Hard Candy is actually a watchable film. The actors were certainly game (all two of them, the others merely bit parts) and the cinematography was good but flawed.
It was not handled as well as I thought it could have been. Thought provoking? I do not think so. Although the ambiguity over who was the "bad guy" was there, the film seemed to run out of ideas.
Yes, it is interesting to see a torture scene; it is what he deserves apparently. But for 15 minutes? The camera work was good in the way that it made you feel nauseous, so it wasn't an easy film to experience. It left most up to the imagination.
Also the sense of space in the film was closed down due to the amount of close up's. Yes, this might be a device intended by the director so that we as an audience feel claustrophobic, but in the end, it really annoyed me in places.
The again, what did I expect? The premise of this film is hardly brain teasing stuff. Again, people will end up going "but the film leaves it open" argument. Ambiguous Schmiguous. The film started so well, but failed to capitalise on it.
The film was just exploitative; there are some good shocks and the tension is neatly crafted, it is shame the pacing is not so great.
But it felt un-finished and ultimately a tad pointless. The mind games that Hayley plays on the photographer were gripping initially, but by the half way mark, I understood what was going on, and knew that he would kill himself.
She forced him to kill himself - in a similar way to Saw. Not a big surprise.
Still, it was a decent little film that succeeds in making the viewer uncomfortable. But it could have been better and more efficient. In a world of Saw's and Hostel's, maybe this is too much, too soon.
It was not handled as well as I thought it could have been. Thought provoking? I do not think so. Although the ambiguity over who was the "bad guy" was there, the film seemed to run out of ideas.
Yes, it is interesting to see a torture scene; it is what he deserves apparently. But for 15 minutes? The camera work was good in the way that it made you feel nauseous, so it wasn't an easy film to experience. It left most up to the imagination.
Also the sense of space in the film was closed down due to the amount of close up's. Yes, this might be a device intended by the director so that we as an audience feel claustrophobic, but in the end, it really annoyed me in places.
The again, what did I expect? The premise of this film is hardly brain teasing stuff. Again, people will end up going "but the film leaves it open" argument. Ambiguous Schmiguous. The film started so well, but failed to capitalise on it.
The film was just exploitative; there are some good shocks and the tension is neatly crafted, it is shame the pacing is not so great.
But it felt un-finished and ultimately a tad pointless. The mind games that Hayley plays on the photographer were gripping initially, but by the half way mark, I understood what was going on, and knew that he would kill himself.
She forced him to kill himself - in a similar way to Saw. Not a big surprise.
Still, it was a decent little film that succeeds in making the viewer uncomfortable. But it could have been better and more efficient. In a world of Saw's and Hostel's, maybe this is too much, too soon.