Candyman (2021)

Sweet, Sugar, Candyman

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Phoenix

Phoenix

I’m the hostess of the dinner
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Delayed from 2020 and finally out, so I was really hyped for it.

Unfortunately, I thought it wasn’t good. Very heavy handed with the message (they explain gentrification 3 times in the first half hour). Not really scary or atmospheric especially after watching Night House last week.

There are some pretty shots and Yahya Abdul Mateen is smoking and is dressed very nicely but that’s about it.
 
The original is FANTASTIC in tone, execution, acting, direction and score. A modern classic in my view, even if at its core it follows the conventions of every other slasher film and there's a WHIFF of the WHITE SAVIOUR TROPE about it. I also have a WOMANCRUSH on Virginia Mardsen.

I will be watching this with a KEEN eye and comparing. I'm not familiar with the director but THE JURY IS OUT with Jordan Peele after the massive disappointment that was Us.
 
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Going to this tomorrow. Have only seen the original once when I was 12 years old and only remember it being “talky and boring” because we were expecting something properly scary for a Halloween sleepover at the time. I should really see it again.
 
I have to agree with Phoenix unfortunately. This felt really over-thought and over-written. The dialogue was actively terrible and worst of all it just wasn't scary, at all.
 
VoR said:
I have to agree with Phoenix unfortunately. This felt really over-thought and over-written. The dialogue was actively terrible and worst of all it just wasn't scary, at all.
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But what IS scary? Like genuinely asking because I haven’t been frightened by any film since I was about 9.
 
Well that’s highly subjective, but I didn’t feel any particular tension during this. A good horror has you on the edge of your seat. The deaths in this (apart from one really funny one) were just perfunctory.
 
Well this was stupid. I’d forgotten about all the bloody bees from the first one.

Luckily me and my friend were the only two people in the screen so we could make fun of it together without disturbing anyone.
 
VoR said:
Well that’s highly subjective, but I didn’t feel any particular tension during this. A good horror has you on the edge of your seat. The deaths in this (apart from one really funny one) were just perfunctory.
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I find anything that can happen in real life scary. So slashers get me more than supernatural things normally.
 
I was expecting this to be UTTER CRAP thanks to this thread and it was simply just OKAY.

When you spend big parts of your film trying to explain the plot of the original you know you're in trouble. And the direction was a bit ASEPTIC for a horror film, I agree with VoR on that. I did, however, flinch several times so it wasn't a wasted 90 minutes.

It was cute to have an interracial gay couple in a mainstream black horror film though. So an extra point for that :)
 
It didn't have enough Tony Todd in it, but the final moments with the bees surrounding him were the highlight. I'm expecting a sequel within two years.
 
Rhythmbarbican said:
It didn't have enough Tony Todd in it, but the final moments with the bees surrounding him were the highlight. I'm expecting a sequel within two years.
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Yeah, that was disappointing! Although like you say
the ending of the film suggests he has "taken over" the new body.

Not sure they can make a whole new film with
him DE-AGED
but he looked SO DREAMY in the original :love::love::love:

Screen-Shot-2018-09-24-at-11.22.51-AM.jpg
 
I thought this was REALLY GOOD ACTUALLY
 
I meant to leave my CONSIDERED REVIEW of this a few weeks back but totally forgot.

As a standalone film it was pretty good; as a Candyman film it was shit. Too many elements thrown in that contradicted and undermined each other - the unnecessary body horror, the pointless human villain with a motive the Candyman should have had himself, the second Candyman - and the tone was WAY OFF. Compare and contrast the wisecracking gallery attendant ('must go faster, must go faster' :vomit:) with the gritty realism of the first film. It lost so much by going glossy and snarky. Also that final line: 'tell everyone'... the entire film is about a haunted art installation that's killing so many people it's literally become headline news - who the fuck else are they supposed to tell?

On the plus side, I really liked the way the legend had found its way into the hands of random people (because an urban legend like this obviously would spread like wildfire in real life) and the reverse zoom of the art critic was PHENOMENAL (And has earned a spot on my '100 best horror kills' list, coming at some point in the next decade).
 
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