History Film / HardCandy

* TheAce: What Hayley appears to be on the surface — she is highly intelligent, reading books way outside of her maturity level, cute, witty, and seemingly comes from a great family.

* PhallicWeapon and VisualInnuendo: In a very clear case of VisualInnuendo, when Jeff arms himself with the knife and he's raging at/about Hayley, he begins stabbing the photograph of one of his models/victims. Around her crotch area.

* GoryDiscretionShot: We are never shown anything during the castration scene. [[spoiler:There was no castration, she was bluffing.]]

* SceneryPorn: The director had previously done music videos. The production looks absolutely sumptuous, even though the production was made on a shoestring- exactly the state of most music videos.

* CoversAlwaysLie: Elliot Page only wears that red hoodie in the final scene.

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Hayley says, "Four out of five doctors agree that I am actually insane." If taken at face value,[[note]]She's trying to convince Jeff to take her to his house, so there's a chance she's merely trying to be witty and charming, in which case she doesn't need to have her definitions exactly right.[[/note]] insanity is a legal concept, not a psychiatric one. Presumably what she meant (assuming she's telling the truth at all) is that they diagnosed her as being seriously mentally ill. But most mentally ill people would not qualify as insane under the legal definition (which was made even narrower after the controversial decision declaring John Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity in the early 1980s). For one thing, it usually requires ''at minimum'' a significant detachment from reality, a trait Hayley does not appear to possess.

* {{Bifauxnen}}: Ironically enough, considering certain revelations Elliot Page would come to in the future, Hayley looks more like a cute little boy than a FilleFatale.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: On Hayley's part. Jeff is trying to manipulate her into making the first move so that he can have some PlausibleDeniability if necessary. She knows the entire time what he's doing and she plays dumb pretending to fall into his trap.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: "Hard Candy" has two meanings here. It's an obvious reference to sweets uses to lure away little kids as well as a comment on the [[CuteAndPsycho surprising toughness of the sweet-looking]] female protagonist.

* DrivingQuestion: Who killed the girl? [[TheUnsolvedMystery We never really find out]].

** [[spoiler: There is a clear shot of a missing person notice about Donna Mauer on the wall at the cafe.]]

* NighthawksShot: The Nighthawks and a T-Shirt. An homage to the painting.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: Both of the main characters are quite awful, with one being a budding serial killer and the other being a pedophile, but which one is technically worse is also a subject of debate for the audience. While Hayley is clearly deranged, she's also explicitly going after a man who she believes to be a sexual predator who killed a teenage girl, and Jeff doesn't exactly help his case by trying to get (who he believes to be) a fourteen year old girl drunk and trying to groom her, and [[spoiler: the stash of photos under the rug]] ''really'' doesn't help, either. However, on the flip side, Hayley's torture of him is unnecessarily cruel and brutal, especially since, in RealLife, torture is horribly ineffective at getting reliable confessions out of people, meaning that anything Jeff could say to validate Hayley's opinion of him could easily be a FalseConfession and it's heavily implied that Hayley is doing it just for her own enjoyment rather than any righteous cause. Whether Hayley is right that [[spoiler: Jeff killed Donna]] is never explicitly confirmed, so she ''very'' easily could be wrong about her hunch and is actually torturing someone who had no hand in it. The moral dilemma usually boils down to whether Hayley is [[WellIntentionedExtremist justified in her plans]] or is an [[PragmaticVillainy opportunistic little monster,]] and whether Jeff, regardless of his crimes, is [[AssholeVictim deserving of the torture]] or [[CryForTheDevil not.]]

** This symbolism is the result of a lucky coincidence, however, as the iconic hoodie was actually orange and only turned red in color correction. The filmmakers swear up and down [[FauxSymbolism this was not meant to be symbolic]].

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Hayley says, "Four out of five doctors agree that I am actually insane." Insanity is a legal concept, not a psychiatric one. Presumably what she meant (assuming she's telling the truth at all) is that they diagnosed her as being seriously mentally ill. But most mentally ill people would not qualify as insane under the legal definition (which was made even narrower after the controversial decision declaring John Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity in the early 1980s). For one thing, it usually requires ''at minimum'' a significant detachment from reality, a trait Hayley does not appear to possess.
** Arguably played WITH rather than STRAIGHT - on the surface she's an attention-seeking teenage girl; underneath, she's playing games with his head. She doesn't need to have her definitions exactly right.

* SweetsOfTemptation: The title of the film alludes to the reveal that the protagonist is an underaged girl who lures sexual predators so she can inflict vigilante justice on them. Her victim is a pedophile who apparently raped and murdered a little girl.

* BreakThemByTalking: Subverted. Jeff does this on Hayley and it seems to work as she gets all teared up until she starts laughing in his face, revealing that her VillainousBreakdown was faked.

A 2005 PsychologicalThriller[=/=]ExploitationFilm written by Brian Nelson and directed by David Slade, starring Creator/PatrickWilson as a 32-year old photographer named Jeff Kohlver and Creator/ElliotPage as the precocious 14-year-old Hayley Stark.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: Both of the main characters are quite awful, with one being a budding serial killer and the other being a pedophile, but which one is technically worse is also a subject of debate for the audience. While Hayley is clearly deranged, she's also explicitly going after a man who she believes to be a sexual predator who killed a teenage girl, and Jeff doesn't exactly help his case by trying to get (who he believes to be) a fourteen year old girl drunk and trying to groom her, and [[spoiler: the stash of photos under the rug]] ''really'' doesn't help, either. However, on the flip side, Hayley's torture of him is unnecessarily cruel and brutal, especially since, in RealLife, torture is horribly ineffective at getting reliable confessions out of people, meaning that anything Jeff could say to validate Hayley's opinion of him could easily be a FalseConfession. Whether Hayley is right that [[spoiler: Jeff killed Donna]] is never explicitly confirmed, so she ''very'' easily could be wrong about her hunch and is actually torturing someone who had no hand in it. The moral dilemma usually boils down to whether Hayley is [[WellIntentionedExtremist justified in her plans]] or is an [[PragmaticVillainy opportunistic little monster,]] and whether Jeff, regardless of his crimes, is [[AssholeVictim deserving of the torture]] or [[CryForTheDevil not.]]

* EvilVsEvil: A child predator and a sociopathic budding serial killer duking it out.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Jeff, even accounting for the fact that he tried to hook up with an underage girl, comes across as otherwise charming and is played by the naturally likable and charismatic Creator/PatrickWilson. It gradually becomes clear how dangerous he really is.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: Both of the main characters are quite awful, with one being a budding serial killer and the other being a pedophile, but which one is technically worse is also a subject of debate for the audience. While Hayley is clearly deranged, she's also explicitly going after a man who she believes to be a sexual predator who killed a teenage girl, and Jeff doesn't exactly help his case by trying to get (who he believes to be) a fourteen year old girl drunk and trying to groom her, and [[spoiler: the stash of photos under the rug]] ''really'' doesn't help, either. However, on the flip side, Hayley's torture of him is unnecessarily cruel and brutal, especially since, in RealLife, torture is horribly ineffective at getting reliable confessions out of people, meaning that anything Jeff could say to validate Hayley's opinion of him could easily be a FalseConfession. Whether Hayley is right that [[spoiler: Jeff killed Donna]] is never explicitly confirmed, so she ''very'' easily could be wrong about her hunch and is actually torturing someone who had no hand in it.

* LittleRedFightingHood: It's wolf vs. wolf really but one of them wears red.

* LittleDeadRidingHood: Although see below for the (apparent) FauxSymbolism aspect, Hayley plays at being an endangered victim in her red leggings and red hoodie.

** This symbolism is the result of a lucky coincidence, however, as the iconic hoodie was actually orange and only turned red in color correction. The film makers swear up and down [[FauxSymbolism this was not meant to be symbolic]].

* {{Bifauxnen}}: Hayley looks more like a cute little boy than a FilleFatale.