Candiland

I recently had the opportunity to screen this indie film based on the book by Elizabeth Engstrom and produced by Motorcycle Boy Productions. Additionally, I interviewed the two leads, James Clayton and Chelah Horsdal, and I knew that in screening this film, I would be stepping further outside my comfort zone than I ever had before. And that is entirely correct. I am not a fan of psychological thrillers as a rule–except Hitchcock, if you can call some of his films that–but I was determined to go in with the mindset of a reviewer. I do want to warn you that if you are offended by gratuitous sex (no nudity, thankfully) or superfluous profanity, you may wish to skip this film. On one level, I could have done without either of those. However, I set aside all that for the purposes of the review, and the remainder of this review will be spent on the content and acting from an artistic standpoint.

For the entire review, please go to the link on my website: http://mydevotionalthoughts.net/2017/02/candiland-film-review.html

I like low-budget films, and especially those with a horror bent; Films like 'The Greasy Strangler', 'Blood Car', or the original 'Cabin Fever'. So I thought I might like this. The film did have a few comedic moments, where the awkwardness of the dialogue felt real, genuine, and funny. But overall, there was a lack of coherency to the point where it just felt like a half-hearted student film project from a lower-level class at a second-rate film school. The acting had funny moments, but for the most part it just seemed like bad improvisation. I appreciate that films such as this one are made, but this one just more or less belongs in the dust bin - it's not memorable and it will be forgotten and never achieve the cult following that a film such as this one strives for.

Low-budget, and the biggest name (or at least most recognizable) is Gary Busey. But...the writing is great, the acting is superb, and relatively-new-guy Rusty Nixon shows promise as a director.

Particularly fascinating is Clayton's performance; the boy suffered for his art as few will ever attempt (I won't say how, but I can guarantee that what he did ain't special effects).

I hope this comes out theatrically, but if it doesn't, it's definitely worth a stream.

I don't really have much more to say, but IMDb insists on "ten lines", so here it is.

A very weird film where a couple decides to lock themselves in the apartment and paint it to resemble a candy land. Shutting the outside world off they easily enter their new world, which at first seems heavenly, then slowly transcends into hell.

They both have more issues than Sports Illustrated which is why you never get surprised at some of the things they do. This film drags a lot of times and suffers from poor editing.

Gary Busey plays the mans over bearing father who is mostly responsible for the mental health of his son. When I first seen the poster for this (the one with the skull) I thought it was going to be a twisted Charlie And The Chocolate Factory but instead we get two people starving themselves for an hour and a half.

This movie haunted me it is so bad. I watched it online where it was misrepresented as having a high IMDb. I would have turned it off in the first 30 seconds, but thought there has to be something good here with such a high rating. The idea that this turd had 8+ rating was eating at me, so I found this site, where the rating is actually much lower.

The film is composed of what seems like 20 second scenes. Each scene may include different characters at a different time frame. The short, scattered scenes would normally be even more annoying, but they are so bad that the viewer is happy to see them end.

The plot summary is more than a spoiler. It is more understandable than the actual movie.