Taglines: Strangers shouldn’t talk to little girls.
A smart, charming teenage girl, Hayley probably shouldn’t be going to a local coffee shop to meet Jeff, a 30-something fashion photographer she met on the Internet. But before she knows it, she’s mixing drinks at Jeff’s place and stripping for an impromptu photo shoot. It’s Jeff’s lucky night. But Hayley isn’t as innocent as she looks, and the night takes a turn when she begins to impose a hard-hitting investigation on Jeff in an attempt to reveal his possibly scandalous past. Hard Candy is an edge-of-your-seat psychotic thriller.
Hayley’s a smart, charming teenage girl — but even smart girls make mistakes. She’s hooking up in a coffee shop with Jeff, a guy she’s met on the Internet. And even though he’s a cute, smooth high-end fashion photographer in his early 30s, Hayley shouldn’t be suggesting that the two of them go back to his house — alone. When they get there, Hayley quickly finds some vodka and starts mixing screwdrivers. She even suggests a photo shoot and strips off some clothing. Everything is going well for Jeff… until his vision blurs and fades, and he passes out.
It turns out Hayley has spiked Jeff’s screwdriver, and when he revives, he’s tied down with Hayley searching through his place. She doesn’t think it’ll take too long to get a confession that she’s not the first teenage girl Jeff’s brought home and, more importantly, that her prisoner knows what happened to Donna Mauer, another girl who disappeared from Jeff’s favorite coffee shop. And if he’s unwilling to confess, well, she has another plan –She uses an icepack as a homemade anesthetic… She starts shaving an incision site… She’s learned a lot from the internet — including this little surgical procedure she’s dying to try…
Hard Candy is a 2005 American psychological thriller film focusing on a 14-year-old female vigilante’s trapping and torture of a man whom she suspects of being a sexual predator. 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 premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival with a midnight screening. The Dolby Surround System failed before the screening and the audience was kept out until it was repaired. Hard Candy was also screened at the Florida Film Festival on April 1, 2006. Hard Candy opened in two theaters in Los Angeles and New York City on April 14, 2006 in a limited release. During its opening weekend, the film grossed $58,049 averaging $29,704 per theater, the highest per-screen average in the top 50. It ended its run with $1,024,640 at the North American box office, and a further $5,997,569 internationally for a total of $7,022,209.
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Hard Candy (2006)
Directed by: David Slade
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Ellen Page, Sandra Oh, Jennifer Holmes, Odessa Rae, G.J. Echternkamp, Cori Bright
Screenplay by: Brian Nelson
Production Design by: Jeremy Reed
Cinematography by: Jo Willems
Film Editing by: Art Jones
Costume Design by: Jennifer Johnson
Set Decoration by: Kate Holliday
Art Direction by: Felicity Nove
Music by: Harry Escott, Molly Nyman
MPAA Rating: R for disturbing violent and aberrant sexual content involving a teen, and for language.
Studio: Lionsgate Films
Release Date: April 14, 2006
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