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Movie Review – The Candy Witch (2020)

Directed by Rebecca Matthews.
Starring Jon Callaway, Abi Casson Thompson, Kate Lush, Heather Jackson, Richard D. Myers, Will Stanton, and Hannah Ponting.

SYNOPSIS:

The Candy Witch seeks vengeance on the wealthy family that wronged her.

Independent horror films love to tout an insane concept, accompanied by equally deranged promotional artwork, but few ever honor “batshit” promises. The Candy Witch, at least, promotes itself correctly. A resurrected witch kills victims with sweet treats. Do you yearn for a slasher where someone gets choked out with licorice rope (this has to exist somewhere in Troma history, no)? Rebecca Matthews blends hints of the Pentecostal with delicious murder motivations, albeit within a fundamental supernatural architecture. You’ve asserted your intentions by opening on an overused jump-scare popularized by Lights Out (still not the creator, even). Mimick, swap some kills, call it a night.

Reece (Jon Callaway) and Kat (Abi Casson Thompson) are paranormal-investigating lovers who host a popular online program (or run a massively subscribed-to account). They’re called to the countryside with reports of “The Candy Witch” haunting homeowners. She’s fabled to appear with a weaponized candy cane, which she uses to exterminate targets. Reese makes contact with the spirit but soon learns there’s a darker history on the premises than Ruth’s (Heather Jackson) family initially divulges.

Scott Jeffrey’s screenplay seems more interested in sugar-coated deaths than the overall haunting narrative. Residing within a rustic estate straight out of Tolkien’s Shire are parents and children who harbor plot-twisty secrets which aren’t all that twisty. Any “spooky” elements about The Candy Witch are recycled one-hit scares enacted without anywhere near replicated enthusiasm. The “behind the back” hallway cross, aforementioned “lights on, lights off” jolt, “figure in the background” ominousness that’s less eerie and more standard. As someone who watches far more independent horror than the average consumer, trust me when I say even the most introductory genre fans have already endured these beats too frequently.

When it comes to Ms. Candy Witch and her arsenal of cavity-crunchy treats? Lord knows why said antagonist grabs for pink-and-blue cotton candy, or how it’d choke a victim to death when it disintegrates inside your mouth, but there’s an exploitation glee to it all. Also, how is The Candy Witch not a Christmas-themed horror flick? The titular torturer’s weapon of choice is a dagger-sharp candy cane that slits bellies and skewers genitals. Does someone get stuffed like a piñata with hard candies? You bet, which proves Rebecca Matthews understands the glorification of gore. What stumbles is rudimentary filler surrounding all this dessert-deadly carnage, especially when it comes to afterthought character arcs.

Central focus remains on the family in question, who position themselves as under duress. The truth? Lash wounds on both children and tales from nosy neighbors pose the Candy Witch’s return as leveled revenge. Something that should be more intriguing, but given stock character types, performative value is nondescript. “Sassy Daughter,” “Annoying Boyfriend Who Walks Through The Woods Alone,” and “Dad Who Knows More But Won’t Reveal Anything” aren’t winning any Academy Awards. Frankly, they’re only surface-value navigating the basicness of the story at hand, especially when it comes to death sequences where actors…well, the camera holds a bit too long we’ll conclude.

The Candy Witch is anything but dangerous decadence but spotlights a few kills that are either intentionally or accidentally hilarious. Practical effects work won’t dazzle you with Willy Wonka appeal, and yet, this is where Rebecca Matthews earns her horror credentials. It’s just unfortunate the entirety of The Candy Witch is so seen-it-before underwhelming, where aesthetics could be a Home Depot blueprint for “Starter Haunted House #2.” A film that begins with maggot-infested chocolate pieces and ends without equally sweetened staying power, delivering conceptual hooks through a lens that’s become all-too-familiar.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Matt spends his after-work hours posting nonsense on the internet instead of sleeping like a normal human. He seems like a pretty cool guy, but don’t feed him after midnight just to be safe (beers are allowed/encouraged). Follow him on Twitter/Instagram/Letterboxd (@DoNatoBomb).

The Candy Witch

Because her good deeds are not noticed, a small witch steals every trick-or-treat bag in town on Halloween.

Genres HalloweenPicture BooksChildrens

30 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1979

About the author

Steven Kroll

Stephen Kroll spoke at schools and conferences all over the world. He was married to the journalist, Kathleen Beckett, and they lived in New York City and an old carriage house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. When he was not writing or traveling, he played a lot of tennis and walked around looking at everything.

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Maggie was a little witch who came from a family of kindly spell-casters. Mama Witch liked to turn garbage into fruit, Papa Warlock liked to restore the hair of balding men, and Brother John would turn pillows into purring cats. But although Maggie herself liked to surreptitiously stuff people's pockets with candy, her kindnesses went unnoticed by her family, who kept wondering when she'd get in on the family tradition of doing good. Finally, determined to get their attention, Maggie decided to do something bad! And the next Halloween, all the trick-or-treaters discovered that their candy had disappeared.

This slim little paperback picture-book, first published in 1979, is probably not one I would have picked up on my own, had I not seen in mentioned in a list of possible witchy selections, for a book-club to which I belong. A sweet little story, in which Maggie's hurt feelings, and her resultant misdeeds are both easily resolved, it has cartoon-like illustrations done by Marylin Hafner. I wouldn't say, all told, that The Candy Witch really stands out, from the witchy picture-book 'crowd,' but for those children who happen upon it, I can imagine it will prove entertaining.

1 book 181 followers

The Candy Witch
Maggie comes from a family that likes to do good deeds with their magic. Maggie likes to do good deeds to. She likes to fill people's refrigerators and stick andy in people's pockets. Only her family doesn’t notice any of this. Her mother asks her one night when she’s going to start doing good deeds and she says she does. They just don’t pay attention. Their father disagrees. That night she makes someone’s flowers bloom, but her family is all to busy to notice. So, she decides to get their attention another say and on Halloween, she starts to play tricks on people. When she goes home, she sees nothing has changed. They’re all in their own world. That night Maggie makes all the kid's bags to heavy to carry and then all their candy disappears. It’s the talk of the school the next day. Maggie has 173 trick-or-treat bags. But as she sits on the roof, she sees all the children crying. Maggie confesses to her parents what she did because she feels bad. They kiss her and apologize and say they’ll try to do better in the future. So to make the children feel better they plan a Candy Festival.

This Was What Was In The Fountain (s) at the Party:
Lemonade
Candy Apples
MnM’s
Hershey’s Kisses
Peppermints
Caramels
Lemon Drops
Fudge
My Thoughts:
I could NOT have gone to this party. I would have wound up in the ER. Lol, But it sounded sooo good! Maggie would have had to have a separate fountain for me with the nonsugar versions of these. But she would have had to use her magic to make them taste just like the sugary ones. I know that Chick-fil-A makes the BEST diet lemonade in the whole WORLD! Hershey’s also has caramel chocolate bars that I get occasionally. There probably also are caramels that don’t have sugar. Come to think of it I think I had some of these too. I also know that there *are* brownies. They’re just expensive as all get out. You can get them on Amazon They’re called Fairy Tale Brownies and are very small but so SOOO good! Not so sure about the lemon drops and jelly beans. But the best part of this short book was the part about the fountain.

Rating: 6 Just for the description of the fountain. Without this, it would be a 5. An can I just say this? You shouldn’t have to change for someone to notice you. Or for that matter have to prove yourself to anyone if you are doing good deeds.

Review: The Candy Witch Might Only Be Good Because It’s So Bad

Oh, this is not good. But here’s the thing: once in a great while, I see something so bad that I want everyone else to see it to, just so there are other people who I can meet years from now, and we’ll both be able to look at each other in silence and just nod knowingly that we both viewed and endured The Candy Witch. I know it doesn’t seem fair to go after an independent horror film, but I do consider it part of my job to warn people against spending their hard-earned money (all the more valuable these days) on something that simply isn’t worth it. I will always do my best to steer you away from the bad and also toward the good.

Image courtesy of Uncork’d Entertainment

I’ll admit, I don’t know much about director Rebecca J. Matthews, but she seems to specialize in making films with titles that definitely remind you of other, better films. Her first feature was titled Pet Graveyard…come on. And even the current title (and only the title, not the plot) has some distinct Candyman similarities. Truth is, I agreed to screening The Candy Witch because I liked the title and thought it might offer a unique twist on the witch subgenre of horror. Instead, I found myself baffled as to why every character in The Candy Witch sounds like they’re faking either a British or American accent. And more importantly, why does a family of Americans live in an estate in Britain. The result is an American family played by actors struggling intensely to hide their British accents while they in turn struggle to recite some defiantly stilted dialogue courtesy of screenwriter Scott Jeffrey.

The focal point of the film is Reece (Jon Callaway), a ghost whisperer of sorts whose main objective when called in for a consultation is to give the spirits a voice and help them figure out a way to move on—a noble cause, but one that comes with a price. Often when he hears ghosts, it rips through his ears so strongly that he’s at risk of going deaf. His girlfriend Kat (Abi Casson Thompson), who looks like a music video babe circa 1989, handles his social media and photography work, hoping to capture the ghosts on film and use it to promote the business. They are called in by the aforementioned family to discover the truth about the spirit of a former nanny to the children (Kate Lush), who allegedly abused them years earlier and then went missing rather than face the authorities…or at least that’s how the legends tell it. She is known as the Candy Witch, and she seems to not just want to haunt this family and others in the surrounding town who tormented her years earlier; she wants them all dead.

Aside from the uneven acting and weirdly confusing story, The Candy Witch keeps changing its tone and focus. In one scene, the daughter of the family (Hannah Ponting) makes it clear she doesn’t believe in any of what others say is going on. Then two scenes later, she’s cowering in the dark with everyone else, very much convinced the witch is out to get her family, as if she always believed it. This may not sound like much, but it’s a strange inconsistency—one of many. For a time, the family attempts to keep certain facts away from Reece, but then why hire him to get rid of this ghost at all if they aren’t willing to supply him with enough information to make that happen?

The family is rounded out by Heather Jackson as mom Ruth, Richard D. Myers as dad Willie, and Will Stanton as only son Will, who the nanny is said to have sexually abused when he was younger. It’s a weighty subject to just throw in for kicks, but that’s essentially what the filmmaker does (and then rewrites history two or three more times before the truth is revealed). And don’t even get me started on Reece’s wardrobe, which consists entirely of button-down dress shirts that seem tailored just a little too small to fit comfortably around his broad shoulders and huge pectorals.

As it goes on, The Candy Witch spirals into confusion and increasingly ramped-up violence, while simultaneously meandering through life as if it has nowhere to be in anything resembling a hurry. There’s a generous part of me that wants to believe that maybe director Matthews structured and paced her film like this deliberately, for a laugh—how I longed for a punch drunk (or maybe just drunk) midnight crowd surrounding me while I watched this. But it’s more likely that the film was made in the hopes of making a quick buck on the On Demand market at a time when horror fans are craving something, anything that promises scares and blood (this film has one of those, plus a lot of screaming). And while I’m not recommending this to folks who like their horror a bit more refined and better acted, if you can get some friends to watch this with (remotely), I can see this being a certain type of good time. You know me: always looking for the silver lining in the toughest of times.

The film is now available On Demand, via most digital platforms, and on DVD.

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