Candyman – An Overburdened Horror Film (Early Review)

Franchise reboots and refreshes are an inevitably nowadays. One of the casualties of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a “spiritual sequel” to 1990’s Candyman, also titled Candyman was delayed three times following its original June 2020 release date. Either way, with up-and-coming writer/director Nia DaCosta and Jordan Peele behind it, there is plenty of cause for excitement. Unfortunately, maybe this is due to the weight of expectations but in spite of the weight behind it, the final product was a rushed and disjointed mess that distracted from the many things the film got right technically. Intentional or not, its short running time of 91 minutes truly handcuffed its potential regarding its story and characters, making for a dull watch. That being said, the many things the film does right on a technical level such as its unsettling atmosphere, score, and camerawork still make it well worth the watch. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II also shines in a leading role though it was a shame that he did not have more to work with. In the end, the film was surely intended to start a new franchise therefore the film seemed to be more interested in the future than the present.

Candyman takes place a decade after the Cabrini towers of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green neighborhood were torn down where an artist named Anthony (Abdul-Mateen II) and his gallery director girlfriend Brianna (Parris) recently moved into a new loft condo in the now gentrified Cabrini-Green neighborhood. Once Anthony found himself in a rut professionally and creatively, he became inspired upon learning about the tragic past of his former neighborhood and the story behind the legend of Candyman. Desperate to maintain his standing in the Chicago art world, he fell into that rabbit hole as he went deeper and deeper into the gory details of the backstory, using them as inspiration for his latest work. So consumed, his own sanity was at risk as his work unwittingly unleashed a familiar evil, leaving plenty of violence in its wake. Perhaps not offering the amount of these types of scenes as one may expect, what it did offer was incredibly tense but not necessarily scary thanks to that aforementioned atmosphere with a brutality worthy of its 14A/R rating.

While Candyman was a character study, following Anthony’s slow decent into madness, as his work and the lure of Candyman became increasingly intertwined, the film attempted to give him his own mythology as a backstory of sorts through sequences of exposition using the same puppets featured in many of its trailers and other promotional footage. These two lanes never quite worked together as the rushed nature of the latter seemingly glazed over some important themes that it tried to root it all in and along with the lack of depth made it all come off as lazy. The lack of character development, meanwhile, made it hard to care either way. Despite this, the first 2/3 was still a somewhat compelling watch until the film finally fell of the rails come its final third and its attempt to tie everything back together in an unearned way. The film appeared to know what its destination was and didn’t seem to care how it got there as it will not come as much of a surprise to anyone. If the story was given more time to breathe and develop, the climax would almost definitely have had more of an impact.

Ultimately, the best part of Candyman was the performances of Abdul-Mateen II and Parris as Anthony and Brianna. The charisma and screen presence of Abdul-Mateen II went a long way but were barely utilized in making the thin character of Anthony engaging enough though it’s hard not to want more. The same could more or less be said about Brianna, however, Parris, also did her best with what she had. While they didn’t have nearly enough scenes together, their chemistry was still strong. Stewart-Jarrett was a scene-stealer as Brianna’s brother troy. The best moment was arguably the scene referenced in the film’s trailers and a few gifs circulating online of the only returning cast member from the original Candyman, Vanessa Williams as Anne-Marie McCoy, wagging her finger at the sound of the titular name. 

still courtesy of Universal Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.