5 Huge Mistakes That Killed The Candyman Reboot
3. The Original's Problems Aren't Fixed
The original Candyman isn't actually that great. It might be a bit of a cult classic, but that's probably more thanks to it being so unique for its era - more specifically, it was the rare horror film that focused on race and it was also one of the very few 1990s horror films that wasn't a complete train-wreck.
It's a solid film without a doubt, but it's pretty confused and uneven, mainly because Candyman (despite Tony Todd's stellar performance) works far better as an idea than as an antagonist. There's never really a clear way to fight him and he tends to just appear, kill someone, then leave again, He also plays second-fiddle to Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) for much of the film.
Sadly, the reboot has very similar problems. Once again, the characters don't actually fight the film's villain since no way to defeat him is really presented, so this kills off a lot of potential suspense.
As well as this, the film too often focuses on Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who adds another impressive performance to his resume) slowly going mad and not on the titular villain. As such, just like the first film, this reboot feels pretty unfocused.