The Candy Shop (29:58)
Dread Central; IMDb; Street Grace; Vimeo; Whitestone Motion Pictures

This came out in 2010, but I first learned of its existence in 2017, and didn't get around to watching it until 2018. It's something I discovered while looking through Dread Central for horror short films, but it's not a horror film, per se (though it's certainly horrific). It's... part of a movement to stop sex trafficking of young girls. Primarily in Atlanta, apparently, but really anywhere.

Anyway, the film is set during the Great Depression. There's a boy named Jimmy, who sells newspapers for a grocer named Mr. Patroni. Jimmy is doing the best he can to earn money to support himself and his mother, who is very sick, and to pay her medical expenses. Across the street from the grocer's shop is a candy shop. Jimmy seems very concerned about the candy shop, of which a lot of men are patrons. Eventually, the candy shop's owner (played by Doug Jones) invites Jimmy into the shop, and offers him a job, which would pay much more than his current job, and therefore be of greater help to his sick mother. But the owner has a machine which turns young girls whom he lures into his shop, into candy. Of course, Jimmy wants no part of that. But he doesn't actually try to put a stop to what's going on until he sees his friend Nancy being lured into the shop.

So... wow. The film is necessarily dark. And the metaphor of turning young girls into candy... is appropriately very disturbing. And... I really don't know what else to say. Except I certainly hope the film helps put a stop to the reality of sex trafficking.