"Hard Candy" (2005) - Movie Review

I am not a big fan of horror movies which I have said in some other review of mine too. The idea of seeing gruesome disturbing material takes time to recede away and I feel it is not worth it. Still, now and then I tend to risk myself to go through that. Curiosity, I guess. “Final Destination” is one such movie and I do not resent watching it. It is cleverly and brilliantly made thriller with a horror inexplicable. And similarly Ram Gopal Varma’s “Kaun” (Who) (Language – Hindi) with a diabolical comic effect enthralled me. After that I never got a chance to see a thriller/horror movie which made an impact. “Hard Candy” is one of the best thriller/horror movies I have seen.

We see naïve but smart looking kid Hayley (Ellen Page) meeting with a well grown up man Jeff (Patrick Wilson) after an internet chat. She is 14 years old but looks old enough to pass for 18. She marvelously speaks up with a material knowledge far for her age. This obviously seems to impress Jeff who knows what he is dealing. Hayley want to get into Jeff’s place and even though Jeff knows that is a bad idea, seem to fall for it or may be he wants it. There Hayley is a young girl curious enough to know about things. She likes Jeff and looks and appears jealous over the photos he has over the walls. Jeff is a photographer and he says that he shoots photographs of quite younger kids than Hayley. Hayley with her innocent charm and clever eyes beckons to be photographed. He hesitates but he wants to. He lets her mix his drink’s up and suddenly he falls unconscious. Then we see a Hayley so different and devilish to imagine. Things are not so naïve any more and this is going to be bloody, scary and painful.

The camera handling and the colour tone is the first and foremost thing any one gets attached upon. It is bright and colourful. It is dark and creepy. The colour complexion used in gives a modern look. It is attractive and mystical. Something very similar to the theme and as such the character of Hayley. She is smart and calculative, not because of her careful execution of exactly performing the tasks in a well known way to Jeff but even before that when she is talking at the coffee shop. She correctly borders herself into the lines of being mature for her age and also childish. And Ellen Page is innocent, smart and deviously vicious to give that character. She moves and surfs around the house as a normal teenage kid curiously looking for something, but out here she is not looking out for curiosity. Here she is with a plan and we never know the depth of her. We know that what she is doing is sick and evil.

At the same time, Jeff is a complex layered character as well. He is fishy but the instances and pictures just reveal he is sexually and emotionally lonely. And with a profession to photograph the models, it is matter of time to tick upon reminding the loneliness he is going through. Every one will be wondering with the performance of Ellen Page that they might easily miss this guy. In all credit to her, his character is extremely tough to play. He needs to be a victim and totally helpless. He needs to express the humiliation and the pain. His job is monstrous and he excels it.

There are gruesome scenes. It did trouble me very badly. But there is something very significant about this. It is totally shocking to see director David Slade make me sit through one of the brutal scenes in the movie. They do not show blood but we know what it is. We do not want Hayley doing that to Jeff but a movie like this, it is bound to happen. Jeff tries to fight his way out, talk his way out, pleads but at one point he lay still with a smile on his face. And we see Hayley without any regards of it, continues. At that moment we are in the state of Jeff. We are as helpless as him in stopping it. We are with him. We sit through it, not enjoying it but we are made immovable. It is scary as hell and yet we face it.

The movie while constantly closes up with Hayley and Jeff has a purpose. There is something deeper running through out here. It is not just some torture fest Hayley is enjoying. The plot adds more to that. It might not shock many people as some would expect. The director removes the moral factor in the actions of both the characters. The doubt of who is right and wrong runs all along it. We are pathetic of Jeff but he is not the decent matured guy he looks or acts. We constantly fear what might happen because of the genre. We expect to see blood and flesh. The director initially comforts us that there is not going to be any but increases the pulse consistently to keep us fearful. “Hard Candy” is the best thriller and horror movie I have seen in recent times. It is gory but not the way you will expect. In most of the horror movies even though there runs a blood rampage which is sickening, the curiosity and something running on screen makes some of them to not flinch their face. But immediately in a while quite involuntarily we do it. Here our mind says to flinch all the time but we never do it. It is the cushion factor the director gives as a tease. We trust him that he might not do it, but you never know, like Hayley.