By: Andrew Wing
Candyman is a 2021 supernatural slasher film directed by Nia DaCosta and written by Jordan Peele (director of Get Out and Us), Win Rosenfeld (executive producer on BlacKkKlansman), and DaCosta. The film is a direct sequel to the 1992 film of the same name and the fourth film in the Candyman film series, based on the short story “The Forbidden” by English novelist Clive Barker. The film stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman, The Trial of the Chicago 7) in the lead role as Anthony McCoy, a visual artist who becomes obsessed with the Candyman legend. Also featured in the film are Teyonah Parris (If Beale Street Could Talk, WandaVision), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Misfits, Utopia), and Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead, Euphoria), while Vanessa Williams, Tony Todd, and Virginia Madsen all reprise their roles from the original film.
Plans for another Candyman film began in the early 2000s, with original film director Bernard Rose wanting to make a prequel film about Candyman and Helen’s (Virgina Madsen’s character) love. However, after the studio turned down that idea the project entered development hell. It was not until 2018 when Jordan Peele signed on as producer with Universal Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that DaCosta signed on as director. Principal photography for the film began in August 2019 and wrapped in September 2019 in Chicago, Illinois.
Unfortunately though due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film’s release date was delayed three times from an original June 2020 date. After a long wait, Candyman was theatrically released in the United States on August 27, 2021, by Universal Pictures.
THE GOOD
First off, there is no denying that I was very excited to see this movie, and the three delays only added to my excitement. I watched the original a few years back and I enjoyed it a good amount, it certainly had its issues just like this one does, but overall I found the original to be a pretty solid horror movie. Also, once I heard that Jordan Peele was attached to this project, I almost lost it. The dude just gets the horror genre and it didn’t take longer than ten minutes into the film for me to realize that his fingerprints were all over this.
Enough about Peele though, I was very impressed with Nia DaCosta’s direction in this movie. I thought she did a fantastic job at blending these serious issues around social commentary with horror. The film certainly explores so many valuable themes that dive into racism, police brutality, and many other problems that we see a lot of in our country today. We saw Peele explore these same issues in his feature film Get Out in 2017, and it is important that these topics continue to be discussed in movies like Candyman because they truly are thought provoking.
I will touch on the performances of the cast, but what stood out the most to me were the smaller things that sometimes don’t get mentioned enough. For starters, the film looks incredible. The visual presentation of this film is amazing, DaCosta gives us some very interesting shots and angles of said shots that had me in awe. I particularly loved the way some of the horror/thriller scenes were shot and I found them to be very effective, and the Candyman kill scenes that you expect to see going into this movie are extremely well done. The production design, cinematography, and score were all around pretty good as well. But yeah, DaCosta makes it clear that she can direct a movie, and I am very excited to see what does in The Marvels, the sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel that she was recently hired to direct which made her the youngest filmmaker to direct a Marvel film.
Onto the performances, and I found them all to be solid. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was great in the lead role and he continues to show that he is one of the best up and coming actors in the movie industry. Specifically with him though, I loved watching his character’s descent into madness as the movie went on. It was astounding to see on the big screen and it left me wanting to see him in more roles like that. Despite his greatness though, I felt Colman Domingo’s character was the stand out.
It is crazy to say that being a huge fan of The Walking Dead franchise, because it is rare to see someone from that franchise have this much success in the movie industry, but his performance in this, as well as other films/series he has been in recently probably put him right up there with Jon Bernthal as the most successful actors/actresses from The Walking Dead franchise. For real though, Domingo has a really great monologue in what I felt was the best scene of the entire movie and because of how strong a performance he gives, I felt he epitomized what the movie was going for more than the protagonist in a way if that makes sense.
THE BAD
I won’t lie, being a fan of the original I ultimately liked how they connected Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s character to the original, but even that couldn’t help the fact that his character was underwritten. It felt like they focused more on how they would connect his character back to the source material than actually developing his character. As much as I loved Abdul-Mateen’s performance of Anthony McCoy, I found him to be a pretty weak protagonist which is something you never want to see with any film of any genre. He just had so much more to offer the story that I would have liked to see, and because of his lack of development, I was confused at the end of the film as to what the point of his character was to the story and I just couldn’t follow his character arc unfortunately.
I think that ties into my next complaint about this movie and that is simply that it is too short. The movie tries too hard to call back to the original film and just spends too much time explaining things that happened in the first film so you could better understand what was going on in this and before you know it you are already an hour into the movie. I think that might be why the end of this movie definitely leaves something to be desired. I did not think it was going to end the way it did and it just felt incomplete and rushed. In the last third of this movie you just sort of watch it fall apart before ending abruptly and I really just think that this is the perfect example of a movie that could and should have been longer than its runtime of 91 minutes.
My biggest complaint with Candyman is easily just the fact that it is far more complicated than a horror movie should be. Going into it, I figured with Peele on board that it was going to focus more on the deeper themes surrounding Candyman in a more developed and mature way than the original only flirted with. And while I thought this film did a better job at tackling these issues than the original, I still wanted it to be explored more. I mean the Candyman is basically a terror created by white society, and the Cabrini-Green projects in Chicago where the story takes place is just another sad example of this cycle of poverty that is created due to government neglect which leads to the majority black populations living in these terrible conditions.
Perhaps a longer runtime could have solved this problem too, but I just felt we were never given a strong perspective on these issues, instead they were just explained to us through narration which is why I say the movie as a whole is complicated. For example, with another Peele movie like Us in 2019, that movie is more complex than complicated and you knew what that movie was going for, but with this I just felt unsure at times at the points they were attempting to make and I wish they would have gone more in depth.
The last thing I’ll say about this movie is that in my opinion, it was nowhere near as terrifying as some other horror movies I’ve watched recently and I don’t even think it is as scary as the original which is something I did not expect to say after watching. There were not enough horror scenes in the movie to be honest, and the movie as a whole just didn’t have that “mysterious horror” elements that the original did. I think I say that because the movie feels too explained and over discussed and that just takes away from the mysterious intrigue that is the Candyman character.
THE VERDICT
Candyman is a slasher film that checks almost every box as it blends social commentary with horror with some great performances from Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Colman Domingo, and a visually thrilling approach to the terrifying legend, but it is more complicated than a horror movie should be. As much as I admired Nia DaCosta’s ambition with this movie, there were just far too many ideas going on that a 91-minute movie can properly touch on and handle, and because of that, I have to give the slight edge to the original film.
Despite its complications, I would still strongly suggest checking it out if you are a fan of the original or just a fan of the horror genre in general.
From Ted’s perspective…
I was late to seeing the film, so I actually had the opportunity to read Andrew’s review before going giving me a certain amount of advance perspective. I agree fully with the majority of his takeaways, especially the fact that it should have been longer, at least 20-30 minutes. I think they focused too much on the social commentary, which felt very forced for me because it was so front and center so often, and I think this took away from opportunities to build on the story and the legend that is Candyman. I absolutely loved the slasher scenes that graced the screen when people were dumb enough to say his name 5 times in the mirror, and thought the overall portrayal of the urban legend with a hook for a hand was extremely satisfying. I remember when the original came out, I pre-date Andrew ever so slightly haha, and after seeing the movie I refused to even look in the bathroom mirror for like two years. I wish I was kidding.
Andrew is spot on with saying the original is still a superior film, which is honestly too bad really considering how much potential this new version had with the unique camera work, eye-popping cinematography, and amazing score. It is still very good and well worth seeing, so please don’t let us deter you. I also agree that they overcomplicate the story unnecessarily, which took away from the overall feel and lasting impression of the film. I won’t talk too much about the acting as I agree with Andrew’s thoughts, I did want to point out how much I enjoyed the supporting roles of Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Kyle Kaminsky, who added a little extra much appreciated humor to the film. Andrew also hit the nail on the head saying that Abdul-Mateen II was a weak protagonist, at times it felt like he was a background character in what was supposed to be his story. Where we disagree the most would be the ending. I actually really liked it, I thought it was high energy and the last 5 minutes of the film reminded me the most of the original Candyman. Overall, it was just a satisfying ending making up for some of the other issues, leaving the door open for another film. Candyman covered in bees, oh the nostalgia. I’m actually looking forward to seeing it again.
TED TAKES RATING - 7/10
Candyman is now playing only in theaters. Check out the latest trailer below.