13 Days of Halloween – TV Series Review: Sharp Candy (2019)

From director Dylan R. Nix comes Sharp Candy, a short anthology horror series that features tales inspired by horror novels from the 80s. Season one features 4 stories that intersect on Halloween Night.

The first is Janey’s Night where a young woman named Janey gets a mysterious message regarding rudeness. When she answers the door a trick or treater who behaves oddly, she refuses a treat and is now in for a trick that might cost her more than she expected.

The second short is called The Pawnbroker and sees a shop owner accosted on Halloween night to be part of a life-changing ritual. Tohell Road then has a brother and sister make an unfortunate detour while on route to a Halloween party. A detour that puts them on a collision course with a psychotic clown.

Before American Trickers has two youngsters decide to get their Halloween revenge on their principal. Unfortunately for them, someone else has the same idea but with bloodier consequences.

One of the things that makes Sharp Candy worthwhile is that each episode is short. The longest (American Trickers) being around 28 minutes. This keeps every story tight and concise, needed as there’s nothing you haven’t seen here before.

What it lacks though in originality, it makes up for in the gleeful fun factor. Each story having a tongue in cheek, Creepshow vibe to things. Although with a much lower budget, it’s the only time that comparison can be made.

A cast of virtual unknowns, the acting overall is surprisingly solid with a couple of exceptional turns here and there. Director Dylan R. Nix has a blast playing the psychotic clown, Baron Von Laugho and is easily the most memorable thing as he appears in two of the stories. Whereas Martigan turns in a creepy and effective performance as the Head Karvester in The Pawnbroker episode.

On the effects front, it suffers from its low budget and there’s really nothing of note or to get excited about. Forgivable though as there’s nothing that is objectively bad. Which kind of applies to the short series overall. There’s nothing bad about it at all. There’s nothing great about it but this Halloween you can have some fun with these old-school horror tales.