Horror in Short: Candy (2010)
Horror in Short: Candy
Directed by Sage Hall
Starring: Sage Hall, Jesse Kozel, Jenny Beres
Runtime: 8:09
Review by Marc Patterson
This past week I got to sit down to view a retro-flavored horror comedy that runs in the vein of John Waters’ Serial Mom meets Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The story is centered on eccentric mother Candy (Sage Hall) and her awkward son (Jesse Kozel) who is bringing his would-be girlfriend (Jenny Beres) over to his house for a “date” on Halloween. A nice array of tasty treats has been spread out for the would-be guests. When Jenny meets Candy things get a bit interesting.
Okay, this short had a lot of things I liked about it and some things I didn’t. First, I love Serial Mom, Psycho, and all things retro horror. For a guy, I certainly don’t mind hefty use of kitsch in film, so long as it’s done right. For the most part Candy had a focus and kept to the focus, but wasn’t without some problems.
Candy is a short that will obviously play best at Halloween, but to that end let’s get into the film a little further. For the most part this is presented in black & white, something I’m not sure why the filmmakers chose to do. One could argue that retro film deserves black & white treatment, but black & white in digital, and black & white on 16mm or 35mm film are two very different things. So to that end, I felt that this would have worked more effectively in color. To add to this, the use of stylistic flashes of sepia tones and color were a bit too much for me and perhaps out of place in this style of film. I’m not sure what that was about and again, would have liked to see those disappear. Personally, I would have liked to see some bright Eichler color palettes brought in to really enhance the throwback vibe of the film. This would have been a far more effective choice that would have enhanced the atmosphere of the film. Additionally, as this is a Halloween flick, it would have been good to have shot this at night – again, playing up the atmosphere of the holiday and letting that spill into the film, creating even more awkward tension as the story unfolds.
To the plot and characters – this short has some really strong characters that are presented well. I really enjoyed the mother/son oddities, and there was some good dialogue between them. I did think that Candy was a bit too young looking to have a son of the age she did, but this is rather minor all things considered. I talked about the atmosphere earlier and this would be a good point to revisit. The atmosphere seemed a bit forced. This eight minute short could have been doubled in length to allow the camera some more time spent on building that atmosphere and dedicating a couple of more scenes with the characters to build some suspense as we move towards the climatic ending. Jenny’s change in character came too quickly and again – this whole thing felt a bit rushed.
Technically the film is well edited, nicely shot, and sounds great. So no complaints here. I would have liked to see the camera movement at the beginning slowed down to really allow the audience to take in the full array of tasty treats, but I think we can agree I’m probably splitting hairs at this point.
At the core of this piece is a fun and entertaining short that shouldn’t disappoint. It plays like an Alfred Hitchcock Presents-style story, and just needs a little tightening up and some really fun “retro-scope” colors. I can definitely say that I’ll continue to check out anything that comes down the pike from Jesse Kozel and crew. If you get the chance to see Candy at a local con then you should do so.
Candy Trailer for Sacramento Sci Fi Horror show from StarFruit Productions on Vimeo.
