Hard Candy (film)
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | David Slade |
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| Written by | Brian Nelson |
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| Music by | |
| Cinematography | Jo Willems |
| Edited by | Art Jones |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
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Release date
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Running time
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104 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $950,000 |
| Box office | $8.3 million |
Hard Candy is a 2005 American psychological crime thriller film focusing on the torture of a male sexual predator by a 14-year-old female vigilante. The film was directed by David Slade, written by Brian Nelson, and starred Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson. It was the first feature film for Slade, who had primarily directed music videos.
The film premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and was screened at the Florida Film Festival in April 2006. It had limited release in two theaters in the US. The film made over $7 million at the box office, including almost $6 million from outside the US, on a budget of under $1 million.
Hard Candy won three awards at the 2005 Sitges Film Festival, four awards at the Málaga Film Festival, and was also awarded Overlooked Film of the Year at the 2006 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards. Page won Best Actress at the 2006 Austin Film Critics Association Awards.
The film opens with a sexually charged, flirtatious online chat between 14-year-old Hayley Stark and Jeff Kohlver, a 32-year-old photographer. Jeff and Hayley meet at a coffeehouse, and he takes her back to his house. Hayley makes them both screwdrivers and asks him to take photographs. Before he can, Jeff gets dizzy, his vision blurs, and he falls to the floor unconscious.
When Jeff wakes, he is bound to a chair. Hayley explains she has been tracking him and drugged him because she knows he is a pedophile, rapist, and murderer. Jeff denies these allegations, claiming he had innocent intentions. Hayley searches Jeff's house and finds his gun and safe. In the safe, Hayley finds "sick" pictures and a photo of Donna Mauer, a local girl who has been kidnapped and remains missing. Jeff denies involvement in Mauer's disappearance and succeeds in reaching his gun, but when he (still bound to the chair) attacks Hayley, she renders him unconscious by asphyxiating him with plastic wrap.
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Wikipedia