Directed by Bill Condon. Written by Rand Ravich and Mark Kruger. Starring Tony Todd, Kelly Rowan, Bill Nunn, Veronica Cartwright, William O’Leary and Timothy Carhart.
Plot: Candyman comes to New Orleans to bother Annie Tarrant and her family.
After a professor is killed in New Orleans when he calls the Candyman (Todd) in a mirror, an innocent man, Ethan Tarrant (O’Leary) is accused of the crime. His mother, Octavia (Cartwright) and his sister, Annie (Rowan), come to his defense. But Annie doesn’t believe in the Candyman, so she says his name, too, and then Candyman kills her husband and begins stalking her. Believing now, she finds out that the Candyman may only be destroyed if the original mirror his soul escaped to is destroyed. She also discovers that the original mirror is in her house and that she’s a descendent of Candyman. If this all seems a bit muddled, that’s because it is. And it stirs up more questions than answers.
Like, why can Candyman kill people who haven’t even called his name? Why is there a radio announcer talking through the whole film, but not about anything really related to Candyman? Why do they keep mentioning the cradle to the grave? What cradle? Who’s cradle? And why in the hell were so many people having sex outside, but yet we saw no boobs?
We did enjoy the cast and the acting, but not all of the characters. I did like the little boy, Matthew, but DJ didn’t. DJ found everyone to be at least a little bit annoying. He also didn’t like that Candyman’s hook sliced through people’s flesh so easily. There was no Freddy Claws and no good motive. DJ says he never wants to watch this again. I believe it could have been an amazing story, but it just failed to live up to his potential.
My score: 30. DJ’s score: 19.
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