 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 2020 film Candicea It's a shutter original film and it's coming to shutter on July 22nd, which is a Thursday I'm putting this review out ahead of time and because it's a new film and this review is coming out before it's available to stream No spoilers, although I will give a short synopsis Gonna let people know ahead of time if you need to know this subtitled film. It is a French film, but I Think it's totally worth watching This is a film that when I was initially watching it I was kind of like I don't really think I like where they're going the kind of evil in the film was not that Interesting to me at first, but trust me stick with the film It really does end up picking up pace quite a bit it is one of those films that really just does build until you get to the end and It turned into a film that I was not feeling all that interested in for maybe about the first half or so and then Ended up being pretty good. Actually. I I did enjoy this one So like I said Candicea from 2020 written and directed by Alexander Bustio and Julian Maury who also did the films inside Which I have not seen I I watched a lot of the films from that initial French extreme horror film movement from a bunch of years ago and Inside was one that I actually missed I saw the other big ones like, you know martyrs high-tension Frontiers stuff like that, but I missed inside so I still need to watch that they also did livid Which I've been meaning to see among the living and the deep house. I haven't seen any other films So I really need to also Bustio and Maury were I believe were the people for a while who were attached to the Hellraiser remake project and then they just ended up getting out of it because like it was basically Stagnating things weren't going that well and here we are. We still don't have the whole razor remake If we ever get it, we'll see Not that I care that much because the originals are good Anyway, the quick synopsis of this it's about some high schoolers I assume are their high schoolers that you don't actually see them in school But some French high schoolers who are living in a kind of rundown cityscape, you know You definitely get the idea their families are not well to do They do drive that home in there. That's one of the kind of the messages of the film and they Hear about this lore They're into tagging buildings doing graffiti with spray paint Which is a cool aspect of the film in my opinion because that's not covered all that much in horror at all So I like that kind of you know tagging graffiti culture at play here. So anyway, they find out about this kind of Middle Eastern lore that they start to Talk about joke about and then in a desperate situation one of them ends up utilizing it Which brings an entity which brings death and that's as far as I'm gonna take it Yeah That's as far as I'm gonna take it with the story. So if that sounds interesting to you definitely check the film out I'm recommending it. I think it's a pretty good film. It's not like the best film I've ever seen but it's solid I enjoyed it The camera work is immediately very engaging with nice zooms and following shots. That's one of the things it looks really good You can tell that Maori and bustio have been doing film for quite a while directing and cinematography looking excellent There are a few moments where there's some lighting issues Not a whole lot though. It's it's very much early on in the film where it's kind of One of the issues that I Kind of harp on which is when it's so dark that you can't really see what you're supposed to be seeing on the screen But that's very fleeting. Um, it doesn't get Repeated a whole lot as an issue within the film. So thank goodness The music used is modern for the most part hip-hop and rap is used Which really does match with the kind of young characters in here. So you it's appropriate. You know, you get that feel So if that's not your speed, you're potentially not really going to like the music Although there is the kind of normal score to go along with the film to increase mood at the right times horror wise And that's done well as well as well The characters refer to each other at least initially at by race by in these kind of really Reductive ways by race and they make kind of stereotypical jokes based off race with each other So I don't know if this was kind of a way to poke fun at At um, you know racial divide Within the city because I think this is paris. I mean, that's my guess I don't think they ever come out and say it But I don't know if they're trying to like poke fun at racial divide Or if they're just trying to depict youth as they kind of are nowadays Where they, you know, kind of take things that are uncomfortable things that are kind of social issues And they just kind of like joke about them just amongst themselves in a comfortable manner But that's in there and I got to feel like there's a real purpose there. I just don't 100 know what that purpose is. It doesn't make itself Immediately known, but that is something that's in there. So I don't know if that will make some people uncomfortable or not um So yeah, but later on they start actually referring to each other as By their regular names The acting is really good It's it's very well done and the relationships end up feeling very real between the characters And that's actually partially because of the acting, but it's also because of the writing as well I think the characters are well written the dialogue is well written and obviously like I said The acting is really good. So those things really come together to give you this feeling like you're watching actual teens Interacting with each other having relationships having problems going through this crazy situation And it plays as pretty real. Uh, it's well executed in my opinion The that aspect There is this one moment There's some CGI used in this film and there's this one moment Where the CGI is kind of like front and center and it's very much focused on and it looks really wonky Now I have a problem with it because a it looks really wonky and when you focus on CGI the way they did It's not going to look that hot Um, there's a pun in there. You'll you'll figure that out, but uh unintentional, but um They could have shot that scene in a different way so that they didn't need to show that bad CGI the way they did So that's kind of my problem with it. They could have gotten around that They should have known that that CGI wasn't going to come out that well and it didn't come out very well And and those types of moments really kind of as an audience member take you out of the film for a little bit because you're like Oh, that just didn't look so hot, but you know minor thing happens once Not like a long standing issue There is a scene involving an animal that people are really not going to like And one of the problems is it wasn't really a necessary scene to do So I don't know if they're going for shock value here or if they felt like it's really adding something I don't think so. Uh A lot of people are going to hate it now with film with stuff Scenes like that where I can definitely tell that The animal wasn't necessarily treated super poorly or Uh, well treated poorly at all The animal was held in a normal manner. I should say but you could tell I could tell that it was fake What was going on? Obviously there is an actual animal harm in this but Some people just seeing animal harm depicted is too much and it's a cute animal So this is really going to send some people Uh into a rage I think about this And I'm not angry about it But I do kind of see things like that and just be like really is this like like do we need to do this? Is this necessary because people know that that's like a button pushing thing and maybe that's the reason it's in there It's just to kind of push buttons, but I just didn't see it as necessary. It doesn't really add anything to the film in my opinion So I didn't I didn't understand it The actual lore that gets introduced within this that kind of middle eastern lore I was talking about Is uh really cool. Actually, I I found that very very interesting in my opinion And I think that moment where the lore is really explained kind of marks where the film really starts to get Really moving and amping up and getting a lot better in my opinion That's where my interest really really really jumped in because prior to that I was kind of like, okay I mean the film's okay. I'm just kind of like Floating along with these characters. Where are they going? I'm not that interested in what's going on with this thing this evil But then the lore happens and I think it just really starts to hit its stride I like the setting of the rundown cityscape. It's not a setting you see a ton And the way it looks and the way they use it as a low as a shooting location as an end for set design is really cool, especially the uh kind of Rundown building that a lot of the graffiti tagging ends up happening in That one in particular looked really good and kind of reminded me of a specific film from Some decades ago that I will talk about at the very end of this who I think that film Heavily heavily influenced this film, but I'll talk about it at the end I understand why they did the final scene the way they did But from an actual story standpoint, it doesn't make sense The the very final scene in this film when I saw it. I was like this doesn't make sense For the storyline for the characters. This would not be happening most likely based off everything else that has happened in this film I understand why they did it and it makes sense Because they tried to have an impact with it, but it doesn't work for me story wise I would be interested to see what everyone else thinks about that. You can go ahead and put it in the comments when you If when you see it Yeah, just saying But some people may love it. Some people may be like, oh, that's perfect The first bunch of deaths are very lackluster, but trust me stick with it They definitely start to get better They get a lot better and there are a few death scenes that are quite good that I quite enjoyed that have Nice nice nice practical effects. So nice on that There's a point here that revenge is not what people think it is and can cause a lot more damage than anyone knows This is actually a kind of theme that I really like to see in film because especially in American culture We're very Into revenge in films and actual real life revenge is not what people think it is Based off of films. So that's why I love films like this as well. Well, I don't love this film I like this film, but I like love the theme that they put in there Also, like cham wok park's revenge trilogy like those three films old boy sympathy for mr. Vengeance and lady vengeance They're basically all about how revenge is not what you think it is and how it's actually not satisfying And can just cause so much more chaos and damage than you would think so that's at play here So I think it's done. Well I also think this film serves as an allegory for being of a marginalized group Living in tough conditions and all the loss that ends up coming with that life situation Once again going back to that rundown cityscape You can kind of make some guesses as to you know the tie-ins there and and what that allegory is but Yeah, I think it was intelligently enough done and it works my final thing I can't help but feel that this film was heavily heavily heavily influenced by the original candy man Just gonna say that a lot of the stuff looks kind of similar a lot of the stuff feels kind of similar If you watch this film and think candy man it's Gotta be influenced heavily by candy man It really does but you can let me know your thoughts on it Like I said go ahead and put some comments down there and just in general anything about this film You can go ahead and put spoilers in the comments. That is fine. I will allow that But let's talk about it. Yeah, so out of five stars with half stars in play I'm gonna give it a solid three star rating Like I said, I don't like love this film But I do like it and it does make me want to go back and watch inside and livid and check out some other boostio and maury Films so yeah, and I'd be interested to see what they're gonna do in the future But do me a quick favor hit that subscribe button if you haven't already if you have thank you very much You're awesome. If you haven't it takes you a second. 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