Candyman Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs

1. The Original Is Still The Best

There was a lot of optimism among fans that the new Candyman could end up outdoing the 1992 original, which while a terrific movie in its own right could most certainly use an update to mirror the contemporary state of Black anguish.

And while the 2021 sequel is unquestionably better than the mediocre second movie and execrable third, it still doesn't get close to matching the original's potency.

Though it finds a neat way to slot itself into the mythology of the prior movies, neither its themes nor its atmosphere feel as brilliantly, suffocatingly rich as in Bernard Rose's 1992 film.

If you were hoping that Peele and DaCosta would blow the doors off the franchise with a damning, gloriously bloody incitement of systemic racism, the results are unfortunately a little messier than that.

But these gripes aside, there is certainly a lot to like about the new movie, if you can forgive its narrative issues in particular...