Kidskycom
It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
Melanie Bouvet
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Rosie Searle
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Isbel
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
DigitalRevenantX7
Dr. Philip Purcell has written a book on the Candyman legend that dismisses the myth as nothing but superstition. In front of his audience, Purcell invokes the Candyman but nothing happens. But once the lecture is over, Purcell is torn open by the Candyman in a bar bathroom. The police arrest Ethan Tarrant, a mentally disturbed man, who had assaulted Purcell earlier. But his sister, art teacher Annie Tarrant, believes otherwise. With her husband Paul McKeever, Annie revisits her childhood home, which is now an abandoned property filled with vagrant squatters. She begins to find links between the Candyman legend & her own family history. And as soon as Annie herself invokes him in order to disprove the myth in front of her students, the Candyman appears, killing people around her in order to get her to believe in him. Dodging both the ghost & the police, who are convinced that she is responsible for the Candyman's victims, Annie discovers that Candyman – real name Daniel Robitaille – was a former slave who was brutally murdered by his owners after getting a white woman pregnant. And the kicker is that the child that Robitaille fathered was Annie's great-grandmother.Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh was the first of two sequels to CANDYMAN, an impressive but slightly overrated horror sleeper of the 1992 season that became a big hit & was the second major cult creation of horror master Clive Barker, already famous for the Cenobites of the HELLRAISER series. The film was based on one of Barker's short stories.While the original was an excellent horror flick that engaged on both a cerebral & a visual level, this sequel is strictly by the numbers. Bill Condon relies on far too many false jumps & red herrings during the first half that becomes tiring to watch. This, coupled with the overuse of Philip Glass' score from the original to the point that the ethereal effect it had in the first film became nothing but meaningless in this one makes the film's first half decidedly mediocre.But once the story kicks in the second half & Kelly Rowan's heroine is on the chase to defeat what is essentially her ancestor, Farewell to the Flesh picks up considerably to rank as a passable sequel. The visual effects are good, especially the ending where Tony Todd's hook-handed ghost is defeated by Rowan smashing the mirror, causing his form to shatter like glass, an effect that looks remarkable. Another thing that elevates the film slightly is the whole connection between the heroine & the Candyman, as well as revealing the ghost's origins, finally solving the mystery behind the legend.The acting is okay in places. Tony Todd practically owns the film from his first appearance. He is probably the only actor besides Hellraiser villain Doug Bradley to really get into the nuances of his character, giving the film a good monster. As for the rest of the cast, everyone does passably well, although I found Veronica Cartwright's neurotic mother a bit of an eyesore.
femvamp-694-160770
I loved the first Candyman. I basically call it the movie that made me love horror so I was looking forward to the sequel. As a rule I don't hate sequels, they are rarely as good as the original but I try to give them a chance. This one had promise and was a good showing for the most part. There were some parts I did not like. The first one, though mist if the movie you were never sure if Helen was crazy or if she was actually being haunted. This one there were too many scenes where people "saw" the Candyman or something he did. I did however find the idea of a family being cursed and haunted by him clever. I just wish it had been done better. Still not a horrible showing, just not as good as the first.
SnoopyStyle
The Candyman legend moves on to New Orleans, and has a whole new set of victims. Annie Tarrant (Kelly Rowan) is a school teacher. Her father was killed by the Candyman. Her brother Ethan (William O'Leary) is wrongly accused of murders, the latest being a Candyman denial writer.The change in setting concerns me, but New Orleans has some great potential for urban legends. It goes into the life of Daniel Robitaille a little bit more with maybe a possible way to kill him once and for all. But it's not as creepy as it needs to be. The movie lacks any tension or fear.Kelly Rowan is playing a typical scared victim. At least she has the skills to back it up. But the atmosphere isn't up to the original. It's all a weaker version of itself. It certainly doesn't have as powerful of an ending as the original.
Jackson Booth-Millard
The first Candyman film was a great scary movie for its time, it is obvious a sequel was only made in an attempt to cash in on the success, which is easy to do with scenes containing more blood, from director Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2). Basically in New Orleans, the Latin carnival Mardi Gras is proceeding, "farewell to the flesh" relates to the festivities, and the carnival is celebrating lent, and it is at this time that murders are being committed around the city. People are still testing out the theory of whether the Candyman (Tony Todd) exists or not, by saying his name in the mirror five times they see if he will appear, and of course every time he does, and brutally kills them. Young schoolteacher Annie Tarrant (Kelly Rowan) has some connection to the man who became the Candyman, slave Daniel Robitaille who, seen in flashback, was punished for having a relationship with a white woman, and the villagers captured him, sawed his right hand off, replacing it with a large hook, and smothered him in honey (hence the name Candyman) for the bees to cover and sting him to death. She says his name in the mirror five time, but he does not want to kill her, because of the connection she has to him he sees her as his love that he will take back with him to hell, and until she accepts her "destiny" and goes with him he will kill many people around her, and of course those who call his name five time in the mirror. Of course in the end, following investigations of the origins of the Candyman, numerous people being murdered, including Candyman expert Phillip Purcell (Michael Culkin) and Annie's mother Octavia (Veronica Cartwright), and being accused of involvement in the murders, she finds a way to defeat him and send him back to hell, and he is killed off once again before the end of Mardi Gras. Also starring Timothy Carhart as Paul McKeever, William O'Leary as Ethan Tarrant, Fay Hauser as Pam Carver, Bill Nunn as Reverend Ellis, Matt Clark as Honore Thibideaux, David Gianopoulos as Detective Ray Levesque and Joshua Gibran Mayweather as Matthew Ellis. Todd is still relatively creepy with his hook for a hand and saying a couple of familiar lines in his cool voice, but the rest of the cast are naff, the origins story is relatively good to watch, and the deaths are still bloody, but it is predictable and a bit ridiculous, it is a rather pointless horror sequel. Adequate!