Candyman (2021)

[lazyhour]

Surprised not to be able to find a thread on this film already. Watched this last night and enjoyed it. It's a film that has its cake and eats it too, as it acknowledges the heavy-handedness of art commenting on the killing of black people in America, while simultaneously doing the very same thing.

I give it 7/10. Anyone else seen it and enjoyed or hated it?

[lazyhour]

Really? Nobody??

[Small Man Big Horse]

I want to see it but am weirdly boycotting cinemas (but not theatres, and yeah, I can't explain why either) but once it's out on the torrent sites I'll definitely watch it.

[mjwilson]

Yeah I saw it at the cinema, good updating of the original (which it ties into quite a surprising amount).

[13 schoolyards]

I thought it fell apart a bit towards the end when

Spoiler alert

the drycleaners evil scheme was revealed

[close]

but before that I thought it was pretty effective - creepily dreamlike in much the same way as the (still superior) original.

I did laugh a bit at the scene halfway through where they

Spoiler alert

retconned the super sinister opening scene to say "nah, the hook handed candy-giver was a good dude really ACAB"

[close]

, but if you want subtle political commentary a horror movie isn't the place to start looking

[13 schoolyards]

I thought it fell apart a bit towards the end when

Spoiler alert

the drycleaners evil scheme was revealed

[close]

but before that I thought it was pretty effective - creepily dreamlike in much the same way as the (still superior) original.

I did laugh a bit at the scene halfway through where they

Spoiler alert

retconned the super sinister opening scene to say "nah, the hook handed candy-giver was a good dude really ACAB"

[close]

, but if you want subtle political commentary a horror movie isn't the place to start looking

It was interesting to read the film-makers saying "we didn't want to murder innocent black characters" when a scene towards the end shows the Candyman doing exactly that, but I guess it's tricky making a folk hero out of a hook-handed supernatural guy who's entire act is that he shows up and kills whoever summons him

[lazyhour]

It was interesting to read the film-makers saying "we didn't want to murder innocent black characters" when a scene towards the end shows the Candyman doing exactly that, but I guess it's tricky making a folk hero out of a hook-handed supernatural guy who's entire act is that he shows up and kills whoever summons him

I didn't notice him killing any black people. Were any of the cops at the end black?

[13 schoolyards]

I didn't notice him killing any black people. Were any of the cops at the end black?

It's a fairly brief flashback where

Spoiler alert

he kills the sister of the drycleaner when they're both kids

[close]

[lazyhour]

That's weird then, because I took a huge point of the film to be he

Spoiler alert

didn't kill black people

[close]

.

[13 schoolyards]

I thought the whole (in-movie) point was to

Spoiler alert

bring back a murdering spirit that haunted a very specific area of Chicago now that the very specific area was becoming gentrified and his victims would (now) be white people

[close]

. Which implies that in the past he was

Spoiler alert

killing locals whatever their colour

[close]

- as he did in the original Candyman.

But yeah, the point of the film itself seemed to be

Spoiler alert

"he doesn't kill black people"

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- that just didn't really make sense with the story the film was telling.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I watched this today and was impressed, here's the short review I wrote for Letterboxd - Candyman (2021) - A new take on the horror franchise (

Spoiler alert

which eventually reveals itself as a direct sequel

[close]

) as struggling artist Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) learns about the urban myth of the Candyman and is inspired by it, and then some rather stupid individuals decide to see what happens when they say Candyman five times in a mirror. It's visually impressive throughout with some fantastically unusual sequences (the cardboard cut out origin tale,

Spoiler alert

and the art gallery and critic deaths especially

[close]

), the ending feels a little rushed and I'd liked to have seen more of Colman Domingo's character, but otherwise this is really strong stuff and I can't wait to see what director Nia DaCosta does next. 7.8/10

[ImmaculateClump]

I didn't like it much at all. Thought it was such a wasted opportunity. Heavy handed, muddled, and dull.

Subtext works far better when it's kept under the surface. It's far more effective than repeatedly bonking the viewer over the head with your message.
When you push it that hard, it starts to feel like you're patronising the viewer at best, or like you're being exploitative, like you're digging up George Floyd to spice up your slasher flick, at worst.

I can't remember being too impressed by the original, I remember the buzz around it and feeling it was a bit by the numbers and overrated at the time, though I remember it being visually striking and spooky and fun and worth a watch, I would have been 12 when i saw it so it's very vague. I don't think this one was even half as good.

I was enjoying it until about half way through and then it just flatlined and that ending, straight down the shiter.

2 out of 5 for me, clive.

[bgmnts]

Sorry can someone who understands art n shit tell me the subtext of Candyman? Just a dude with a hook who kills you if you say his name in the mirror innit?

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Sorry can someone who understands art n shit tell me the subtext of Candyman? Just a dude with a hook who kills you if you say his name in the mirror innit?

Nah, write your own media studies essay.

[Small Man Big Horse]

When you push it that hard, it starts to feel like you're patronising the viewer at best, or like you're being exploitative, like you're digging up George Floyd to spice up your slasher flick, at worst.

To be fair to DaCosta the film finished shooting in September 2019, so police brutality was clearly a major theme long before Floyd died.

[SteveDave]

Candyman (2021)

This ain't your daddy's Candyman. Except it is. To be fair, after watching "Malignant" and "Old" my expectations for this were lower than my self-esteem but, even though it wasn't scary in any way, it was enjoyable and did create a bit more backstory for the Candyman myth (that might've been explored in the sequels that I've not seen)

[ImmaculateClump]

To be fair to DaCosta the film finished shooting in September 2019, so police brutality was clearly a major theme long before Floyd died.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/aug/30/candyman-sequel-nia-dacosta-discuss-spoilers

That the repeated dare to "say his name" recalls the remembrance chanted for George Floyd is no coincidence.

they should change that to "is a coincidence" :D

While I was using him as just as an example, if that genuinely wasn't retroactively shoehorned in to make it more on the nose and in bad taste current, then I apologise for using that particular example.

[Small Man Big Horse]

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/aug/30/candyman-sequel-nia-dacosta-discuss-spoilers

they should change that to "is a coincidence" :D

While I was using him as just as an example, if that genuinely wasn't retroactively shoehorned in to make it more on the nose and in bad taste current, then I apologise for using that particular example.

Well it's possible but after (an admittedly brief) search I can't find any evidence of reshoots / re-editing, the film was finished and originally due to be released in June 2020 two weeks after Floyd's death, but perhaps changes were made after that event.

[Rolf Lundgren]

Felt like the film version of a deconstructed cup of coffee. The Candyman story stripped apart and left steaming on the table for you to figure out.

It isn't half dull though and almost completely devoid of any tension. There's no horror (apart from the bathroom scene) and you could argue it's more of a supernatural drama than anything else. The whole point about gentrification seems like a huge theme which the film doesn't really pay any attention to, certainly not as much as the first film did, which is an oversight considering it seems even more relevant today than it did in the early 90s.

There was so much potential to do more, to say more, but it all feels very underbaked. A couple of half-hearted ideas that don't have time to bed in. The final scenes should have been the start of the film. The direction is generally great and I liked the arthouse style but I can't help but think they've missed what the target audience were expecting to see. That's not always necessarily a bad thing of course but in this case I'd be surprised if most people don't feel mis-sold.

[Rev+]

To be fair to DaCosta the film finished shooting in September 2019, so police brutality was clearly a major theme long before Floyd died.

A theme in American society long before that, so I'm not sure why that one particular case would need to spark this particular film.  This translates a common brutality from good honest townsfolk to the police, but these stories stretch way back.  This creation of this film has nothing to do with Floyd, it just resonates a bit more after that case.

Anyway, saw it tonight.  It looks bloody wonderful, there's loads of creativity behind the camera, but the characters are all on a 'kind of pricks' to 'absolute wankers' spectrum so it's a struggle to care about them.  From what I understood about it before watching, it was going to treat the events of the original film (or films, as it turns out) as actually having happened, and that they'd become blurred into the original legend.  This does turn out to be true, but they don't walk quite as long on that crazy path at they should have.  It felt a bit like they had the bedrock and the intention to do something properly weird, but lacked the confidence.

As everyone else has said in every discussion or review about this film, the ending is ridiculously rushed, and it was pretty well-paced up until that point.  It's great in loads of little ways, even if it doesn't quite hang together.  Certainly better than any other after-the-fact sequel or remake I can think of.  1.3/10.

[chveik]

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/aug/30/candyman-sequel-nia-dacosta-discuss-spoilers

they should change that to "is a coincidence" :D

While I was using him as just as an example, if that genuinely wasn't retroactively shoehorned in to make it more on the nose and in bad taste current, then I apologise for using that particular example.

the 'say his name' mantra was around before Floyd's murder

[ImmaculateClump]

the 'say his name' mantra was around before Floyd's murder

Ah right, sorry, I didn't know that, I apologise for my comment.
It doesn't change my view though, the film was muddled and heavy handed, tripping over it's eagerness to say something and falling flat on it's face.

Watched this the other night and I think he was bang on - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufUpG6QxU6I

Is the original worth revisiting, do you think? I might give that a watch some time.

[Dave The Triffids]

Watched it recently and enjoyed it more than I thought I would.  I found the bathroom scene particularly effective and there was a nice dose of body horror.  Also,

Spoiler alert

good to see Tony Todd appear at the end. 

[close]

[Famous Mortimer]

Is the original worth revisiting, do you think? I might give that a watch some time.

It's in my top...5? horror movies ever, so I'd definitely recommend it. There's also a very bad commentary on the DVD which is stitched together from some interviews, it sounds like, and has everyone saying their names before they speak, no matter how many times they speak.

[TrenterPercenter]

Going to see this tonight - so I've just skipped through the thread; will read it when I get back

[TrenterPercenter]

Think I agree with some other posts here; great for most of it though not massively coherent plot wise; still got somethings about the original spot on with the moody capitalist oppressive vibe working well with the artist schtick.  Then goes completely off the deep end 20 minutes before the end overly blunt and just not very good.  Less is more in these situations that is what horror is all about.

[zomgmouse]

watched it last night. some great kills, some great scares, some great moments of thematic exploration (the nature of legends and narratives, gentrification, racial violence), but it all seems to unravel from about the halfway point onwards, and nothing is truly given the depth it needs or deserves

[beanheadmcginty]

I only discovered today that Virginia Madsen from the original Candyman is the sister of Tarantino ear slicer Michael Madsen.