This Hard Candy takes a bite out of you.

Hard Candy's first scene is silent yet filled with dialogue;we watch an internet chat between Lensman319 and Thonggrrl14 who shamelessly flirt with each other and wind up agreeing to meet in public. At the meet-up,Lensman319 is revealed to be Jeff,(Patrick Wilson)a fashion photographer who is not too surpised to see that his date is Hayley(Ellen Page),a 14 year old girl who looks even younger and seems to be a typical giddy teenager who thinks she's too smart to hang out with kids her own age.

When Jeff allows himself to be convinced by Hayley to take her back to his home,warning bells go off and as you watch the two of them alone in an isolated house that's decorated with pics of underage models,mixing up screwdrivers and starting up an inpromptu photo session,waiting for the other shoe to drop gets nervewracking but when it does,no one is more shocked than Jeff.


Seems that Hayley is not just some innocent little miss and that Jeff's taste for young girls is more perverse than we suspect. As the two of them face off,it's hard to tell which one is the more dangerous or telling the truth about anything. The story plays out like a great theaterical piece;adapting it to the stage would be easier than pie. Director David Slade keeps the action focused on the actors and leaves certain aspects of the drama vague,which increases the tension and lets us get more drawn into the characters.


Ellen Page(best known as Kitty Pryde in "X-Men:The Last Stand")gives an explosive performance that seers into your movie memory. She has Hayley doing emotional twists and turns with the grace of an Olympic gymnast. The chemistry between her and Patrick Wilson is one of the best acting duets I've seen since Kathy Bates put a hurtin' on James Caan in Misery.

Hard Candy is now out on DVD and I urge you to get to either your video store or Netflix queque to see a great example of what true horror can be.