Candyman

Candyman

Anthony and his partner move into a loft in the now gentrified Cabrini-Green. After a chance encounter with an old-timer exposes Anthony to the true story behind Candyman, he unknowingly opens a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifying wave of violence.

  • Released: 2021-08-25
  • Runtime: 91 minutes
  • Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thrillers
  • Stars: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Colman Domingo, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Kyle Kaminsky, Vanessa Williams, Brian King, Miriam Moss, Rebecca Spence, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Christiana Clark, Michael Hargrove, Rodney L Jones III, Ireon Roach, Breanna Lind, Heidi Grace Engerman, Sarah Lo, Malic White, Mark Montgomery, Torrey Hanson, Cassie Kramer, Sarah Wisterman, Cedric Mays, Alec Silver, Hannah Love Jones, J. Nicole Brooks, Pamela Jones, Genesis Denise Hale, Katherine Purdie, Tien Tran, Mike Geraghty, Aaron Crippen, Dan Fierro, Nadia Simms, Nancy Pender, Johnny Westmoreland, Guy Spencer, Daejon Staeker, Tony Todd, Virginia Madsen, Ben Marten
  • Director: Nia DaCosta
 Comments
  • brom-22193 - 18 February 2024
    just terrible
    I'd like to start out with the good points, but I really can't think of any. The story was hard for me to follow. I was able to walk away from it with the message they were trying to say there were injustices. It wasn't scary at all, and if you were expecting it to be anywhere as good as the original, you will be sorely disappointed. If it wasn't a sequel, I might have liked it better.

    I tried not to have high expectations and i don't think I did. However, it still disappointed in every possible way. I'd like to say that it was forgettable, but I didn't even remember enough of it to be forgettable.
  • IonicBreezeMachine - 11 September 2023
    Candyman returns with an entry that almost reaches the heights of the original
    Set in 2019 in the now gentrified area surrounding Cabrini-Green in Chicago, artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is seeking a new angle for his artwork to impress the attendees of his art exhibition. Anthony's search for inspiration takes him to Cabrini-Green's past as a low-income housing project which had previously held an urban legend of supernatural figure Candyman (Tony Todd) which had claimed graduate student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) in 1992 as she allegedly went mad looking for the origin of Candyman. Anthony's search takes him to Cabrini-Green resident Billy Burke (Colman Domingo) who tells him a hook handed black man in the 70s who was wrongfully blamed for putting razorblades in candy which lead to the police beating him to death. As Anthony incorporates the Candyman legend into his work, a slow corruption envelopes him as the legend is born once again.

    Candyman is the fourth entry in the Candyman series directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Jordan Peele who also co-wrote the film alongside DaCosta and Win Rosenfield. After Candyman 3: Day of the Dead, the series went on hiatus for two decades with various attempts to revive the character such as a crossover with the Leprechaun franchise or a theatrically released entry in 2006 falling apart for reasons ranging from rights disputes or disinterest among the cast. In 2018, it as announced Jordan Peele's company Monkeypaw Productions had acquired the rights to the series with the intent being to make a spiritual sequel that would largely ignore the critically panned second and third films down to the fact it would go back to Chciago. Made for a $25 million budget, Candyman was one of many films that had been delayed in release due to Covid and opened in August of 2021 to the strongest reviews the series had seen since the first one as well as strong box office making $77 million against its $25 million budget. Candyman is a solid addition to the canon of this character that brings Candyman mostly back to being an ethereal being of myth and abandons the soap opera revelations of the sequels.

    Abdul-Mateen II is really good as Anthony McCoy and his nature as a protagonist in this story gives this film a new identity in comparison to the previous ones as it largely eschews the "frame-up" plot points of the first three films and gives us a new take that's more in line with psychological horror and the slow rot of body horror. As Anthony dives deeper and deeper into the Candyman legend he begins to manifest a type of rot that brings him in line with several other figures associated with the legend. The movie expands the mythology of Candyman by going beyond the original legend of Daniel Robitaille and incorporates that character's mythology as one of several stories of racial injustice and giving the character another grounding point in how he survives because he is born from these repeated instances (some of which are based on true events and shown in haunting detail through shadow puppets in the end credits). If I had to criticize the film, I'd say that some of the characterizations maybe weren't as memorable as the 1992 film, and I was also rather mixed on the ending as it seemed to flirt with making the character almost an avenging angel like The Crow rather than the terrifying Dracula like monster he was in the first film.

    Candyman is easily the best entry in this series we've gotten since the first and washes away the mediocre to awful entries of Candyman 2 and 3 which damaged the character. While I wasn't quite sold on everything, what it did well was really well-done.
  • m-47826 - 18 April 2023
    Expected it to be bad.
    And it was. You could see Jordan Peele contributed to the script. And that's not a compliment. Barely anything made sense, from Anthony whose hand was rotting, and his girlfriend not noticing it. To the part where the art critic did not tell him to leave, after he was acting psychotic. Or how writers could not even embrace making their leads look bad. In favor of more victimizing speeches, until the very end. It was a pain to watch. And I'm not even talking about the acting in those « intense » scenes, that made me laugh most of the time. Or the awkward dark humor. It was yet again another horror movie that put so much emphasis on the pathos, it forgot to be scary. And regardless of some decent gore and camerawork, the way the movie was written felt weird, and latching on to a message that did not need to be emphasized this much, to be efficient. I liked Vanessa Williams cameo, even though her acting was just as bad as it was on the OG Candyman. The callbacks to said movie, and how they turned the legend into a generational monster. But I wished it mentioned the sequels as well. Also, it was clear how the movie would go from the start, so nothing unexpected happened for me. And to be honest, I did not like any of the characters. I kind of preferred it over all of the other « woke » horror movies we got lately, only it just comforted me in the idea, that the genre did not need this. And still don't...
  • tsh332 - 27 November 2022
    It's not NOPE
    Loved Jordan Peele's recent film "NOPE" and sought this out after watching that quite good and novel film. Admittedly, I turned this off after about forty minutes, but I saw nothing there to encourage investing more time. Predictably tropes and characters were everywhere and I saw no sign of that changing later in Candyman. If you were looking for a slasher ala Freddy Kreuger, I could even recommend this for that. It was just dull, simple, and lacking suspense for the most part. I'd give this a hard pass and go watch "NOPE" by the same writer for a film with real suspense, mystery, and some good jumps and unique humor.
  • Slarkshark - 16 October 2022
    Pale Reflection of the Original
    As a sequel it's not horrible, but doesn't compare to its predecessor. This film felt very reminiscent of 'Velvet Buzzsaw'. I suppose that's what you get when you have pretentious art dealers/critics being brutally murdered by a ghost or supernatural force.

    The message on racism and the ghetto is abundantly clear, as was the original. Really liked the idea of bringing Anthony back and making his story come full circle.

    Lastly... Go to the Doctor!!! I was pretty much yelling this during two thirds of the film. There's no way he's waiting that long to get that infection or whatever checked out.
  • sgmi-53579 - 2 October 2022
    Urban legend scares for a new generation
    Aiming for the less-traveled road of high art, in a typically low brown genre, Nia DeCosta attempts to weave urban legend-cum-slasher into a mood piece on systemic racial injustice. Does it work? Mostly, yes. It's a different, but no less valid take on the slasher genre. There's much to enjoy, from the gorgeous art and set design, to the captivating performances from our leads. However, ninety minutes isn't really enough time to make a grand filmic statement, and viewers wanting a great slasher may feel slighted, as might those who enjoy the film's higher aspirations. Really, this boils down to an origin story, where much of the plot is weighted down by exposition. Is it good? Yes. Is there some slasher gore for the die-hards? Yes. Will it satisfy everyone? Absolutely not. It feels like a build up for a big payoff, which we've not yet seen. Sequel welcome. Let's see where it goes. For this film, seven out of ten. Enjoyable and engaging, with expectations in check.