Anthology films are popular as if you don’t like one section, you haven’t got long to wait for another. Bad Candy – directed by Scott Hansen and Desiree Connell – unfortunately, doesn’t have enough that stands out to make it a Halloween treat.

The stories are anchored by the linking section that features radio DJs Chilly Billy (Slipknot singer Corey Taylor) and Paul (Zach Galligan). The former enjoys entertaining the listeners with fittingly sinister yarns for Halloween. Each tale is linked by a common element – Bad Candy the clown, a suitably evil-looking jester. Unfortunately, with more than the usual amount of segments, there are more that miss than hit, and some are given more screen time than others.

While most of the stories contain the usual horror movie tropes, one featuring Haley Leary, who’s called into her job in the morgue when out partying but after mixing her drink and drugs, proceeds to mount a corpse in a scuzzy-looking morgue, at least gives us something new.

Gremlins star Galligan isn’t given too much to do as Chilly Billy’s sidekick, but the pairing of him and Taylor works well. Naturally, there are bound to be caparisons drawn between Bad Candy and Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat, which doesn’t favour this film. The lack of originality at times really hurts, and the segments are not really given time to develop. On the plus side, favouring mostly practical gore effects is great to see. Thanks to the cinematography of co-director Scott Hansen and Blake Studwell, the movie looks great, but the visuals can only do so much. There are a few too many tricks in this bag of sweets.

BAD CANDY is on DVD and Digital from October 4th, courtesy of Kaleidoscope Entertainment