20 INSANE Horror Sequels We Almost Got
6. Candyman II: The Midnight Meat Train
The second Candyman film, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, was released in 1995 and ended up being panned by critics for ditching the first film's fascinating thematics in favour of a more generic, gore-filled slasher flick.
It didn't help that original writer-director Bernard Rose had nothing to do with it, though Rose did originally have plans for his own Candyman sequel, Candyman II: The Midnight Meat Train.
As you might've gleaned from its title, Rose's Candyman II would've been loosely based on another Clive Barker short story, "The Midnight Meat Train," set primarily around the London Underground as a spate of Jack the Ripper-esque murders plagues the city.
Basically, this Ripper figure would've been the new Candyman, and Rose intended for the sequel to be centered around gender, with a brutal killer who targets women.
Rose's script included a climax in which a corpse-filled train carriage enters a secret train station where it's revealed that a cabal of wealthy elites use the Ripper to deliver them female corpses to feast upon.
Ultimately this was deemed too extreme to get made, and producers also took umbrage with the fact that the script didn't feature Tony Todd's Candyman at all.
While one can at least appreciate the business rationale at play here, Rose's concept sounded like a fierce and original take compared to the forgettable dreck we ended up with.