The plot of this film concerns a young black artist, Anthony McCoy (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who is in a relationship with a successful African American art gallery director, Brianna Cartwright (played by Teyonah Parris ). They live in a gentrified part of Chicago which was once home to poor black people. There are some obvious racial implications with this context. Anthony learns of an urban legend, concerning a black serial killer called "Candyman" and he becomes obsessed with this story and creates some new art works on this theme which are part of an exhibition. The urban legend of Candyman goes that if you stand in front of a mirror and say "Candyman" five times, you will summon the murderous spirit of Candyman. McCoy's exhibition references this. Soon after, people associated with his exhibition begin being murdered, as do some of the people who attended it. Is Candyman responsible for these grisly murders?
Seeing a poster for this film at my local cinema, my initial impulse was to not see it, as I do remember really liking a film of the same name from many years ago, which I probably hired on VHS (I've reviewed that earlier film here), making the assumption that it was a remake which wouldn't be as good as the original. However, a name on the poster rang a bell in my mind: Jordan Peele. Despite not having seen any of Peele's films, I was aware that his films dealt with issues of race and were both critically and commercially successful. So, I thought that I'd see this film, to, hopefully, get a contemporary, race-conscious take on this tale.
Watching the film begin, I thought that this was a reboot of the original film but having some months earlier come across, sort of randomly, the term "soft reboot" on the tvtropes website, I'd say that that sounds like the term to use for this new film. I say that because later in the film, it references the story in the first film and builds on its mythos.
As far as the horror quotient goes, it seems pretty standard as far as mainstream, cinema multiplex films go, with an MA 15+ rating here in Australia. There's not a copious amount of murder scenes but there is a lot of blood and shots of wounds when they are shown. Not for the squeamish, in other words.
Maybe mainstream horror films have to work harder to impress me now or scare me. I was conscious of being less interested in the horror aspect to this story than the perspective that Peele would bring to it. Perhaps it took too long for the penny to drop for me but at some point the suggestion in the film to "say his name", when it came to Candyman, did bring to mind all the news of the last year or so concerning "BLM" (Black Lives Matter). On that front, I feel that the film falls short on what I would have liked it to do, once I formed the opinion that what it was doing wasn't enough for me. For example, earlier this year (31/05/2021) there was a story on NPR, I think, concerning the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre/Black Wall Street massacre, where mobs of white thugs razed a thriving black neighbourhood to the ground, murdering, on some estimates, 300 black Americans (via Wikipedia). This history demonstrates that truth is more horrific than what horror films can conjure. For that reason, America has suppressed/repressed its black history. How much more powerful could a film like "Candyman" have been if it referenced countless historic moments like this? Which is to say, I would have appreciated a Quentin Tarantino kind of take on this story, a la his films like "Once upon a time in Hollywood" or "Inglourious basterds". In any case, it's an open question on how "say his name" interacts with the real world and the film's world.
Another aspect on the horror genre here was my failure to take seriously the horror premise of this film: saying "Candyman" five times in front of a mirror. Reading the end credits I saw that the source material for this urban legend was a short story by white author Clive Barker, called "The forbidden". Now, many years ago I encountered another film adaptation of one of his works, called "Hellraiser". The scenario in that was just more compelling than that of "Candyman". In other words, the world he creates there just seems more logical, as far as why people would do the things that summon these nightmares.
Like one of Ridley Scott's sequels to "Alien", the people in "Candyman" just struck me as being stupid at times. For instance, the art critic's line of questioning at home to her guest. Not sure why she invited that person there, given her questions. It was also really odd that McCoy didn't see a doctor about his hand...or that none of his friends suggested he do so! The visual aesthetic of these scenes reminded me of the remake of "The fly". Also, no doubt unfair but are painters usually as buff as McCoy?
One thought which occurred to me was the nature of the Candyman killings, as far as who the victims were. That reminded me of the first time watching films that this kind of thinking occurred to me: Freaky. I've also reviewed that film here. After seeing this new Candyman, I just thought that there would have been scope for a more "What goes around comes around" kind of interpretation. Then again, the victims of 'Candyman' probably do fit that bill. This film was tracking to score 75/100 (7 out of 10 stars) but I liked the turn it took towards the end, so I added a "+" to it, which justifies the bump up to 8 out 10 stars here.
The original's sensuality makes a repeat viewing desirable. The 2021 version doesn't have that quality but it does have some irony and humour.
Miscellaneous:
* McCoy's mother looked too young to be his mother, I thought!
* It later occurred to me that the depiction of a gay couple in this film would have been a lot more transgressive if their race was swapped. Perhaps Peele would have felt that that was a bridge too far for a mainstream American audience?
Seeing a poster for this film at my local cinema, my initial impulse was to not see it, as I do remember really liking a film of the same name from many years ago, which I probably hired on VHS (I've reviewed that earlier film here), making the assumption that it was a remake which wouldn't be as good as the original. However, a name on the poster rang a bell in my mind: Jordan Peele. Despite not having seen any of Peele's films, I was aware that his films dealt with issues of race and were both critically and commercially successful. So, I thought that I'd see this film, to, hopefully, get a contemporary, race-conscious take on this tale.
Watching the film begin, I thought that this was a reboot of the original film but having some months earlier come across, sort of randomly, the term "soft reboot" on the tvtropes website, I'd say that that sounds like the term to use for this new film. I say that because later in the film, it references the story in the first film and builds on its mythos.
As far as the horror quotient goes, it seems pretty standard as far as mainstream, cinema multiplex films go, with an MA 15+ rating here in Australia. There's not a copious amount of murder scenes but there is a lot of blood and shots of wounds when they are shown. Not for the squeamish, in other words.
Maybe mainstream horror films have to work harder to impress me now or scare me. I was conscious of being less interested in the horror aspect to this story than the perspective that Peele would bring to it. Perhaps it took too long for the penny to drop for me but at some point the suggestion in the film to "say his name", when it came to Candyman, did bring to mind all the news of the last year or so concerning "BLM" (Black Lives Matter). On that front, I feel that the film falls short on what I would have liked it to do, once I formed the opinion that what it was doing wasn't enough for me. For example, earlier this year (31/05/2021) there was a story on NPR, I think, concerning the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre/Black Wall Street massacre, where mobs of white thugs razed a thriving black neighbourhood to the ground, murdering, on some estimates, 300 black Americans (via Wikipedia). This history demonstrates that truth is more horrific than what horror films can conjure. For that reason, America has suppressed/repressed its black history. How much more powerful could a film like "Candyman" have been if it referenced countless historic moments like this? Which is to say, I would have appreciated a Quentin Tarantino kind of take on this story, a la his films like "Once upon a time in Hollywood" or "Inglourious basterds". In any case, it's an open question on how "say his name" interacts with the real world and the film's world.
Another aspect on the horror genre here was my failure to take seriously the horror premise of this film: saying "Candyman" five times in front of a mirror. Reading the end credits I saw that the source material for this urban legend was a short story by white author Clive Barker, called "The forbidden". Now, many years ago I encountered another film adaptation of one of his works, called "Hellraiser". The scenario in that was just more compelling than that of "Candyman". In other words, the world he creates there just seems more logical, as far as why people would do the things that summon these nightmares.
Like one of Ridley Scott's sequels to "Alien", the people in "Candyman" just struck me as being stupid at times. For instance, the art critic's line of questioning at home to her guest. Not sure why she invited that person there, given her questions. It was also really odd that McCoy didn't see a doctor about his hand...or that none of his friends suggested he do so! The visual aesthetic of these scenes reminded me of the remake of "The fly". Also, no doubt unfair but are painters usually as buff as McCoy?
One thought which occurred to me was the nature of the Candyman killings, as far as who the victims were. That reminded me of the first time watching films that this kind of thinking occurred to me: Freaky. I've also reviewed that film here. After seeing this new Candyman, I just thought that there would have been scope for a more "What goes around comes around" kind of interpretation. Then again, the victims of 'Candyman' probably do fit that bill. This film was tracking to score 75/100 (7 out of 10 stars) but I liked the turn it took towards the end, so I added a "+" to it, which justifies the bump up to 8 out 10 stars here.
The original's sensuality makes a repeat viewing desirable. The 2021 version doesn't have that quality but it does have some irony and humour.
Miscellaneous:
* McCoy's mother looked too young to be his mother, I thought!
* It later occurred to me that the depiction of a gay couple in this film would have been a lot more transgressive if their race was swapped. Perhaps Peele would have felt that that was a bridge too far for a mainstream American audience?