Candy Land

It's not horror, it's not action, it's not drama, not even a fantasy!

I don't know how and why this movie was released.

I don't know what kind of acting is this exactly.

Most of the movies supposed to be meant something (true story or there is a wisdom on it and maybe sometimes could be funny but in this movie there was nothing but wasting time.

I don't recommend this movie to any kind of natural human no matter what their age is and specially the teen age. It will not benefits them nothing but a bad and crap thoughts and drag them to a different path.

And I am sure that many people will agree with me.

It's 1996. Sadie (Sam Quartin), Riley (Eden Brolin), Levi (Owen Campbell), and Liv (Virginia de Witt) are prostitutes working a truck stop in the desert, locally known as Candy Land. Sheriff Rex (William Baldwin) often makes sexual demands on Levi. Nora (Guinevere Turner) is their madam. Remy (Olivia Luccardi) is a runaway from the local religious cult who befriends the group.

As an inside expose on this underworld, this has its moments. As a horror, it runs into a few problems. The biggest one is that it needs more mystery. The movie needs to deliver some red herrings to throw off suspicions. It's probably trying to suggest an unknown someone from the cult. The killer is too obvious and it's soon revealed anyways. This is partly interesting, but could be so much better.

A truck-stop hooker thinks twice when a cult turns up to save her soul, but her fate may be sealed when one of the cult decides to go on the game with her.

People say this harks back to '70s exploitation movies - and it does, but in two ways: one good, one bad. The good comes in the open and frank sleaze of the prostitution biz, with completely candid performances showing us how it works, what it does to people, and I guess above all how the workers retain their kindness and empathy. These characters are very nicely put together, and I was totally engaged by them for the first half of the story.

It helps that the cinematography and the writing and editing keep the scenes on point, with a good flow. As well as the acting, maybe the best quality of the production is the sound design, with a subtle shriek when a pair of eyes are opened and a faint heart-patter during a virgin's first time.

The bad comes in the second half, when we enter straight up slasher mode. That genre rarely appeals to me, so I can't be too hard, but there really is nothing of interest to say as all the character-building is thrown away in favour of a lurid and unenlightening mania. Also, there's no real jeopardy for the villain since nobody entertains any suspicion, making the plausibility break down as the climax approaches. And then, as in all metaller productions of horror, the music has to go tongue-in-cheek, combining Christmas carols with scenes of bleak death. No idea why they always pull the rug out from under interesting stories.

The one movie this reminds me of is from the '70s - Alice, Sweet Alice, which has the same shape of a disturbing, engaging start and a lurid, pointless end.

Overall: Good story finished off by typing into ChatGPT: 'write the ending of a religious slasher.'

Remember the 1970s? That would be helpful. Bottom line, Candy Land is what might happen if you took a Ninja blender and mixed together a 1970s sexploitation film and a 1970s slasher film. By that standard, the end result would be better than you might expect. The acting is solid, the script adequate, and the direction restrained. The typical over-amped soundtrack of the 1970s films -- where gaps in the action are filled in with raw noise -- is nowhere to be found, and that is a very good thing. In fact, almost every aspect of this film is toned down, and that works well too. The only recognizable star is William "Billy" Baldwin, who has been in the biz since the late 1980s. Above average for an indie. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

Fairytail from the candy land that you might imagine, and i do for god sake not hope this come under the genre of x-mas movies, as the plot happens in those happy days of joy, and the musical score jingle all around. Its the cloaked businesses that happens to take place in every trucking pit stop or major rest areas at the vast interstate road system of america.

Its a raw and consiousless story about them sexworkers that hangs on to the trade of giving pleasure in the humongous cabins that american rigs are equipped with, until kingdome come, and the great cleansing begins.its right here youre introduced to the environment, presented in such a heartless chilly way that you wont forget...

Well it was not the sexual, erotic joyride you paid for, and its absolutely not a childfriendly piece of action, other than some overgrossed gory absolutionatory moves, if that knife is still sharp i doupt, an uncomfy view for a grumpy old man. Its a shocker for sure, and the cast are really going all in, so a little recommend.