Best friends Amélie (Mathilde Lamusse), Bintou (Suzy Bemba), and Morjana (Samarcande Saadi) spend their lives hanging out together, creating art on the walls of their dilapidated neighbourhood with their trusty spray cans, and drinking with the wider youth of the community. One night, during an art session, the trio uncover an old picture with a likeness of Morrocan folk legend Aicha Kandisha (Mériem Sarolie). The once beautiful woman is said to have become a demon, and when summoned, will unleash her mighty wrath on the evil men of the world. Later that night Amélia has a violent encounter with her ex. Rightfully angry, the young girl calls out to Aicha Kandisha, but the results aren’t quite what she had hoped. Kandisha seems incapable of differentiating between good and bad men, and a male body count soon builds. It is then left to Amélia, Bintou, and Morjana to try and put a stop to Kandisha’s vengeful ways once and for all.
What makes Kandisha such an interesting prospect is that it places characters we don’t typically see in horror films at the centre. For some reason, films within this genre tend to stick to a handful of character types, forever inflicting the same stories upon them. Here, the story is relatively traditional, but by placing the types of characters that wouldn’t look out of place in Larry Clark’s Kids, Kandisha steps onto new and fertile land. These street smart characters, all of whom have had a rough life, aren’t initially intimidated by the prospect of Kandisha. It is only when events spiral completely out of hand that they begin to spiral down the well-trodden path of hysteria and desperation. Although even this is handled in a different way. These feisty female friends never back down from their battle, and their resilience is remarkable to behold.
Directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo are no stranger to female-centric horror; their previous projects Inside and Livid both revolve around women. Inside is an especially feminine story, following a home invasion of a pregnant woman, the trespasser isn’t after the contents of the house, but the contents of the home-owner’s belly. With Kandisha Maury and Bustillo open up the world to include more male characters, although with the exception of a couple, they remain secondary characters. It’s a subversion from the mainstream norms, which often find the need to include a man in some important central part. But that isn’t the end of Kandisha’s subversion of gender tropes…
Kandisha further pushes the envelope by casting all men into the role of victim. For far too long films have institutionally cast female characters into this position and it’s intriguing to see things reversed here. As much as several of the men butchered are relatively innocent, a few are not, and there’s something gratifying about seeing them get their comeuppance. The viewer’s own opinions mirror that of Amélia and her friends, morphing from glee at seeing the bad men offed, to despair and anguish for the fate of the more socially adjusted male figures in their lives. A modern riff on the saying ‘be careful what you wish for,’ Kandisha explores toxic masculinity from a new point of view, one that seeks to express that, whilst the intentions of some are awful, not everyone with the XY chromosome is in need of punishment. Kandisha is blind in her rage, this rage working as a metaphor that transcends the gender divide and can also be read in terms of some people’s blanket beliefs about the race, religion, and the sexual orientation of others.
The creature design of Kandisha herself feels as if she was born from the pages of one of Clive Barker’s books of blood. She’s terrifying to behold, but also has a heavily sensual and seductive aspect to her. Her femininity, although hypnotic, is also deadly, and Kandisha utilises her feminine wiles to produce some truly horrific imagery. Further parallels can be drawn between Kandisha and Barker’s Candyman (from Barker’s tale The Forbidden), both of them having their own tragic tale, and having similar summoning methods. Then there’s the very blatant nod that comes..well I won’t spoil where exactly, but you’ll instantly get Candyman flashbacks. The excellent creature work is complemented by some nightmarish gore moments, Kandisha boasting some of the best movie deaths this year. The blood almost literally splatters out of the screen to the point that you might need a shower to feel clean again after watching.
If there are any negative points to Kandisha, it would be that the pacing gets a little jumbled in places. Some of the deaths, as well-executed from an effects perspective as they are, feel a bit rushed. The speed of dispatch is an obvious nod to Kandisha’s sacred vow of destroying all men, but it would play better if we had a longer build-up to some of the murders. These are relatively minor points however. Maury and Bustillo deliver a modern female-centric horror that is certain to bewitch the Candyman lover in your life.
Kandisha arrives on Shudder from Thursday 22nd July 2021.
Kandisha
Summary
A modern, French, female horror that borrows from Clive Barker and his Candyman, whilst still creating its own unique brand of evil.
