Review of Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) by Anders H — 08 Oct 2010

Like all successful horror franchises whether it be Friday The 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Childâ??s Play, Scream or Leprechaun for that matter, if the first one is a successful there will always be sequels. If the first one is a success and audiences loved the shit out of it, most likely the studio executives will be working on the sequel to make more money. Occasionally sequels can be very good whether it be Godfather Part 2, Aliens, The Dark Knight, The Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2, Lethal Weapon 2 and The Two Towers. But mostly every time when a sequel is released it usually isnâ??t as good as the first and they usually fail. They try their best to be better then the first and go all out and spend no time on the story. E.G. Terminator Salvation, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Iron Man 2, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Star Wars Prequels and of course Speed 2: Cruise Control. These films can never amount to the previous films. They donâ??t have the spark that the previous films and get lost trying to sell the shit out of there movie to their recommended audiences and donâ??t spend enough time writing a decent script and developing the story and the characters. Horror franchises have often been destroyed by sequels because they are often stupid and donâ??t even have to have a sequel. Most sequels can be good. In the Nightmare on elm street franchise at least 3 of the films are worthy sequels. The rest are terrible like Nightmare on Elm street Part 2: Freddyâ??s Revenge, which is quote â??Unintentionally Gayâ??. Crappy sequels destroyed the Halloween Franchise because they didnâ??t add anything new apart from Halloween H20. After Part 4, The Friday The 13TH franchise went under and had to be rebooted in 2009 followed in 2010 by the Nightmare on Elm Street Remake or reboot as they call it produced by Michael Bayâ??s company Platinum Dunes. Candyman back in 1992 was a commercial and a critical success and is part of Bravoâ??s 100 Scariest Moments but should be higher then Hellraiser. 3 years later, the film Candyman Farewell To the Flesh was released and the words another fricking franchise flashed in the distant on a neon sign on top of the cinema. This my friends is not one of those crappy sequels that doesnâ??t destroy the previous films. I found this film to be very good and was so much creepy then the previous films. I would consider it to be better then the previous film and thatâ??s why I give it five stars. It has a scarier atmosphere, stylish directing, good storyline with twists and turns and great death scenes.

The setting in this film is now a New Orleans setting instead of being set in Chicago. This already gives it more of a gothic atmosphere. The film has a bit more of a mystery element and goes into a lot more detail that the first one didnâ??t even dare go. We dig deeper into Candymanâ??s past and see what actually happened to him. We arenâ??t told what happened to him like in the previous film, we see what happens to him. The film follows Kelly Rowan who plays Annie Tarrant who has a brother Ethan Tarrant who has been investigating the Candyman since his fatherâ??s death. He is now a suspect of a Candyman type murder and in very clichéd way the cops think he did it. Now she is being haunted by the Candyman and is now telling her that he and her will be joined together and go on a journey a lot similar to what he did to Helen Lyle in the first one. Now she has to dig deeper into her past and her family history as well as the Candymanâ??s twisted history to find a way to stop Candyman for good and prove her brotherâ??s innocence. Thatâ??s the basic plot and I hope I didnâ??t give too much away.

The cast is pretty good. Tony Todd returns as Candyman and is just as sinister as ever and in this film we give him a little bit of sympathy as he was not always a murdering bastard but a gentle slave who was killed and tortured for falling in love and making a white girl pregnant. He was turned into a murdering bastard. That is just racial subtext right there. Kelly Rowan was pretty good and held the whole Candyman victim thing brilliantly. The rest of the cast I havenâ??t seen in anything else apart from Kelly Rowanâ??s husband who was in Beverly Hills Cop 3 and in a few episodes of 24 Season 2. Bill Nunn who is well known black actor played a priest who helps Kelly Rowan on her quest to stop the Candyman. The rest of the cast was average.

The atmosphere is a lot better crafted in this one then in the first one. I think setting it in New Orleans at the time of Mardi Gras was a good idea and created a really surreal creepy gothic atmosphere. We have to give thanks to Bill Condon the director who managed to create a wonderfully creepy movie. Condon has directed a variety of films like Gods And Monsters, Dreamgirls (Yeah I Know right) and he has been chosen to direct the next instalment in the God-awful and soul sucking Twilight series. Sorry to all those Robert Pattison and Taylor Lautner fans, ITâ??S SHIT. They are the worst movies I have ever seen and completely changeâ??s the Vampire genre in a really gay kind of way. I heard Eclipse was good and the books were great but that donâ??t make the grass grow. You want to read a good horror type book, read Stephen King books their excellent. Now back to review.

The death scenes are pretty updated in this one from how they were in the first one. Most of the people getting killed by Candyman were seen off screen. In this film, they are fucking shown to us and they are pretty bloody, blood is upped in this one from the first one. Some of them are a bit hard to watch but Iâ??ve seen Hostel, Piranha 3D and Day of The Dead so I can handle it.

Well that is all I have to say. This film is one of the best horror sequels Iâ??ve seen and many people wouldnâ??t consider it better then the first due to the crappy third film that came out. I give it five stars because it was good, tense, good acting, well-crafted scenes, good death scenes and the use of the soundtrack. If you loved the first one and love horror films in general then go watch this one. This is one of the best sequels that I have seen part of a horror franchise and is one of the horror films that surpass the first one in every way. Take care and I dare you to say his name five times. Again.

A.H.

P.S. My opinion on the Twilight films is due to the first two. I have nothing against the fans of the books and the films. I find them to be very bad and Robert Pattison maybe a good-looking son of a bitch but he is the most wooden actor I have ever seen. I havenâ??t seen the Third one but apparently its good due to David Sladeâ??s direction (He did 30 days of Night which is a proper Vampire movie). But thatâ??s just one movie and the majority of the franchise sucks. Thatâ??s my opinion Have a good day Team Edward and Team Jacob.