Candy Land
Definitely not to be confused with a big screen adaptation of the children’s board game.
Cast of Characters:
Remy – Olivia Luccardi
Sadie – Sam Quartin
Riley – Eden Brolin
Levi – Owen Campbell
Liv – Virginia Rand
Sheriff Rex – William Baldwin
Director – John Swab
Writer – John Swab
Producer – Jeremy M. Rosen & John Swab
Distributor – Quiver Distribution
Running Time – 93 minutes
Not Rated
The Rundown: Out on Route 66, off Exit 16, there is a place known as “Candy Land”. It’s a magical world where horny, sex-starved truckers can score the best clean and drug-free pussy money can buy.
And better get it while you can, ’cause once you hit California, there ain’t a clean and drug-free pussy in sight.
At this truck stop, Sadie (Sam Quartin), Riley (Eden Brolin), Levi (Owen Campbell) and Liv (Virginia Rand), sex workers known as “Lot Lizards”, have formed a tight-knit bond with each other as they go about their days monotonously servicing truckers like it’s just another Tuesday at the office.
Does this job come with dental and paid time off benefits? Asking for a friend.
One day, Sadie runs into Remy (Olivia Luccardi), a seemingly-innocent, young virgin girl who’s been excommunicated by a religious cult seeking to “cleanse” the earth of its evil. With nowhere else to go, Remy is taking in by the Lot Lizards, who show her the tricks of the trade. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when a murdered body is discovered in one of the graffiti-littered bathrooms, and while initially assumed to be just a trucker dispute, the situation grows deadlier as the body count continues to rise.
Initial Thoughts: Video on demand horror doesn’t quite scream “MUST SEE!!”, especially VOD horror released in January. However, Candy Land comes to us from indie pulp thriller filmmaker John Swab, finally venturing into the slasher horror realm with his newest feature. Swab’s track record may be hit-or-miss, but he recently made 2021’s Body Brokers, a slightly flawed yet stylish crime thriller that delivers on its engaging premise. With Candy Land, Swab’s first “stab” at slasher horror immerses viewers into another of his worlds inhabited by seedy behavior and deeply flawed individuals, and winds up being another solidly thrilling entry in his filmography.
The Good: Right off the bat, being that this is a film that explores the grimy world of sex workers and in no way skirts around that subject, Candy Land should come with a big flashing disclaimer that says “NOT FOR EVERYONE”. A crowd-pleaser, it is most definitely not. What Swab does most well here is the way he crafts his world of this squalid little underbelly of Middle America. This includes an extended sequence where the Lot Lizards explain the ins and outs of their trade to Remy, playing out like a warped training montage (cue the Rocky theme) that is darkly funny yet kinda sad also. Time is taken through the first two acts to establish Candy Land’s disturbingly lived-in setting and its characters before it quickly switches gears in the final horrifying act. Cinematographer Will Stone’s lens also aids in the film’s constant sense of dread by framing shots like an unsettling voyeuristic eye that is intruding in on the lives of these characters. Understandably, some may find the abrupt tonal shift jarring, yet, while the bloody conclusion may not land as quite a devastating blow as it could have, the payoff is mostly satisfying.
Swab also wisely avoids any preachiness with the story’s subject matter, opting instead to portray his characters in a humanized, empathetic light that never once condescends to them or treats them like caricatures, but also doesn’t shy away from the sad realities and brutal risks of a path that the characters adamantly state they chose. Such brutality is most notably shown during an extremely rough encounter between Levi (Owen Campbell, following up his fine supporting turn in last year’s great slasher X with another strong performance here) and a rather aggressive client. It’s one of Candy Land’s more horrifying moments, and despite the focus Swab places on such graphic brutality, those moments are also never depicted gratuitously or titillatingly.
Further bolstering the proceedings, the cast delivers strong work all-around, particularly from Olivia Luccardi (It Follows, Soft & Quiet), Sam Quartin (Body Brokers, Let Me Make You a Martyr, and Swab’s wife), the aforementioned Campbell and William Baldwin. Fresh off her fantastic performance in last year’s Soft & Quiet, Luccardi turns in another impressive performance as Remy, perfectly capturing the troubled former cult follower’s naivete that slowly morphs into emotional instability. Baldwin, easily the biggest name attached to this, delivers creepily understated work as the sleazy local sheriff, forming an uneasy yet intriguing bond with Campbell that teeters back-and-forth between sensitive and dangerous in a way that keeps us in suspense on which direction their relationship may turn.
The Bad: While Swab’s established world is fascinating in a very disturbing way, opportunities for character exploration are introduced then quickly abandoned. There’s an interesting story thread between the Lot Lizards and Guinevere Turner as the mother hen of their sex ring that could’ve touched on the subject of grooming, which Turner’s character is clearly doing. At most, though, the subplot is only flirted with before quickly disappearing. Then there’s Remy, whose doomsday cult backstory carries the potential for the meatiest character exploration, but Candy Land holds back from exploring these ideas that could deepen Remy’s arc, which in turn keeps the violent third-act from resonating as much as it could have.
Still, this is absolutely no fault of Luccardi, whose note-perfect, volatile performance anchors the entire film. Even though the story falters a bit during the climax, it’s thanks to Luccardi’s committed work that the film is still able to maintain our attention.
The Ugly: In return for a very unclean dildo-related favor, Billy Baldwin promises to buy Owen “the best damn burger you ever had”, which only begs the question if he’s actually referring to a hamburger… or something else?
Consensus: While it certainly falls in the category of “not for everyone”, a uniformly strong cast and writer/director John Swab’s grim slow-burn world-building of the film’s pulpy underbelly of truck stop sex workers makes Candy Land an imperfect yet effective exercise in grindhouse horror.
Silver Screen Fanatic’s Verdict: I give Candy Land a B (★★★).
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