Review of Candyman (2021) by Rebecca31 — 31 Aug 2021

Candyman 2021 is a direct sequel to the original 1992 Candyman and ignores the other sequels. It gives enough backstory to introduce a new audience and it’s not essential to have seen the original beforehand. I had high expectations, but unfortunately Candyman did not meet them.

Set in present day Chicago, years after the last of the Cabrini Green towers was torn down. Anthony McCoy’s (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) career as an artist has been waning but he becomes reinvigorated after an encounter with a Cabrini Green resident who retells the horrific story behind the Candyman. Anthony begins to explore the ghost story of the supernatural killer who can be summoned by anyone daring to say his name five times while staring into a mirror. The more Anthony delves into the true story behind the Candyman he unwittingly opens a door, and unleashes a terrifying new wave of violence and horror. Candyman, directed by Nia DaCosta was one of the few horrors I was looking forward to this year. I’m sure DaCosta will go on to make some great movies, because despite my disappointment it’s well directed and has a lot of nice, artistic visuals. It starts off promising, creates the right atmosphere and keeps a similar tone to the original Candyman. I really did like the first half but unfortunately the second half morphs into a different movie and completely falls apart. It felt like those cheap generic horrors that I’ve seen again and again. There are far too many scenes of people standing in front of mirrors saying Candyman over and over again. I thought the trailer was overdoing it but that was just a taste of what the film has instore for you. One scene specifically stands out, set in a high school, and appeared so out of place it honestly feels like it was added in from another movie altogether. I felt Candyman was two movies forced together, a great horror spliced with a really bad one.

Perhaps my expectations was too high but this really should have been a lot better, I know a lot of film fans will be seeing this one and most likely it will do very well at the box office. Having said that, it might be best to lower the expectations in order for those of you who haven’t seen it to enjoy it a lot more than I did. Recommended for fans of the Candyman franchise, but honestly you’d be better off watching the 1992 version.