(United States, 1973)
Review by: Kit Nygaard-Gavin
Written by: Bryan Gindoff
Directed by: Guerdon Trueblood
Cast: Tiffany Bolling. Ben Piazza, Susan Sennet, Brad David, Vincent Martorano, Bonnie Boland, Jerry Butts, Leon Charles, Delores Dorn, and Christopher Trueblood.
Source: Subversive Cinema [United States, NTSC Region 1 94 min 36 sec]
Language: English language

Attractive blonde, Jessie [Bolling], her psychotic brother Alan [David], and their friend Eddy [Martorano] sit in their blue van awaiting their prey whom they plan to kidnap.  The kidnap victim is Candy Philips [Sennet], a pretty blonde teenage daughter of a wealthy jewelry store owner.  The intention of the three crooks is that having kidnapped Candy, the father will pay a heavy ransom to release his daughter from their clutches.  

Not quite getting their facts straight, the trio of kidnappers grab the girl, tie her up, blindfold and gag her then proceed to bury her alive in a pit high up in the hills surrounding Los Angeles, only allowing Candy to breathe through a metal pipe protruding from the ground until her father pays up for her release.  However Candy’s burial has been seen by Sean [Christopher Trueblood], a young mute autistic blond boy who is badly treated at home by his parents.  His mother [Boland] gets him ready for a party she and her husband are going to.  Meanwhile the kidnappers make their way to place their demand with Candy’s stepfather, Avery [Piazza], who is more interested in his the charms of his attractive secretary than his step [!] daughter or his wife, Candy’s mother [Dorn].  In addition, if Candy dies, Avery looks set to inherit a million dollars which would allow him to leave the wife he doesn’t love and run off with his secretary.

However the after effects of the kidnapping go wrong, despite the attempts of the criminals to threaten Avery with harming Candy, they go so far as to go to the morgue to pay the morgue attendant to provide them with an ear that they can send her father to rush proceedings.  However the three criminals squabble amongst themselves, blaming each other for various goings on that backfire or go wrong, with Candy stuck in the middle of these fights with things getting out of hand leading to violence, rape, and death, and last but by no means least, a pitch black, dark ending.  

The story is as much a parable on the greed [“Money is the root of all happiness” as the song sung over the titles tells its audience as well as the bumper sticker on the back of the crooks’ van] of the various characters as much as it is the story of two sadly neglected children from different walks of life, neither of who have responsible or caring parents or guardians to give them the love they deserve or need.  The abuse that Candy suffers at the hands of the kidnapping trio is pretty nasty, not least the ultimate indignity of being buried alive to keep her whereabouts hidden from all, but in fact it is the abuse doled out to little Sean which is worse, as he is mistreated by his family, as it has a element of stark harsh reality that is considerably more potent than the kidnapping ordeal and abuse which Candy is made to endure.  In addition, the focus does seem to be on the storyline rather than cheap tactics like excessive nudity or visceral violence which was commonplace at the time.  Not to say that the film doesn’t have sex nor violence, it just seems more in keeping here, rather than for titillation and or “shock” value.

Some of the storyline is, hmmm, rather farfetched to say the least but this does not detract from the entertainment value of the film.  There are some nasty scenes of rape which come across as unexpected but the characters seem to be playing their roles with as much conviction as possible and the performances are certainly above average for an exploitation far such as this.   The performance given by Tiffany Bolling is very good indeed, her childlike response to Eddy tearing her top off prior to raping her, for no apparent reason.  Also the scene is to show the busty Bolling, who on the audio commentary doesn’t seem that phased by her nudity and seeing herself topless on camera.  Bolling after all was no stranger to nudity, having appeared in a photospread in Playboy in April 1972, although not as a Playmate [or centerfold] as the liner notes mistakenly say. The storyline certainly has a number of interesting ideas and is a good deal more intelligent as well, with three distinct storylines all coming together as one.  The most unusual is that of making the little boy, Sean, autistic, and his relationship with his parents who treat him appallingly due to this disability and certainly have no sympathy for him.  Indeed the only character who shows any sympathy is that of Eddy, who feels for Candy and her kidnap ordeal.  Indeed the character of Eddy is almost a paradoxical protagonist, he rapes Jessie yet he doesn’t want Candy to be harmed.  

Characters in this movie are generally interesting, with each and every one of them is in someway damaged of flawed.  The kidnappers are either dimwitted or borderline psychotic; Candy’s parents are seemingly indifferent to her plight, being either a drunk or have other selfish motives up their sleeve.  Poor little Sean’s parents are self interested, self involved and abusive towards their son preferring to spank him than care for him. Even the youngsters, Sean and Candy are damaged, deliberately or not, by their surroundings.  Despite none of the characters in the film being especially likeable, that is not to say that the characters are dislikable.  Performances given throughout the film are generally very good, and are way above average for an exploitation movie without any of the actors ever really over hamming their performance.  

Admittedly, on occasion the cute Sennet looks a little older than the teenager she is supposed to be playing [she was in fact 20] but other times she looks suitable young, exudes innocence and certainly has sufficient naivety (this may be due in part to the film being Sennet’s first acting role).  The director’s son Christopher [credited here as Christophe] is convincing in his pivotal role of the autistic little boy, and some of the performances alone add to the wild mood of the piece, the most extreme performance, in my opinion, being that of the excellent Bonnie Boland as Sean’s mother, Audrey. The best performance of all is given by Bolling, who has had a substantial career as an actress, but also one as a singer despite the actress’ own reservations on her musical career which she brings up during the course of her interview as “it kinda sucked”.  Characters also have depth, the villains are not like sadean ciphers in Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left for example.  Jessie is tough talking and pushing yet seems to have a vulnerable side, Alan is just nuts, and Eddy develops an almost caring relationship for his victim Candy.

Direction of the movie is tight if, admittedly, the storyline isn’t always.  There are some very odd moments, perhaps lending to the dark humor of the film (which Bolling states was the original intention of the film, but that not everyone understood).  One scene which is extremely bizarre is when Sean, unable to speak owing to his autism telephones a delicatessen instead of the police and tries to convey his message to get help for Candy by speaking down the telephone using a speaking doll.  Of course this fails, not least because the boy has dialed the wrong number, but adds a tragicomic edge to the storyline.  The film is unpredictable and entertaining, the characters are multi-faceted and it’s offbeat nature as well it’s slick, if inexpensive production values.  The film is very well lit, especially the scenes at night in the villain’s hide out giving the movie a further polished quality.  Another humorous scene is when the gang try to steal a telephone van, and end up fighting the worker for his van.  The violence there is almost comic book, yet it is somehow in keeping with the rest of the film.  The film also is generally a bright and colorful movie, it doesn’t have the glare and menace of other exploitation movies of the time and that again adds to the films charm making it a more watchable experience than one which is intended to make the viewer uncomfortable despite the intentionally dark subject matter of the kidnapping being the main drive behind the storyline.  

The sound and picture quality are excellent with the film looking as if it were made yesterday.  Clearly taken from the elements, there is very little apparent damage over the years, other than a barely discernable scratch or flicker which occurs so infrequently as to be not be worth mentioning in the body of this review.  The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen for 16x9 TVs. Colors are bright and vivid, fresh and crystal clear.  The soundtrack is presented in it’s original mono, also a remixed stereo version is available and last but not least the third track is that of the audio commentary track featuring the actresses Bolling and Sennet reminiscing about their participation in the film, and refreshingly, not rehashing everything that has been said in the featurette in the extras.

Plentiful extras accompany this release. Indeed more than expected, not least due to the obscurity and rarity of the film, and Subversive Cinema have truly given the film the red carpet treatment, not just in how it looks and sounds but in all the materials accompanying the release.  Supplementary to the actually DVD proper are small scale reproductions of three of the lobby cards which were sent to movie theaters upon the movies original theatrical run in the United States.  In addition there is a reprint of a European release movie poster neatly folded inside.  Liner notes by sometime writer Bruce Holecheck are printed on the back of the cover. In fact, to give Subversive credit, the packaging for this release is superb.  The cover artwork is excellent, and a lot of care has been put into this release by the distributors, the same was true for subsequent releases to this one.  A shame that Subversive never managed to get it’s hands on some other interesting titles following on from Mutations, Bloodbath and The Witch Who Came From the Sea.

The majority of the extras, of course, are included on the disc itself, however viewers are strongly advised to watch the extras after seeing the film, as a lengthy build up to the extras menu which has been made up from excerpts from the film, betrays some of the films significant final moments.  In fact, though it is fun to watch animated menus, more entertaining than the static menus of companies such as Media Blasters, the menus do seem to go on, and on, and at times seem to take an overly long time to get from A to B simply to select the soundtrack or to watch the extras (for example).  They are still entertaining to watch nonetheless if admittedly they get a little tiresome after a while. 

The primary extra consists of a 31 minute long (!!) featurette starring Susan Sennet (talking over a blow up shot of her bound and gagged in the hole, and the still striking Tiffany Bolling, discuss their careers and how they became involved with the film in a piece called “The Women of the Candy Snatchers”.  Bolling’s attitude towards the picture is interesting, given her views which could be seen as somewhat scathing, that she makes during the course of the featurette and later on during her participation in the audio commentary.  Bolling seems refreshingly open about herself, even talking about her politics (her Republican views) and quoting from the bible (citing the “money of all happiness and quoting the specific Biblical reference it comes from).  Sennet discusses her experiences in the pit, and having spent the majority of her on-screen time being blindfolded, gagged and kept in a dark pit.  Both talk about the difficulties of working in a film which was low budget as well as being non-union yet at the same time they speak with affectionate memories of and for various crew members, other cast members – both giving lots of praise to the director and to his son in the significant role he plays in the film.  

Throughout the running time of the film, there is an audio commentary with both women discussing their participation in the film with questions from film “geek” Mark Edward Hueck together with an occasional remark or more scholarly questions by DVD producer Subversive Cinema’s own Norm Hill [who had previously had conducted audio commentaries with Werner Herzog for a number of Anchor Bay releases in the early days of DVD.  Hueck’s knowledge of the actresses’ careers as much as those of the other performers in the feature is commendable, Hueck certainly living up to his “geek” status, but at times the questions are a little on the silly side but it is a mot interesting commentary none the less with Sennet clearly emotional about her memories of shooting this film, despite her respect and appreciation for Trueblood as director is clearly upset reliving her memories as the buried alive Candy and talks about how the role lead to claustrophobia after shooting the film.  Tiffany Bolling sounds genuinely concerned and caring of her co-star, calling her a “poor baby” when Sennet has to dig up some difficult memory, but is generally good humored throughout when discussing her memories and interpretation on the film as much as her appreciation of the other actors (Christopher Trueblood is singled out for a lot of praise) as well as for the director..

Two trailers are included for the film, one of which is the “PG Rated” version and the other being the stronger, more violent and with scenes of nudity “R Rated” version.  In addition to these two trailers are ones for other releases by Subversive Cinema, including Mutations [a.k.a. The Freakmaker] and Matt Cimber’s masterpiece of exploitation The Witch Who Came from the Sea, starring Millie Perkins.  

Also included are a gallery of photographs in black and white depicting various scenes from the film, presumably issued at the time of it’s release and provided to the press.  There are bios for all some of the performers, the director and screenplay writer as well, with interesting pieces of information on the performers which makes a refreshing change from the usual culling of filmographies from the [occasionally wrong] IMDb.  

To sum up, The Candy Snatchers is a true [and arguably one of the best] American exploitation pictures from the 1970s, much like titles such as The Last House on the Left or Don’t Go in the Basement although it has a considerably more polished look and quality about it that most others of a similar ilk seem to lack.  Most extraordinary is that it has never been released on VHS and this release on DVD marks it’s home video debut (over 20 years after its initially theatrical run).

On a purely personal note, it was a good friend of mine, Casey Scott [contributing writer and reviewer for websites such as DVD Drive-In], who first sparked my interest in seeing more American drive-in movies and exploitation, and amongst those titles he recommended was The Candy Snatchers as well as others such as Don’t Look in the Basement but that this was a must see in the cannon of American exploitation films from the 70’s.  However, at the time, it was not available on DVD nor even on a legitimate video release anywhere (only bootlegs being available) so it was nearly impossible to see.  Reviews in books, such as Sleazoid Express, sung its praises and made this elusive film all the more interesting and whet my appetite considerably.  Not even the label Something Weird, responsible for unearthing and releasing various drive-in/exploitation rarities on DVD had released this film.  When Subversive Cinema [who released this film on DVD] were starting out in early 2005, it was announced that they had obtained the rights to the film and would be releasing it on DVD.  When, at long last I finally got to see it on DVD [this release], I can gladly that it more than lived up to my expectations.  Therefore I would like to dedicate this review to Casey, in thanks, and as testament to nearly a decade long friendship, as most anyone knows, good friends are not at all easy to find.

The Candy Snatchers was an extremely impressive debut release for Subversive Cinema.  Other excellent releases followed with a lot of love and effort being put into the releases.  However nothing much has surfaced recently, regrettably, from a label which seemed to take a lot of pride in its releases.  For lovers of exploitation cinema, this DVD is most definitely worth picking up.  Hands down, an excellent release of a film too few people have seen, certainly since its initial release in 1973.  A DVD that’s not to be missed, an excellent addition to any exploitation film, US or otherwise, aficionado’s collection !! 

STORY/FILM : - 4 / 5 Bitch Slaps
PICTURE: - 4.5 / 5 Bitch Slaps
AUDIO: - 4.5 / 5 Bitch Slaps
EXTRAS: - 4 / 5 Bitch Slaps
OVERALL DVD: - 4 / 5 Bitch Slaps

2008 @ Cinema Nocturna