Brief Story Line
Story was set in 2019 where an artist named Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II - Aquaman, Baywatch movie etc) just moved to a new apartment in Cabrini-Green with his girlfriend Brianna (Teyonah Parris - Wandavision TV series etc). As he was preparing for an exhibition, Anthony tried to search for inspiration from the history of the surrounding neighborhood which he heard from Brianna's brother Troy (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett - Misfits TV series etc). While looking around, he met with a local resident named William Burke (Colman Domingo - If Beale Street Could Talk etc) who told him about the legend of Candyman.
Feeling inspired, Anthony finally managed to create a painting which was based on the Candyman legend. However, after an incident that seemed to be related with Anhony's work of art, he started to suspect that the legend might be real.
So how would the story conclude? You can find them all in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Now that was a bit dissatisfying. I was expecting to be terrified watching this movie, because my wife and I still remembered our feeling when we saw the 1992 movie. Btw we saw the film separately because when it was released, we have not known each other yet. Anyway, the 1992 film which starred Tony Todd (Night of the Living Dead, Final Destination etc) was really scary then. Both of us dare not say Candyman five times like it was told in the legend.
However, in this movie, that scary feeling was not there. Yes there might be the occasional jump scare scenes to surprise us, but somehow it did not give us the terrified sense. The Candyman appeared only few times, but the result was only brutal killings. In fact the violence seemed like scenes from a slasher movie. Now I am not sure whether it was because of the story telling which focused too much on the art stuff (with sophisticated language that did not really interest me personally) or because the Candyman has lost his touch. It was no less than disappointing, especially since we had quite high hopes with the film.
Even though my wife and I did not really feel the horrifying part, apparently the movie was enjoyed by many critics who gave glowing review, in particular with the social aspect and great visualisation. I admit that the way they use puppetry was quite creative (btw, the closing credit also showed this puppetry till the end. So there was no mid or post end credit scenes). But then again, for us who were in the mood for good old horror movie, this one felt a bit lacking in that area. Luckily though, the ending was pretty interesting and I thought was quite intelligent to set up the future Candyman legacy (in case they want to continue making them).
The movie was directed by Nia DaCosta who had one feature film and few short films to her credits prior to this. She was appointed as the director of a future MCU movie titled The Marvels, scheduled to be released in 2023. I just hope that movie would be more interesting than this one. Oh other than Yahya Abdul-Mateen II who did a decent job to portray his character, unfortunately though, the rest were not really impressive and they seemed to just passed us by. Even the victims whom we were supposed to feel sorry for, did not manage to gain sympathy from us because well, they just did not seem to matter.
Overall I think the original 1992 film was the best. There were actually 2 more sequels in the 1990s, but none were so memorable like the first one. So if you are in the mood for some horror movie to be enjoyed in the cinema, this one may not be satisfying. However, if you like a movie with high critical rating with some social aspects in it, then this might be better suited for you. But for me and my wife, it just did not feel impressive enough.
Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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