Director: Becca Hirani (as Rebecca Matthews)
Year: 2020
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural Slasher
Plot:
After hearing reports of a local haunting, a ghost hunter and his girlfriend decide to head over to investigate where they find evidence that a malicious spirit called The Candy Witch is haunting the family for a past indiscrimination against her and must protect them from the spirit.
For the most part, this one was a solid and enjoyable effort. Among the brightest aspects here is the general air of dread and suspense throughout which is highly enjoyable. There’s some fantastic atmosphere created here through the witch’s sudden appearances and stalking unaware victims which are often shot in the dark or under a sudden change of the situation, making the opening sequence of the woman trying to find a potential disturbance only to be confronted by the being, a fine series of encounters inside the house as they set up their investigations or the series of appearances around the village feature some chilling moments.
That turns into plenty of fun once this one lets loose and decides to move away into more vicious encounters. Even though it’s nonlethal, the bathtub encounter with the blood in the water and the figure standing over him gets quite creepy, and the series of attacks throughout the rest of the film are just as good. The theme of using candy as killing tools is quite original as it manages to produce some inventive kills and attacks which is a rather novel time where characters are killed by being boiled alive in chocolate, getting their flesh ripped out using cookie cutters, stabbed with a pointed candy cane or stuffed with cotton candy. The last plus here is the fun investigation angle being employed here, where there’s a fun mystery about the true nature of the haunting and what’s going on in the family’s experiences, making for some enjoyable elements in the film.
There are some issues with this one. Among its biggest factors is the completely underwhelming and barely noticeable main player in the film who doesn’t really do anything special to showcase his supposed abilities. Much is made about the gift he’s supposed to have, yet there’s very little evidence of that throughout here, settling instead for having him sense something is off yet nothing more happens, it’s dropped entirely to focus on the girlfriend who’s much more proactive and he comes off bland as a result. As well, the film’s obvious low-budget limitations shine through where the overall lack of gore in the kills, the weak effects, and the overall look of this one just screams low-budget indie. This might not be a true detriment to some but it’s enough to lower this one somewhat.
Overview: ***/5
While there are some minor issues that do hold this one down, for the most part, this one manages to have enough to like about it that it serves as a watchable enough genre effort. Give this a look if you're a fan of these low-budget genre efforts or a fan of the creative crew while those who aren't into this type should be somewhat cautious here.
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