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Film: Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh
Year: 1995
Director: Bill Condon
Writer: Rand Ravich and Mark Kruger
Starring: Tony Todd, Kelly Rowan and William O’Leary
Review:
This film begins with a man giving a talk about the book he had written about Candyman. The man is played by Michael Culkin. He doesn’t believe there is a supernatural being, but that people use the concept and that the main character from the previous film did this. There is a man standing in the back, watching the talk. He is played by William O’Leary. Culkin says the name of Candyman five times in the mirror of his book and shows that nothing happened. He does have someone rip through the projection screen with a hook as a joke. This makes O’Leary flee the building.
The two men run into each other. O’Leary is upset, thinking that his father’s death was due to bad advice from Culkin. He believes that this led to Candyman killing his father. Culkin then goes into a bar to get away from him and orders a drink. O’Leary comes in and punches him. Culkin then goes into the bathroom and when they are alone, he is killed by Candyman and his hook. He is played by Tony Todd.
O’Leary is arrested for the crime. We then meet his sister, who is played by Kelly Rowan. She goes to her mother, who is played by Veronica Cartwright. They go to the police station to talk with O’Leary. The officers in charge of the case are played by David Gianopoulos and Fay Hauser. There they also run into Rowan’s husband, played by Timothy Carhart.
Rowan speaks with O’Leary who tells her that Candyman did it. She thinks he is going crazy and wants to get him freed. The police think he committed the murders so he is being held.
Rowan is a teacher for underprivileged youth. They are terrified thinking that the Candyman is killing people around them. There is one boy, played by Joshua Gibran Mayweather, who is haunted by dreams of him. He draws them in the art class that Rowan teaches. Some of the students do not like him for this and give him a hard time. To try to prove that the Candyman isn’t real, she says his name into a mirror. A single bee does appear.
Todd does appear that night. He visits Rowan while she is in the bathroom. He wants her to join him and she is frightened. Todd then kills Carhart and this makes Rowan a suspect. The police then start to wonder if O’Leary is the killer or is he covering for his sister. Rowan tries to prove that neither of them are doing the killing. The story takes a turn though when they start to realize that Todd’s real identity, Daniel Robitaille, was born on the same plantation that was owned by Rowan’s family.
What is the connection with this family to him? Todd reveals to Rowan that she is pregnant and that the baby will be his. Why does he want the child? Is there a way to stop the Candyman?
Now I remember kind of seeing this when I was in high school on one of the movie channels. This might be the first time that I’ve sat and watched it beginning to end. What I really like about this film is that is expands on the Candyman mythology without violating what happened in the previous film. For me, story and continuity are huge. What is slightly confusing is if he was killed in New Orleans, why was he killing in Chicago in the previous film? That is a plothole I would have like explained. I do like that we get Candyman’s back-story. I don’t mind the angle of how history is repeating itself with Rowan and how they are connected to him. I also don’t really mind the way that they defeat him either. It ties back in with the painting which is a good foreshadow we get earlier in the film that is quite small. The ending wasn’t bad to me at all.
The acting in this film wasn’t as good to me as the previous one. Todd killed it as Candyman. He embodies the character. His look, voice and screen presence are amazing for it. I think Rowan for the most part was decent in this film. I love when her husband is murdered and seeing her start to slip into madness of not knowing the truth of Todd and wanting to find a way to stop him. I thought that part was good. O’Leary and Carhart I wasn’t overly impressed with. Really the only other actors I liked in this one were Bill Nunn and Mayweather. They are father/son combo and I thought they were believable.
I want to start here with the effects. I thought that the blood looked great. It looked to be all practical and I liked it. The sawing off the hand was good. Anything with the hook and the blood that comes from Todd kill was as well. Now the swarm of bees and the ending were CGI. This was fairly early CGI though and it doesn’t hold up well. It bothered me. The film does have some pacing issues as well. The film isn’t overly long, but I feel that it focuses a lot on the brother being the possible murderer for too much of it. Some of the researching into the Candyman was clunky and I found myself bored during it. Now finally the score to the film I thought was good. They used the same classic score from the previous and I thought it fit very well. It gives it an odd feeling that I thought was perfect for the film.
Now with that said, despite the issues with this film I still think it is above average. For the most part the story flows very well from the previous one, even tying in characters. It does leave it unexplained why she isn’t back, but I’ll let that slide. I like getting more back-story into Candyman and finding a way to actually defeat him. Todd did great again in his role. Some of the cast I felt was good, while others were not. The blood and death scenes looked good, but there was some bad CGI. There are some editing and pacing issues with the film. The score does help the film though and I liked it. This is a solid sequel that could be viewed without the first. Everything you need to know from that one is laid out in this film. I would say that overall this film is above average and worth a view if you are into supernatural killers/slasher films.
My Rating: 7 out of 10