"The Candy Snatchers" perfectly embodies why so many fans of the horror & cult genre worship the 70's decade! This is a hard-boiled and intense film, with a shocking and totally unpredictable storyline, utterly deranged characters and it literally doesn't take the slightest notice of political correctness and/or human emotions. Director Guerdon Trueblood and scriptwriter Bryan Gindoff take us on a wild & trashy 70's ride, covering controversial topics such as child abuse, mental handicaps, rape of minors, live burial, Vietnam traumas and brutal murders committed by unusual characters! A trio of ruthless thugs develops a seemingly waterproof plan to get rich with diamonds very fast. By kidnapping the cute 16-year-old stepdaughter of a diamond trader and demanding a huge ransom, they rest assured of success. Unforeseen complications arise when it turns out that the father isn't in a hurry to rescue his stepdaughter at all. Even more so, Candy's 'unfortunate' death would result in a huge financial triumph for him, so he sure ain't likely to come up with any type of ransom at all. The other – if possible even more brilliant – main storyline centers on a young and autistic boy who witnessed Candy's brutal live burial in a muddy grave with only a small tube for oxygen. He desperately attempts to warn his abusive parents about what he knows, but they're too caught up in their own crazy world of greed and self-pity. Purely talking in terms of grindhouse cinema-sickness, "The Candy Snatchers" leans damn close towards perfection! The atmosphere is constantly gritty, the violence & sleaze is very explicit and literally every character that walks through the screen is demented! Even the ones that only appear briefly, like the company manager who laughs hysterically at the poor boy's mental condition or the nasty gun store seller who deliberately ignores the reason why the gangster trio so urgently needs a shotgun. Sensitive viewers and/or people with a weak stomach beware, as poor young Candy goes through a hellish ordeal and the ending surely isn't cheerful. Even technically speaking, this production is far superior in comparison with the majority of 70's genre outings. Although obviously low-budgeted, the cinematography and editing are quite professional and the musical guidance is appropriately unsettling. The acting is top-notch, with an extra special word of praise for the director's young son Christopher in his first and only appearance on the big screen. "The Candy Snatchers" has recently been re-discovered and released in a fancy edition. The DVD is an absolute must have for every fan of the genre.

"The Candy Snatchers" is a cheap film that is a bit better than I expected. It's also far sleazier and dark than I expected--and it is definitely not to everyone's taste!

The film begins with three losers kidnapping a high school girl named Candy. The plan is to force her father to give them jewels from his store in order to ransom her back to the safety of the family. The problem is that mom is a total drunk and the step-dad couldn't care less about the girl. Heck, if she dies, that just means more money for him! So, although they anticipate an easy and quick deal, the crooks have picked the wrong family and the film is a tiny bit reminiscent of "Ruthless People" but with absolutely no comedy whatsoever...in fact it's sort of an anti-comedy! Why do I say this? Well, it's a very sick and sleazy sort of film in which just about everyone is totally awful! There are two rapes (one of which is awfully brutal and graphic),child abuse, violence galore and an ending that is among the darkest and most nihilistic I've ever seen. It really isn't my sort of film, as it's just too dark-- but I can respect what the filmmakers made---a well-crafted cheapie film about some amazingly soul-less scum.

By the way, the IMDb summary says that the little kid is autistic. Perhaps, as he is not verbal, but he shows few other signs of autism--maintaining eye contact and interacting with the world in a very non-autistic manner. Now I am not saying he was normal and his family was certainly awful...but autistic...probably not.

I absolutely love "The Candy Snatchers." It's a wickedly clever and dead-on nasty grind-house variant on the classic O. Henry short story "The Ransom of Red Chief." It's got everything you can want in a 70's exploitation flick: solid production values, an unflinchingly grim and nihilistic tone, colorfully warped bad guys (Brad David as the sickest of the three kidnappers is an especially depraved piece of hardcore human sickness),neat'n'gnarly plot twists aplenty, brutal violence, the beautiful Tiffany Bolling as a terrifically sexy and shifty femme fatale who would have fit in snugly in a vintage 40's film noir, gratuitous nudity, savage rape, a cute little mute boy as the unlikely hero, uniformly aces acting, strong direction, a truly startling knock-out bummer ending, a nifty cameo by James Whitworth (Papa Jupitor in "The Hills Have Eyes") as a telephone repairman who gets the living stuffing beaten out of him, bubbly blonde cutie Susan Sennett absorbing more punishment than a punching bag, the ever-smarmy Ben Piazza oozing total black-heartedness with lip-smacking aplomb as Sennet's spectacularly odious stepdad, a wickedly funny sense of pitch-black humor, and, best of all, an amazingly crappy sappy folkie theme song. And the film quite powerfully shows how youthful innocence is either corrupted or destroyed when exposed to adult evil at its most ferociously base and unforgiving. And remember everyone: money is the root of all happiness.