come up for air even when all's said and done.

Try forgetting about it.