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Hard Candy (film)
Encyclopedia
Hard Candy is a 2005 psychological thriller
film focusing on the confrontation between an assumed sexual predator
and a not-so-innocent 14-year-old girl.
The film, an independent production
, was directed by David Slade
, written by Brian Nelson
, and stars Patrick Wilson
and Ellen Page
. It was the first feature film for Slade, who previously had worked mostly in music video
s.
between 14-year-old Hayley Stark (Ellen Page
) and 32-year-old photographer Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson
) who agree to meet for the first time at a café. After further flirtation, Hayley suggests they return to Jeff's house. Once there, Hayley makes them both screwdrivers
after telling Jeff that she would not drink something that she did not mix herself. Hayley, who appears slightly intoxicated, suggests that Jeff take some photographs of her, similar to the ones of young girls displayed on the walls of his home. As Hayley dances and poses, Jeff begins to feel disoriented and eventually passes out.
Jeff wakes up tied to a wheeled computer chair. Hayley explains that she drugged him and has also been tracking him, knowing he is a hebephile
. Jeff denies the allegations, saying he had innocent intentions. Hayley frantically searches the house, eventually finding a hidden safe in his rock garden
containing a photo of Donna Mauer, a local girl who had been kidnapped
and remains missing. Jeff denies involvement in Mauer's disappearance and tries to escape. Hayley asphyxiates
him with plastic wrap
until he passes out again.
Jeff once again wakes, this time tied to a steel table with a bag of ice on his genitals. Hayley once again confronts him about Donna Mauer, informing Jeff that she is going to castrate
him. After a long conversation, she begins composing an e-mail
to Janelle, Jeff's ex-girlfriend. Jeff attempts to dissuade her with threats, negotiation, and a long plea for sympathy based on a story of the abuse he suffered as a child, but Hayley proceeds with the operation. Following its conclusion, she steps out of the room claiming to leave to take a shower. Jeff breaks free and realizes she has faked the castration. Scalpel in hand, he follows Hayley to the bathroom, only to find that the shower is empty and he has walked into a trap; Hayley knocks him unconscious once again, this time with a stun gun.
Jeff awakens once more, this time standing on a chair, his hands bound, with a noose
around his neck. Hayley reveals that she has written a fake suicide note
on his behalf and she makes Jeff an offer. He can commit suicide, and Hayley will erase the evidence of his crimes. If he refuses to kill himself, Hayley will knock the chair out from under him and fully expose his secrets. Their conversation is interrupted when a neighbor (Sandra Oh
) knocks on the door. Hayley answers and convinces the neighbor that she is Jeff's niece who is staying for the weekend. When the neighbor asks her basic questions, Hayley stammers and tells unconvincing lies. When Hayley returns, Jeff breaks free from the noose and pursues her to the roof - where she has brought the noose and holds him off with the gun. Hayley reveals that she has contacted Janelle, who is driving to the house as they speak. She tells him that if he does not commit suicide, she will pull off her own clothes and run into Janelle's arms, crying and screaming.
Jeff finally confesses that he was involved in Donna Mauer's death, but that he only watched while his accomplice committed the murder. He promises that, if she spares his life, he will disclose the other man's name and help her find him. Hayley reveals that "Aaron", the man Jeff claims killed Mauer, told her the same thing before killing himself. Janelle arrives and Hayley urges Jeff to kill himself to avoid prosecution and prison, where he will be branded as a child molester and brutalized. She reminds him that her offer is still on the table. Jeff, defeated, lets Hayley slide the noose around his neck with no resistance. He takes the deadly step off the roof with Hayley promising "I'll take care of it all...". Hayley looks over the side of the house, observing Jeff, and simply states: "...or not." She gathers her belongings and escapes through the woods at the rear of the house. She looks back, then continues.
producer David W. Higgins saw about young Japanese girls who would lure older businessmen to a location with the promise of meaningful conversation and would assault
and mug
the men with a gang of other girls once the men arrived. This led him to wonder, "What if the person you expect to be the predator is not who you expect it to be? What if it's the other person?" He then hired writer Brian Nelson
to flesh out the idea.
Due to the controversial nature of the work, the budget was kept under $1 million so that the production company would not ask to change anything. Sandra Oh
agreed to do the film due to her desire to work with fellow Canadian actress Ellen Page
, with whom she had appeared in Wilby Wonderful
, although not in the same scenes in that film.
Very little dubbing
was used in the film, with only a couple of lines modified in post-production. Only nine minutes of music are present in the film, with ambient sounds, such as heavy breathing, making up most of the soundtrack
. The film was shot in eighteen and a half days, largely in sequence, and mostly on a soundstage.
Hayley wears a red hooded sweatshirt that is often seen as an allusion
to "Little Red Riding Hood
". However, this was a serendipitous wardrobe choice by the creative team that was not realized until later on. Foreign marketing for the film made great use of this allusion. For example, a tagline on the Japanese site for the movie reads "Red Hood traps the Wolf
in his own game".
Jean-Clement Sorret was the digital colorist
for the film, and is one of the few instances where a colorist received a spot in the opening credits. The film contains many coloring effects and "density shifts" of lighting to reflect the moods of the characters. For example, when Hayley gets angry the colors would be edited to be of lower frequency. One effect used which, as far as the director is aware of, had not been done in cinema before, was to brighten the lighting in filming and recorrect everything down in post-production. This allowed for facial details to be visible even while having a darkened atmosphere. The process required a custom-built digital intermediate
to be made and proved to be extremely difficult, with corrections having to be made frame-by-frame in some instances.
Early working title
s of the script were Vendetta and Snip Snip. The producer wanted a title with a "sugar and spice combination [...] a mixture of harsh roughness, and innocence, and vulnerability", and settled on the title Hard Candy.
with a midnight screening. The Dolby Surround
System failed before the screening and the audience was kept out until it was fixed.
Hard Candy opened in Los Angeles
and New York City
on April 14, 2006 in a limited release
. During its opening weekend, the film grossed nearly $30,000 per theater, the highest per-screen average in the top 50.
The American DVD
was released on September 19, 2006 with two commentary track
s, an hour's worth of making-of featurette
s, six deleted and extended scenes
, the script and director's notebook, and trailers for Hard Candy and other Lionsgate films. The blu-ray release by Lionsgate Home Entertainment
was scheduled for October 5, 2010.
gave a 68% positive rating based on 127 reviews. Caroline Westbrook at Empire Magazine called it "[a] cracking little thriller". David Edwards at the Daily Mirror praised it as a "smart, challenging and timely look at the world of [I]nternet grooming
". Todd McCarthy at Variety
praised the "spectacular performance by teenage thesp Ellen Page".
Critics applauded Page's performance; USA Today
praised her for "remaining consistently convincing" to her role which is both "powerful and chilling." She won the Best Actress award from the Austin Film Critics Association
. The New York Times
film critic Manohla Dargis recognized the film's debt to "Ariel Dorfman
and Neil LaBute
, among others", but did not care for the torture theme "in the age of Abu Ghraib
".
The film won three awards at the Sitges Film Festival
, 2005: Slade won the Audience award for Best Feature Film and the Best Film award, and Brian Nelson
, the writer, won the award for Best Screenplay.
The film grossed $1 million at the North America
n box office, and a further $6 million internationally.
band Oomph!
based the video for their song "Beim ersten Mal tut's immer weh
" on the film, as did American metalcore
band Beneath the Sky
for their song "Terror Starts at Home".
Psychological thriller
Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on characters. However, it often incorporates elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre...
film focusing on the confrontation between an assumed sexual predator
Sexual predator
The term sexual predator is used pejoratively to describe a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically "predatory" manner. Analogous to how a predator hunts down its prey, so the sexual predator is thought to "hunt" for his or her sex partners...
and a not-so-innocent 14-year-old girl.
The film, an independent production
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
, was directed by David Slade
David Slade
David Aldrin Slade is a British film director who began his career making music videos. His work includes videos for artists such as Aphex Twin, Rob Dougan, System of a Down, Stone Temple Pilots, Tori Amos, and Muse.-Life and career:...
, written by Brian Nelson
Brian Nelson (screenwriter)
-Early life:Nelson holds degrees from Yale University and from UCLA. He worked as a drama instructor at Langley High School in McLean, Virginia in the early 1980s, where he taught Gilmore Girls actress Lauren Graham, Little Miss Sunshine screenwriter Michael Arndt, and UCLA screenwriting...
, and stars Patrick Wilson
Patrick Wilson (actor)
Patrick Joseph Wilson is an American actor and singer. Wilson has spent years singing lead roles in major Broadway musicals, beginning in 1996. In 2003, he appeared in the HBO mini-series Angels in America...
and Ellen Page
Ellen Page
Ellen Philpotts-Page , known professionally as Ellen Page, is a Canadian actress. Page received both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her role as the title character in the film Juno...
. It was the first feature film for Slade, who previously had worked mostly in music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s.
Plot
The film opens with a flirtatious online chatOnline chat
Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
between 14-year-old Hayley Stark (Ellen Page
Ellen Page
Ellen Philpotts-Page , known professionally as Ellen Page, is a Canadian actress. Page received both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her role as the title character in the film Juno...
) and 32-year-old photographer Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson
Patrick Wilson (actor)
Patrick Joseph Wilson is an American actor and singer. Wilson has spent years singing lead roles in major Broadway musicals, beginning in 1996. In 2003, he appeared in the HBO mini-series Angels in America...
) who agree to meet for the first time at a café. After further flirtation, Hayley suggests they return to Jeff's house. Once there, Hayley makes them both screwdrivers
Screwdriver (cocktail)
A screwdriver is a popular highball drink made with fresh orange juice and vodka. Outside the US, it is often referred to as "vodka and orange"...
after telling Jeff that she would not drink something that she did not mix herself. Hayley, who appears slightly intoxicated, suggests that Jeff take some photographs of her, similar to the ones of young girls displayed on the walls of his home. As Hayley dances and poses, Jeff begins to feel disoriented and eventually passes out.
Jeff wakes up tied to a wheeled computer chair. Hayley explains that she drugged him and has also been tracking him, knowing he is a hebephile
Hebephilia
Hebephilia refers to the sexual preference for individuals in the early years of puberty . Girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11; boys at age 11 or 12...
. Jeff denies the allegations, saying he had innocent intentions. Hayley frantically searches the house, eventually finding a hidden safe in his rock garden
Rock Garden
The Rock Garden or Rock Garden of Chandigarh is a Sculpture garden in Chandigarh, India, also known as Nek Chand's Rock Garden after its founder Nek Chand, a government official who started the garden secretly in his spare time in 1957. Today it is spread over an area of forty-acres , it is...
containing a photo of Donna Mauer, a local girl who had been kidnapped
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
and remains missing. Jeff denies involvement in Mauer's disappearance and tries to escape. Hayley asphyxiates
Asphyxia
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of severely deficient supply of oxygen to the body that arises from being unable to breathe normally. An example of asphyxia is choking. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which primarily affects the tissues and organs...
him with plastic wrap
Plastic wrap
Plastic wrap, cling film , cling wrap or food wrap, is a thin plastic film typically used for sealing food items in containers to keep them fresh over a longer period of time...
until he passes out again.
Jeff once again wakes, this time tied to a steel table with a bag of ice on his genitals. Hayley once again confronts him about Donna Mauer, informing Jeff that she is going to castrate
Castration
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...
him. After a long conversation, she begins composing an e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
to Janelle, Jeff's ex-girlfriend. Jeff attempts to dissuade her with threats, negotiation, and a long plea for sympathy based on a story of the abuse he suffered as a child, but Hayley proceeds with the operation. Following its conclusion, she steps out of the room claiming to leave to take a shower. Jeff breaks free and realizes she has faked the castration. Scalpel in hand, he follows Hayley to the bathroom, only to find that the shower is empty and he has walked into a trap; Hayley knocks him unconscious once again, this time with a stun gun.
Jeff awakens once more, this time standing on a chair, his hands bound, with a noose
Noose
A noose is a loop at the end of a rope in which the knot slides to make the loop collapsible. Knots used for making nooses include the running bowline, the tarbuck knot, and the slip knot.-Use in hanging:...
around his neck. Hayley reveals that she has written a fake suicide note
Suicide note
A suicide note or death note is a message that states the author has died by suicide, and left to be discovered and read in anticipation of suicide....
on his behalf and she makes Jeff an offer. He can commit suicide, and Hayley will erase the evidence of his crimes. If he refuses to kill himself, Hayley will knock the chair out from under him and fully expose his secrets. Their conversation is interrupted when a neighbor (Sandra Oh
Sandra Oh
Sandra Oh is a Canadian actress. She is best known for the role of Dr. Cristina Yang on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, for which she has won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award. She also played notable roles in the feature films Under the Tuscan Sun and Sideways, and had a supporting role on the...
) knocks on the door. Hayley answers and convinces the neighbor that she is Jeff's niece who is staying for the weekend. When the neighbor asks her basic questions, Hayley stammers and tells unconvincing lies. When Hayley returns, Jeff breaks free from the noose and pursues her to the roof - where she has brought the noose and holds him off with the gun. Hayley reveals that she has contacted Janelle, who is driving to the house as they speak. She tells him that if he does not commit suicide, she will pull off her own clothes and run into Janelle's arms, crying and screaming.
Jeff finally confesses that he was involved in Donna Mauer's death, but that he only watched while his accomplice committed the murder. He promises that, if she spares his life, he will disclose the other man's name and help her find him. Hayley reveals that "Aaron", the man Jeff claims killed Mauer, told her the same thing before killing himself. Janelle arrives and Hayley urges Jeff to kill himself to avoid prosecution and prison, where he will be branded as a child molester and brutalized. She reminds him that her offer is still on the table. Jeff, defeated, lets Hayley slide the noose around his neck with no resistance. He takes the deadly step off the roof with Hayley promising "I'll take care of it all...". Hayley looks over the side of the house, observing Jeff, and simply states: "...or not." She gathers her belongings and escapes through the woods at the rear of the house. She looks back, then continues.
Cast
- Patrick WilsonPatrick Wilson (actor)Patrick Joseph Wilson is an American actor and singer. Wilson has spent years singing lead roles in major Broadway musicals, beginning in 1996. In 2003, he appeared in the HBO mini-series Angels in America...
as Jeff Kohlver - Ellen PageEllen PageEllen Philpotts-Page , known professionally as Ellen Page, is a Canadian actress. Page received both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her role as the title character in the film Juno...
as Hayley Stark - Sandra OhSandra OhSandra Oh is a Canadian actress. She is best known for the role of Dr. Cristina Yang on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, for which she has won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award. She also played notable roles in the feature films Under the Tuscan Sun and Sideways, and had a supporting role on the...
as Judy Tokuda - Odessa Rae as Janelle Rogers
- Gilbert John as Nighthawks Clerk
Production
The idea for Hard Candy came from a news story on 20/2020/20
20/20 is an American "television newsmagazine", , broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978. Created by ABC News executive Roone Arledge, the show was designed similarly to CBS's 60 Minutes but focuses more on human interest stories than international and political subjects...
producer David W. Higgins saw about young Japanese girls who would lure older businessmen to a location with the promise of meaningful conversation and would assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
and mug
Mugging
Mugging or mugger may refer to:* A type of street robbery**Steaming , a variation of this type of robbery*Model Mugging, a self-defense training technique.* The Mugger Crocodile, a species native to India, Pakistan, Iran, and Nepal....
the men with a gang of other girls once the men arrived. This led him to wonder, "What if the person you expect to be the predator is not who you expect it to be? What if it's the other person?" He then hired writer Brian Nelson
Brian Nelson (screenwriter)
-Early life:Nelson holds degrees from Yale University and from UCLA. He worked as a drama instructor at Langley High School in McLean, Virginia in the early 1980s, where he taught Gilmore Girls actress Lauren Graham, Little Miss Sunshine screenwriter Michael Arndt, and UCLA screenwriting...
to flesh out the idea.
Due to the controversial nature of the work, the budget was kept under $1 million so that the production company would not ask to change anything. Sandra Oh
Sandra Oh
Sandra Oh is a Canadian actress. She is best known for the role of Dr. Cristina Yang on ABC's Grey's Anatomy, for which she has won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award. She also played notable roles in the feature films Under the Tuscan Sun and Sideways, and had a supporting role on the...
agreed to do the film due to her desire to work with fellow Canadian actress Ellen Page
Ellen Page
Ellen Philpotts-Page , known professionally as Ellen Page, is a Canadian actress. Page received both Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her role as the title character in the film Juno...
, with whom she had appeared in Wilby Wonderful
Wilby Wonderful
Wilby Wonderful is a 2004 film by Daniel MacIvor. The film is a comedic drama about 24 hours in the life of the small town of Wilby, where the municipal festival is in preparation. It focuses on the changes occurring in the lives of several different inhabitants as development comes to the island...
, although not in the same scenes in that film.
Very little dubbing
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
was used in the film, with only a couple of lines modified in post-production. Only nine minutes of music are present in the film, with ambient sounds, such as heavy breathing, making up most of the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
. The film was shot in eighteen and a half days, largely in sequence, and mostly on a soundstage.
Hayley wears a red hooded sweatshirt that is often seen as an allusion
Allusion
An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, people, places, events, literary work, myths, or works of art, either directly or by implication. M. H...
to "Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
". However, this was a serendipitous wardrobe choice by the creative team that was not realized until later on. Foreign marketing for the film made great use of this allusion. For example, a tagline on the Japanese site for the movie reads "Red Hood traps the Wolf
Big Bad Wolf
The Big Bad Wolf is a term used to describe a fictional wolf who appears in several precautionary folkloric stories, including some of Aesop's Fables and Grimm's Fairy Tales.-Interpretations:...
in his own game".
Jean-Clement Sorret was the digital colorist
Color grading
Color grading or colour painting, is the process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, video image, or still image either electronically, photo-chemically or digitally. The photo-chemical process is also referred to as color timing and is typically performed at a photographic...
for the film, and is one of the few instances where a colorist received a spot in the opening credits. The film contains many coloring effects and "density shifts" of lighting to reflect the moods of the characters. For example, when Hayley gets angry the colors would be edited to be of lower frequency. One effect used which, as far as the director is aware of, had not been done in cinema before, was to brighten the lighting in filming and recorrect everything down in post-production. This allowed for facial details to be visible even while having a darkened atmosphere. The process required a custom-built digital intermediate
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. It often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie...
to be made and proved to be extremely difficult, with corrections having to be made frame-by-frame in some instances.
Early working title
Working title
A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...
s of the script were Vendetta and Snip Snip. The producer wanted a title with a "sugar and spice combination [...] a mixture of harsh roughness, and innocence, and vulnerability", and settled on the title Hard Candy.
Release
The film premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film FestivalSundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
with a midnight screening. The Dolby Surround
Dolby Surround
Dolby Surround was the earliest consumer version of Dolby's multichannel analog film sound decoding format Dolby Stereo introduced to the public in 1982 during the time home video recording formats were introducing Stereo and HiFi capability...
System failed before the screening and the audience was kept out until it was fixed.
Hard Candy opened in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on April 14, 2006 in a limited release
Limited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
. During its opening weekend, the film grossed nearly $30,000 per theater, the highest per-screen average in the top 50.
The American DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
was released on September 19, 2006 with two commentary track
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
s, an hour's worth of making-of featurette
Featurette
Featurette is a term used in the American film industry to designate a film whose length is approximately three quarters of a reel, or about 20–44 minutes in running time - thus midway between a short subject and a feature film; thus it is a "small feature"...
s, six deleted and extended scenes
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
, the script and director's notebook, and trailers for Hard Candy and other Lionsgate films. The blu-ray release by Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Lionsgate Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD distribution arm of Lions Gate Entertainment and most former Artisan Entertainment releases. Its library of more than 8000 films owes some of its size to output deals with other studios...
was scheduled for October 5, 2010.
Reception
The film critics aggregate website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gave a 68% positive rating based on 127 reviews. Caroline Westbrook at Empire Magazine called it "[a] cracking little thriller". David Edwards at the Daily Mirror praised it as a "smart, challenging and timely look at the world of [I]nternet grooming
Child grooming
Child grooming refers to actions deliberately undertaken with the aim of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, in order to lower the child's inhibitions in preparation for sexual activity with the child, or exploitation .Child grooming may be used to lure minors into...
". Todd McCarthy at Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
praised the "spectacular performance by teenage thesp Ellen Page".
Critics applauded Page's performance; USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
praised her for "remaining consistently convincing" to her role which is both "powerful and chilling." She won the Best Actress award from the Austin Film Critics Association
Austin Film Critics Association Awards 2006
The 2nd Austin Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film making in 2006.-Top 10 films:#United 93#The Departed#El laberinto del fauno #Brick#Children of Men...
. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
film critic Manohla Dargis recognized the film's debt to "Ariel Dorfman
Ariel Dorfman
Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, he has been a professor of literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina since 1985.-Personal...
and Neil LaBute
Neil LaBute
Neil N. LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.-Early life:LaBute was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Marian, a hospital receptionist, and Richard LaBute, a long-haul truck driver. LaBute is of French Canadian, English and Irish ancestry, and was raised in Spokane,...
, among others", but did not care for the torture theme "in the age of Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib
The city of Abu Ghraib in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq is located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000. The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib...
".
The film won three awards at the Sitges Film Festival
Festival de Cine de Sitges
The Sitges Film Festival is a Spanish film festival that is one of the most recognizable ones held in Europe, considered the world's foremost international festival specializing in fantasy and horror movies...
, 2005: Slade won the Audience award for Best Feature Film and the Best Film award, and Brian Nelson
Brian Nelson (screenwriter)
-Early life:Nelson holds degrees from Yale University and from UCLA. He worked as a drama instructor at Langley High School in McLean, Virginia in the early 1980s, where he taught Gilmore Girls actress Lauren Graham, Little Miss Sunshine screenwriter Michael Arndt, and UCLA screenwriting...
, the writer, won the award for Best Screenplay.
The film grossed $1 million at the North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n box office, and a further $6 million internationally.
In pop culture
The German Neue Deutsche HärteNeue Deutsche Härte
Neue Deutsche Härte is a genre of industrial metal. The term was invented by the German music press after the release of the debut album Herzeleid by Rammstein....
band Oomph!
Oomph!
Oomph! is a German rock band that was formed in Wolfsburg, Germany in 1989. The band is considered to be the original Neue Deutsche Härte musical group. In the 22-year history of the band, there have been no line-up changes.-Early years :...
based the video for their song "Beim ersten Mal tut's immer weh
Beim ersten Mal tut's immer weh
"Beim ersten Mal tut's immer weh" is the second single from German industrial metal group Oomph!'s tenth album Monster. The song was released as a promo single for the album.-Music video:...
" on the film, as did American metalcore
Metalcore
Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity...
band Beneath the Sky
Beneath The Sky
-About the band:Beneath The Sky formed in mid 2004 after the collapse of their previous bands Makeshyft, and Blind Judgment.Through constant promotion and regional touring, Beneath The Sky have gained fans all across the USA and in many other parts of the world...
for their song "Terror Starts at Home".
See also
- 30 Days of Night30 Days of Night (film)30 Days of Night is a 2007 American horror film based on the comic book miniseries of the same name. The film is directed by David Slade and stars Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, and Danny Huston...
directed by David Slade. - The Twilight Saga: Eclipse directed by David Slade.
- To Catch a PredatorTo Catch a PredatorTo Catch a Predator is an American reality television series that features hidden camera investigations by the television newsmagazine program Dateline NBC. It is devoted to impersonating underage youth and detaining adults who contact them over the Internet for sexual liaisons...
External links
- Review at Ain't It Cool
- October 19, 2003 draft script
- In 'Hard Candy,' an Internet Lolita Is Not as Innocent as She Looks, Manohla Dargis, April 14, 2006, New York Times.