31 horror films you need to watch this October

The Devil’s Candy

The Plot

After moving into a new house with his wife and daughter, struggling painter Jesse Hellman starts to hear strange voices which urge him to start creating dark, Satanic paintings with the screaming faces of children. Not a great start. It doesn’t help that the house is (of course) the site of a recent and brutal double-murder, with Raymond Smilie, the killer and previous resident of the house, still roaming free.

Intercut with Jesse’s plotline, we see Ray living out of a motel room listening to taped sermons about the devil and wailing on his guitar so that he can’t hear “Him.”. As Ray and Jesse’s plots converge around Jesse’s daughter Zooey, it soon becomes clear that demonic paintings are the least of the family’s problems.

The Breakdown

The father-daughter relationship in this movie is awesome, with their mutual love of metal music a perfect touch. The demonic elements that undercut both metal music and the literal, actual evil which takes place throughout the movie make up the film’s strong thematic backbone. Pretty much the one thing I didn’t like about this movie was the fact that it plays to the standard horror trope of mental illness being violent and frightening. However, with that slight caveat, The Devil’s Candy is unnerving and then high-strung and then outright disturbing. Also, no spoilers, but there’s a shot at the very end of the movie that would practically make watching the entire film worthwhile for it alone.

The Scare Factor

he Devil’s Candy builds an unrelenting aura of dread that reaches an absolutely harrowing crescendo. It holds back when it needs to, and when the time comes it fully lets it rip. This one may not require sleeping with the lights on, but it will absolutely stick with you.