Review of Candyman (2021) by Jluis_001 — 16 Sep 2021

Nia Costa's Candyman didn't turn out to be a remake/reboot as expected. It's actually a sequel/reboot, with a narrative conditioned to the present time. Especially when it comes to police brutality.

I wasn't so sure of my rating because, although there are several things that I liked a lot, especially the direction, the nuances, and the tonality of its setting and surroundings, I also couldn't help but notice how thin the story is.

More than anything what could have been explored with its lead character.

I say this, because there's an explanation about his past, but that past is only what causes the character to be tied to Candyman.

There's no real background to him. The motives belong to others.

He only happens to be the catalyst for the events that follow, and that only happens because he was simply looking for inspiration for his art, and he did it in the wrong place.

That seemed like a very poor plot to me, because the character ends up suffering the consequences from which he was initially exempted, and now he also ends up as the doomed spirit.

Now as a vehicle of revenge, and very clearly against whom.

Obviously it's a clear demonstration of the perpetuation of a cycle of violence against black people, but to make the impact more resonant, I need more than the basic idealization of a figure who must now inspire fear in his oppressors.

It's still effective, and even though the horror isn't really there, only in the last part, Candyman stands as a very interesting option for any viewer, and shows that director; Nia DaCosta is more than ready to carve out a more than interesting career.