A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I've Seen in the Past Year
[1 of 13]

THE DEVIL'S CANDY

(September 2015)

"We've come to the place where we joke about the idea of the Devil. With the horns and the tail and all that. But that is Satan’s Lie. To distract us from the reality of who He is.”

Writer/director Sean Byrne was last ‘round these parts when his feature debut, The Loved Ones, nabbed the Aussie Horror Runner-Up slot on the ¡Qué horror! 2011 rundown.

He’s back (and no longer a blood-spattered bridesmaid!), with his brutally metal follow-up, The Devil’s Candy.

Here, Byrne takes the “a family’s hopes for a new life are shattered when they encounter the darkness that comes along with the new house they just bought” set-up and serves up a disturbing look at a world where evil is insidiously ubiquitous, where a prominent art gallery is called Belial (as in “Now that you’re being represented by Belial, it’s time for you to start getting used to nice things.”) and has an employee named Mara (as per the Buddhist demon).

Byrne gathers an interestingly effective cast here, which includes Shiri Appleby (who’s come a long way from Roswell’s Liz), Ethan Embry (who’s come an even longer way from Empire Records’ lovable goofus Mark), and the creeptastic Pruitt Taylor Vince.

There are also brief, but memorable appearances by Leland Orser (whose Father David Gideon lays on the film’s central thesis via a “Thought for the Day”) and Tony Amendola (taking a break from playing Once Upon a Time’s Geppetto to embody Leonard of Belial).

So, yeah, let’s all raise those horns and savor The Devil’s Candy, as Sean Byrne continues to show us just how wickedly serious he is about his horror…

“I have to feed Him children… ‘cause children are His candy.”

(The Devil’s Candy OS’ courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2017

Candidate #14

THE DEVIL'S CANDY

(September 2015)

"We've come to the place where we joke about the idea of the Devil. With the horns and the tail and all that. But that is Satan’s Lie. To distract us from the reality of who He is.”

Writer/director Sean Byrne was last ‘round these parts when his feature debut, The Loved Ones, nabbed the Aussie Horror Runner-Up slot on the ¡Qué horror! 2011 rundown.

He’s back, with his brutally metal follow-up, The Devil’s Candy.

Here, Byrne takes the “a family’s hopes for a new life are shattered when they encounter the darkness that comes along with the new house they just bought” set-up and serves up a disturbing look at a world where evil is insidiously ubiquitous, where a prominent art gallery is called Belial (as in “Now that you’re being represented by Belial, it’s time for you to start getting used to nice things.”) and has an employee named Mara (as per the Buddhist demon).

Byrne gathers an interestingly effective cast here, which includes Shiri Appleby (who’s come a long way from Roswell’s Liz), Ethan Embry (who’s come an even longer way from Empire Records’ lovable goofus Mark), and the creeptastic Pruitt Taylor Vince.

There are also brief, but memorable appearances by Leland Orser (whose Father David Gideon lays on the film’s central thesis via a “Thought for the Day”) and Tony Amendola (taking a break from playing Once Upon a Time’s Geppetto to embody Leonard of Belial).

So, yeah, let’s all raise those horns and savor The Devil’s Candy, as Sean Byrne continues to show us just how wickedly serious he is about his horror…

“I have to feed Him children… ‘cause children are His candy.”

(The Devil’s Candy OS’ courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I’ve Seen in the Past Year
[4 of 13]


THE CLINIC
(November 2009)


There are some horror films that you simply don’t show expectant mothers, films like Fruit Chan’s Dumplings or Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s À l'intérieur or Paul Solet’s Grace. Based on the one sheet above, I think it’s clear that James Rabbitts’ The Clinic is another of those films.
If you can get past the unsettling aspects of the material, The Clinic is an absorbing and interesting look at maternal instincts, at just how far a mother is willing to go to protect her child. It also cleverly plays with genre expectations, giving the audience a cinematic experience that may have familiar elements, but nonetheless feels like something we’ve not quite seen before.
For Gabriel or Spartacus fans out there, this one’s also got the late Andy Whitfield in it.

Aussie Horror Runner-up:
THE LOVED ONES (September 2009)


Aussie horror plants a very decisive flag with Sean Byrne’s feature debut, The Loved Ones, a film for all those iconoclasts who ever thought that prom was just some antiquated tradition best left by the cultural wayside.
“Prom is Hell”? In The Loved Ones, that truly is the case, as we bear witness to the Worst Prom Date captured on film since Sissy Spacek got all dolled up just to take a shower in pig’s blood.

Writer/director Byrne triumphs on a number of fronts with The Loved Ones, beginning with the fact that he’s able to counterpoint the blood and brutality with genuine emotional pain and mental anguish (and not just from the film’s main protagonist, played by Xavier Samuel).
Also, The Loved Ones isn’t just about the teen-agers. There’s a significant adult presence in the film, as we’re shown the strained dynamic between parents who no longer seem to understand their rebellious offspring, and children who feel a complex welter of emotion towards these estranged dinosaurs who sired and raised them, when the truth is, that both sides are reeling from the same pain.
There’s also a disturbing parent-child relationship here that, unsettling though it admittedly is, is still grounded in a sick and twisted sort of love.

So Byrne not only delivers the shock and the gore, he also populates the narrative with characters with actual thoughts and feelings, as opposed to the one-dimensional sketches we sometimes see in horror films.
All that, while establishing that not all the “weirdoes” and “losers” we know (regardless of age) share the same sort of scars; some could very well be psychopathic, that’s always a possibility, but some will really be just troubled and traumatized individuals, trying to numb the pain the best way they know how…

(The Clinic OS courtesy of wrongsideoftheart.com; The Loved Ones OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 2

THE LOVED ONES
(September 2009)


Aussie horror plants a flag for next year’s ¡Qué Horror! rundown with Sean Byrne’s feature debut, The Loved Ones, a film for all those iconoclasts who ever thought that prom was just some antiquated tradition best left by the cultural wayside.
“Prom is Hell”? In The Loved Ones, that truly is the case, as we bear witness to the Worst Prom Date captured on film since Sissy Spacek got all dolled up just to take a shower in pig’s blood.

Writer/director Byrne triumphs on a number of fronts with The Loved Ones, beginning with the fact that he’s able to counterpoint the blood and brutality with genuine emotional pain and mental anguish (and not just from the film’s main protagonist, played by Xavier Samuel).
Also, The Loved Ones isn’t just about the teen-agers. There’s a significant adult presence in the film, as we’re shown the strained dynamic between parents who no longer seem to understand their rebellious offspring, and children who feel a complex welter of emotion towards these estranged dinosaurs who sired and raised them, when the truth is, that both sides are reeling from the same pain.
There’s also a disturbing parent-child relationship here that, unsettling though it admittedly is, is still grounded in a sick and twisted sort of love.

So Byrne not only delivers the shock and the gore, he also populates the narrative with characters with actual thoughts and feelings, as opposed to the one-dimensional sketches we sometimes see in horror films.
All that, while establishing that not all the “weirdoes” and “losers” we know (regardless of age) share the same sort of scars; some could very well be psychopathic, that’s always a possibility, but some will really be just troubled and traumatized individuals, trying to numb the pain the best way they know how…

(The Loved Ones OS courtesy of impawards.com.)