The Devil's Candy 4K 2015 Ultra HD 2160p

Metal music, paint, and family are the passions of struggling painter, Jesse, who lives a happy life with his wife and daughter. Things look brighter when Jesse finds a huge old house in rural Texas selling at a very low price due to its mysterious past. They move in and Jesse converts the barn into a studio. But soon, his work starts taking on a new, darker flavor, and things get even more ominous when the hulking, unbalanced son of the former owners appears on the doorstep. Jesse's family won't be safe until they find a way to quiet the Devil himself.

User Review

In 2009, Australian director Sean Byrne’s debut horror film *The Loved Ones* premiered, immediately winning the People’s Choice Award and achieving stunning success. The film instantly became an icon of the genre, but years passed without any news from the director, except for thoughts of a prequel to ‘The Loved Ones,’ which never materialized.

Six long years later, Sean Byrne presents his second film, ‘The Devil's Candy,’ whose subject matter is quite specific, but no less intriguing for it. The film opens with a murder scene and powerful, fiery opening credits set to heavy metal. This dark, diabolical opus is thoroughly steeped in satanic themes, images of the devil, inverted crosses, and voices in the heads of the possessed, which may to some extent influence the film’s target audience, given that the soundtrack is also exceptionally heavy.

The film’s plot is quite simple and resembles the story of *Amityville*. Artist Jesse moves into his dream home with his family—a house where, incidentally, a murder took place—but events are complicated by the appearance on the doorstep of a slow-witted, mentally ill giant who begs to be allowed back home. Sean Byrne masterfully plays with genres: at first, it may seem like a thriller about an attack on a family or a typical slasher with a maniac in the lead role, but then your thoughts will drift toward a haunted house, and the viewer will still be proven wrong. Beirne truly knows how to use cinematic techniques and play with the viewer’s mind.

Visually, the film is practically flawless, highly artistic, and unusual. In addition to blending genres, the director has also intertwined art and cinema. For a significant portion of the film, Ethan Embry’s character, Jesse, locked in the garage, transforms canvases into dark works of art set to heavy metal.

Of course, having set such a high bar with ‘The Loved Ones,’ it will be quite difficult to clear it. Therefore, when comparing the two films, even though ‘The Devil's Candy’ is a different breed, it is still weaker in every respect. The violence in the film remains off-screen; all the murders are veiled and not dwelled upon. One possible reason for this could be the country of production, since ‘The Loved Ones’ was an Australian film, while ‘The Devil's Candy’ was released in the US. As is well known, Australian films are famous for scenes of brutal violence and don’t stand on ceremony when it comes to censorship—take the ‘Wolf Creek’ duology, for example.

Nevertheless, Sean Byrne is a very talented and intriguing director; I hope we won’t have to wait six years for his next film.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (75.1 Mb/s)
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Info Audio

#English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
#German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Info Subtitles