Candy Skin [Horror Short Review]

What is it with body horror and Canadians doing it so freakin’ well? You know, it really all boils down to the master, and that is David Cronenberg, and thanks to him we have a slew of works inspired by the man to help salivate our craving for body horror. And speaking of which, we recently viewed an excellent short from Kyle Martellacci, the short is titled Candy Skin, and it’s brimming with the good stuff.

The film follows David Yersin (Renny Jachowicz), who finds out that he is in ill-health, and he needs to take eye-drops to improve his condition, so he goes home, everything seems normal, he takes his medication and dozes off to sleep. All is right in the world. Well, not everything, you see, David notices his girlfriend, Lynne (Stephanie Moran), doing some yard work outside, so he comes to her assistance, but in the blink of an eye, she disappears. In a frantic haze, David, looks for Lynne, running around, but she is found to be nowhere.

He continues his search out in the streets, when his ears are assaulted by a heinous noise and soon things a turn for the worse, much worse. Things begin to happen to his body, as well as his mind, and we are hurled into a nightmarish world from which there may not be an escape.

The film is beautifully shot, great location with a deeply eerie setting that helps emphasize the bizarre occurrences that begin to take shape. Couple all this with some excellence synth tones from William McTavish, and we have a very well orchestrated short here that blends very nicely together.

And of course, the practical effects. Yeah, they’re really good, much like the beginning of the article where I reference David Cronenberg and body horror, there must be some inspiration here as we have some glorious moments of flesh falling away from the body.

My one complaint, which is probably me anyway, I struggled to hear a lot of the dialogue, again, my ears ain’t too good so that might be on my side, but yeah, apart from that, a really good and engaging short from Kyle Martellacci. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more from him and his team.

The film has played at a slew of festivals already, and they’ve scored a few awards, check them out;

GenreBlast Film Festival (US) (2016) – Nominated: Best Poster

Soo Film Festival (US) (2016)

Motor City Nightmares (US) (2016)

Ottawa Spookshow and Fantastic Film Festival (CAN) (2016)

Mac Underground Film Festival (BRA) (2016)

Pile of Bones Underground Film Festival (CAN) (2016)

Scare-A-Con (US) (2016)

Scream in the Dark Film Festival (US) (2016)

Upstate New York Film Festival (US) (2016)

DEDfest International Genre Film Festival (CAN) (2016)

Nightmares Film Festival (US) (2016)

Northern Frights Festival (CAN) (2016) – Winner – Best Makeup

Halloween International Film Festival (US) (2016)

LeglessCorpse Film Festival (US) (2016)

Twisted Horror Picture Show (US) (2016) – Nominated: Best Foreign Film / Best Actor (Renny Jachowicz) / Best Poster

Montreal Requiem Fear Fest (CAN) (2016)

Post Mortem (MX) (2016)

Unrestricted View Horror Film Festival (UK) (2016)

So, check out the trailer below and keep an eye out for the film on the festival circuit, the next festivals the film will be playing at are as follows;

Fright Night Film Fest (US) (2016) November 25-27, 2016

Grindhouse Planet Film Festival (UK) (2016) November 27, 2016

Video Drunk (CAN) December 1-3, 2016

Camp Horrors Creepfest Film Festival (CAN) March 25/26, 2017

Maybe some of you have seen this one already? If so, let us know what you think? And what about that poster, eh? She’s a beaut!