Horror movies have always remained an inspiration for rock and metal. That obviously holds very true for a band like Slipknot, whose sound, lyrics, and of course imagery immediately evoke the horror genre. The band has constantly reflected the dark, tragic and disturbing parts of life much in the same way the horror genre does as well. So it should come as no surprise that one of their members, namely The Great Big Mouth himself Corey Taylor, has popped up in a recent horror flick called Bad Candy, which is now available on demand with a Blu-ray release set for September 28th.
Written and directed by Scott B. Hansen (The Possession Experiment, Sevendust: Unforgiven) and Desiree Connell, Bad Candy is a horror anthology; several spooky and gruesome tales, all of them set in the Halloween-loving town of New Salem, make up the film. Local radio DJs Chilly Billy (Corey Taylor) and Paul (Gremlins star Zach Galligan) tell the grisly myths of the small town during their annual Psychotronic FM Halloween show, with each one growing more terrifying than the last.
Sadly, we don’t actually get to hear Paul and Chilly Billy narrate the stories they’re supposedly telling. Instead, the two only appear in between each segment, wrapping up one and then kicking off the next, but they still manage to make the most out of the time they’re given. Corey’s iconic voice takes naturally to the role of a radio DJ - it’s especially fun to hear him say things like “Can you dig it?” Galligan, meanwhile, mostly just sips on his coffee or smokes a cigarette, offering a couple words here and there before the night’s events begin to affect the radio station and the DJs are finally brought into the larger story.
The individual tales quickly ramp up the terror and the violence as they weave between over the top silliness and intense bloody mayhem. There’s a demonic clown that lurks around almost every scene, the classic “razor blades in the treats” setup, and harsh, blunt lessons on how doing stuff like selling drugs or abusing kids will eventually get you killed by some kind of monster. Sometimes things get weird, like an early segment that involves a young girl named Kyra (Riley Sutton) bringing fairies and other creatures to life with a magical sketchpad, or another where a mortician named Abbie (Haley Leary) trips and attempts to have some fun with the morgue’s clientele.
There’s some great looking imagery throughout the film, from shots of Kyra dressed as a witch running through the unmistakable colors of fall, to that damn clown standing in a dark and mysterious shed lit only by candles and jack-o’-lanterns. There’s also some genuinely inspired scares that Bad Candy manages to earn - one scene in particular that’s set in the world’s nastiest bathroom is memorable in its grisliness - and it maintains a crude and sadistic sense of humor that feels refreshingly loose.
Bad Candy might not have any higher aspirations or deeper thoughts on its mind beyond staging some gory thrills (most of which are pretty impressive considering the smaller budget), but it does often feel a bit smarter than other films in the way it sometimes jumps over horror tropes and delivers clever reveals. It’s a solid way to launch the best season of the year, and who better to usher you in than Corey Taylor?
‘Bad Candy’ is now available on demand and will be released on Blu-ray September 28th.
