8 Ball-Busting Scenes That Leave All Men Crossing Their Legs
1. Hard Candy The Entire Fricking Second Act
There's a lot of respect to be had for films that make you empathise with those who you really shouldn't: Goodfellas aligns you with a coke-addicted gangsters; The Iron Lady makes you sympathise for the most despised Prime Ministers in history; the Total Recall remake makes you feel for Colin Farrell's career. But most shocking of all is Hard Candy, which in a Daily Mail angering move not only attempts to, but succeeds in making you feel for a paedophile.
The film pits a teenage Ellen Page (in her first major film role) against Patrick Wilson's is-he-isn't-he paedophile. And while at first it looks like Wilson's Jeff is marginally in control, the tables soon turn, with Page quickly revealing she's been the one hunting him down. But the film doesn't stagnate after this intriguing premise, instead pushing it as far as is possible.
Page's Hayley drugs and ties up Jeff, calmly explaining that she is going to perform a rudimentary castration on him, much to his (and the audience's) horror. The majority of the film's second act is the build up to and the eventual act, shown to us and Jeff by a painfully angled camera feed. The look on Jeff's face of first horror, then acceptance is something that conveys the act better than any Saw-like gore could.
Some people could read the film as showing a bad man getting his what he deserves, but the emphasis on the suffering makes it something much deeper; in this most horrendous act director David Slade is making us question whether such heinous crimes deserve the horrific punishments the tabloids so often claim should be doled out.
The surgery ends with a rather calming twist; it was all an ruse. Hayley has merely clasped his ball sack and shown a medical training video. But the mental damage is done, to both Jeff and the audience; we won't be sleeping safe tonight.
Are there any shocking, crotch fearing scenes we've missed out? Have your say on the comments below.