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Review: Rebecca J. Matthews’ “The Candy Witch”

This isn’t a colorful board game or an urban legend – this is life or death! In Proportion Productions and Millman Productions’ The Candy Witch, two hot ghost hunters visit a distressed family claiming to be haunted by an evil spirit known around their town as The Candy Witch. As the witch’s wrath starts spreading and becoming more vengeful, the case becomes even more complicated because the apparitions are not synonymous with the entity’s original motive. Easily the duo’s craziest mystery yet becomes a who-done-it of supernatural proportions. Can they solve the case before it’s too late to contain the evil forever? Jon Callaway, Abi Casson-Thompson, Kate Lush, Heather Abemethy, Richard D. Myers, Will Stanton and Hannah Ponting star in The Candy Witch, arriving on DVD and Digital from Uncork’d Entertainment on June 9th 2020.

The first thing that struck me about The Candy Witch is that it’s 100% theater ready. It’s very atmospheric and looks like it could screen in theaters across America at a moment’s notice (whenever they open…). Uncork’d Entertainment continues to distribute the best independent feature films that the world has to offer, although I hesitate to call The Candy Witch an indie flick because the production quality is just so good and that connotation usually implies a small budget. I honestly can’t find one complaint in terms of principal photography and post-production edits. Director, producer and editor Rebecca J. Matthews, writer Scott Jeffrey, executive producer Jeff Miller, cinematographer Ben Collin and special effects artist Chelsea Murphy really knocked this one out of the park… or the chocolate store.

My only complaint has to do with the The Candy Witch herself. Not her design or ruthlessness, but with her reveal. She is basically shown throughout the entire movie, and I truly feel that hiding her from the audience would have done this movie more justice. The suspense would have been higher and the mystery would have been greater. Almost in the same way that Michael Myers was hidden throughout most of Halloween. The same effect would have greatly enhanced this flick. However, this could be due to the fact that the majority of the movie is spent trying to locate the identity of the killer, and that the witch may not even be the true culprit. I had my theory during my viewing, and it’ll be fun to see what ideas you guys come up with, too.

As a horror flick, The Candy Witch delivers on all the goods. One Lights Out inspired jump scare, a whole lot more deaths than I expected and murder by choking to death on cotton candy. That’s the way I’d want to go out. Throw in an ill-fated seance and traditional sleuth-drama, and The Candy Witch has the whole package. High quality production, believable acting performances, and a fun villain that’s whimsical and brutal. Final Score: 8 out of 10.

Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

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