Candyman is a direct sequel to the 1992 film of the same name (making it part of that fucking annoying tradition of same-name-sequels, see also Halloween and Scream), and stars Teyonah Parris, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Colman Domingo, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Vanessa Williams, and (briefly) Tony Todd.
Anthony McCoy (Abdul-Mateen II) is an up-and-coming artist in the Chicago scene, who is dating and living with gallery director Brianna (Parris). Her brother Troy (Stewart-Jarrett) tells them the story of Helen Lyle (Virgina Madsen; we get to hear her voice), the white woman who, according to Troy's story, kidnapped a baby from the Cabrini Green projects and threw herself onto a bonfire when a group of people stopped her from burning the baby. She did it because she got obsessed with the legend of "Candyman."
Anthony becomes likewise obsessed (well, "inspired") and goes to the projects to learn more, eventually getting the story of Sherman Fields (Michael Hargrove), one part of the Candyman legend. As local color and witness to Sherman's death Burke (Domingo) says, however, "Candyman" isn't one person, "it's the whole damn hive." Candyman is a series of Black men, starting with Daniel Robataille (Todd), who were brutally murdered and over time turned into boogeyman who will appear and slaughter anyone who says the name five times in front of mirror.
Anthony creates an art piece called "Say My Name", consisting of a mirror that invites the viewer to enact the summoning. Almost immediately, art dealer Clive (Brian King) and his girlfriend (Miriam Moss) are murdered, setting the art world into a tizzy and making both Anthony and Brianna hot commodities as others try to cash in. But Candyman is out and about, and Anthony learns that he is the baby that was stole from Cabrini Green when his mother (Williams reprising her role from the first movie and holy shit she did not age) tells him the real story - Helen saved his life from Candyman.
When I saw this movie the first time, I hadn't seen the original in years and so I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Now having seen them both a little closer together, I feel like this is a really strong evolution of the story. Or maybe "evolution" is the wrong word - one of the things that struck me about this movie was Troy's retelling of Helen Lyle's story from the first movie, but filtered through the perspective of time and the telephone game of being told as an urban legend. Everything that he says about Helen makes sense, but it paints her as the aggressor and villain - she's not, although it is true that by coming into Cabrini and trying to understand something she had no context for, she kind of set all of this in motion.
There's a lot of racial themes here - gentrification, police brutality, and what kinds of art come out of those things - that I am not qualified to talk about. I will say that the idea of making Candyman a collective identity is a really smart one, and allows a character who has always had sympathetic origins, if not methods, to become systemic and pure legend, which is perfectly in keeping with his depiction in the first movie.
The performances are really sold, though I kind of wish Anthony's descent into madness wasn't quite so steep, and I wonder if the subplot about Bria's father was necessary (I get why it's there, but it doesn't really go anywhere). But all in all it's a solid movie, and the shadow-puppet sequences are amazing. Oh, also, the sound design is fucking top-notch, as we get glass cracking, candy crunching, and of course bees buzzing the background all the way through.
My Grade: A-
Rewatch Value: Medium
Next up: Sunset Boulevard
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