Hard Candy (movie)

The film opens with a flirtatious online conversation between a man and a girl, who agree to meet in person for the first time at a cafe. The two are revealed as 14-year old Hayley Stark and 32-year old photographer Jeff Kohlver. After further flirtation, Hayley suggests they return to Jeff's house . Once there, Hayley makes them both screwdrivers, after telling Jeff she doesn't drink unless she can be sure of the contents. As they drink, Hayley suggests that Jeff take some photographs of her, similar to the ones of young girls displayed on the walls of his home. As Jeff returns with his camera and begins taking pictures, he feels disoriented and passes out.

Jeff wakes up tied to a wheeled computer chair. Hayley explains she drugged him, and then accuses him of being a pedophile. As she searches his house, she discovers letters of correspondence between him and a woman named Janelle, who turns out to be Jeff's ex-girlfriend for whom he still has feelings, as well as photos of a sexual nature in a hidden safe in his rock garden. Among them is a picture of another woman, a local girl who had been kidnapped and remains missing. Jeff denies involvement in the womans disappearance before kicking a distracted Hayley to the floor and wheeling himself to his bedroom to get a gun. As he returns, they struggle. He begins to bang her against the wall but Hayley is able to wrap his head in plastic wrap and choke him into unconsiousness

Jeff wakes up tied to a table with a bag of ice on his genitals. Hayley informs Jeff of his impending

castration ,which she says will be a kind of public service. After a long conversation she then begins composing an e-mail to his ex-girlfriend. Despite Jeff's attempts to dissuade her through threats, bargaining, negotiation, and pleas for her sympathy, Hayley apparently proceeds with the operation. Following its conclusion, she steps out of the room, and Jeff breaks free from his bonds, only to discover that the operation was faked. Scalpel in hand, he stalkes Hayley to the bathroom, where he is blindsided from behind by Hayley, who shocks him into unconsciousness with a stun gun.

Hayley begins to type a fake suicide note. Jeff awakens again, this time on a chair with a noose around his neck. Hayley reveals that she has written a fake suicide note on his behalf and has called Janelle , telling her to come to the house. She offers Jeff a choice between killing himself before being outeds as a sexual predator, or living with the shame and legal consequences of his crimes. Their conversation is interrupted when a neighbor knocks on the door. Hayley answers and convinces the neighbor that she is Jeff's niece, and that everything is fine. When Hayley returns, Jeff breaks free from the noose and pursues her to the roof, where she has created another noose, and manages to hold him off using the gun.

As Janelle arrives at the house, he finally confesses to Hayley that he was involved in Donna Mauer's death, but claims that he only watched while another man, who he says was his partner in the crime, actually committed the murder, and offers to tell her his name for sparing himself. Hayley reveals that she already knows his name, and that, "Aaron told me you did it, before he killed himself." Janelle is outside the house now, knocking, and Hayley reminds Jeff that he still has the option of killing himself to avoid prosecution, as well as the shame of Janelle finding out the things he has done. She promises him that if he does this, she will destroy all evidence of his crimes and that nobody but the two of them will ever know. Reluctantly, Jeff doesn't resist when the noose is slid around his neck and walks off the roof, seconds before Hayley says, "Or not". She gathers her belongings and escapes through the woods, walking down a road.