Hard Candy

In HARD CANDY, a 32-year-old man makes contact with a 14-year-old girl via the internet. He arranges to meet her and takes her home, but it soon becomes clear that things are not quite as the man had imagined. HARD CANDY was the 2005 debut film by David Slade, who is also known for 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE and the Black Mirror episode Bandersnatch. The film tackles highly provocative themes such as online grooming, the reversal of power dynamics and victimisation, and has gone on to become a cult classic within the genre.

This Girls on Film screening was curated by Helena Cazaerck, the lead singer of Maria Iskariot. The band describes its sound as “semi-adult female punk rock”.

Girls on Film is a feminist film collective that aims to provide a broader platform for cinema by and about women. Every month, they screen curated films at De Cinema that spotlight women’s experiences and contributions to cinema (and its history). In Girls on Film: De Podcast, they explore the themes raised and the social relevance of the films in greater depth with a guest speaker.