Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Strong and Moving!

It is a performances centric movie

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I didn't really rate the original Candy Man all too high, I don't think it was terrible it was just a messy clichéd horror.This came as a huge surprise to me, everything was arranged for it to achieve greatness including Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen. Somehow, someway it just didn't work for me.Farewell To The Flesh failed to impress me even more so. I see what they were trying to accomplish, they have attempted to flesh out the mythology of the Candyman and on that front they succeed.Trouble is the movie just isn't very good, the cast are competent enough but the story is all over the place and I failed to get behind anyone let alone the protagonist.To their credit I do understand everything they tried to do with this sequel, I just think very little of it came close to target.The Good: Decent cast The Bad: Desperate use of jump scares Weirdly boring Unengaging plot Things I Learnt From This Movie: The Candymans backstory is considerably more entertaining than the movies

They connect this movie to the first one by opening it with a lecture by the professor from the first film. In it, he summons Candyman...and gets slayed for it.The brother of the main character- Annie (played by Kelly Rowan, who looks a helluva lot like Virginia Madsen from the first movie)- gets framed for the crime...like he was for the death of his father, at an earlier point in time.Now, his sister has summoned him to prove a point to her students. And he has come for her...but with different intentions. She is his blood relative. And he wants to tell her his story.However, she just wants to destroy him once and for all...to avenge her father's death.This movie isn't as good as the first. It starts off pretty slowly, but the second half does, somehow, manage to salvage what seemed to be a lost cause...though, it uses some really bad early cgi to do it. Though, there are other efforts made- both traditionally and with use of cgi.I actually thought that it was a pretty great- almost logical- idea to move it to New Orleans.They use this to tell the back story of Daniel Robataille- who originally hailed from there. He was killed at the same plantation that Annie was born at.She is taken through flashbacks, visualizing Candyman's origin story, that explains her connections to him, and ultimately lead to the film's conclusion.There is a nice cult style to this...but it has some really awkward parts to it- like dialogue scenes.Even Tony Todd is only half as cool in this. I was about to totally write him off too. But then the second half rolled around, and he does redeem himself a bit there.But the film is still a flop compared to the first.They don't really stick with the "rules" set in the first film. He is no longer operating psychologically, through people. Rather, he is now an unseen supernatural force that can kill people, but who can only be seen by those who have conjured him.And, for some reason, a young artist boy (who starts having dreams about him after the death of his mother).They also introduce the idea that he can be killed by smashing the mirror that was present when he died. The mirror that was taken by his beloved Catharine.I dunno. It's not a terrible film...but it's by no means great, either. There are a couple cool special effects moments. But the acting is sub par. And the CGI is really lame (even though it was probably state of the art, at the time). Even the cheap scares are cheap in this.Worth a watch for the trilogy's sake. But that's about it.5 out of 10.

Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)** (out of 4) Annie Tarrant (Kelly Rowan) arrives in New Orleans to investigate why her brother (William O'Leary) has been thrown into job suspected of murder. It seems the brother believes that their father was killed by Candyman (Tony Todd) but the sister doesn't believe this until she uncovers a family secret.CANDYMAN was released and was a surprise hit with fans and critics. It remains one of the best movies of its type and is quite scary in its own right. CANDYMAN: FAREWELL TO THE FLESH isn't a bad movie but at the same time you can't help but be highly disappointed with it. Once again a very good horror movie has a sequel that seems to be more money driven than anything else.I say that because there's a lot missing from this picture. The biggest issue that I had with it is the fact that there really aren't any scares here. The first film managed to have an atmosphere of its own and the scares were there. That's certainly not the case here as there's just no tension to be found anywhere and I'd argue that there's not even an atmosphere, which is too bad since the New Orleans settings could have had more done with them.I do think the film tried to be something more than your typical slasher but there just wasn't enough done with it. The entire story dealing with the slave and killing of Daniel Robitaille was very good and the film could have used more scenes like these. Todd, as you'd expect, is excellent in his role as are Rowan and O'Leary. Director Bill Condon certainly made a professional looking movie and there's no doubt that it's well-made. Still, CANDYMAN: FAREWELL TO THE FLESH is mildly entertaining but a letdown.

After her brother's involvement in a savage death, a woman's search for the truth leads to a family curse involving the local legend of the Candyman and tries to stop his reign of terror in New Orleans.This turned out to have a lot of good things going for it. One of the better examples here is the continuing nature of the film's expanding story of how the Candyman came into being, furthering the connection even more than it already did. Bolstering the legend quite well with the flashbacks to his torture and paring that against his legend between the family really makes for an entertaining horror effort. The main attack here concerns the appearance at the curio shop which turns into a thrilling chase through a carnival parade as he continually appears among the patrons, though other attacks are bound throughout here. The penthouse attack where he first appears to her, his attack on the detective in the holding cell and the cemetery attack that leads into the final confrontation are all filled with incredibly chilling and fun action. Likewise, the finale gets a lot right here by managing to come full-circle and fully discloses the back-story from earlier but also mixes in some action and spectacle along the way by using the raging thunderstorm to wash away not only the characters but also the landscape in the water torrent and also forcing into it the escape from the collapsing monument. It's a really fun finish and helps to stave off the few flaws in here. One of the biggest issues here is the irritating and useless voice-over narration from the radio show host that permeates this one as none of what's said is in any way, shape or form original, imperative to the story or gets to the point of the scene by just being utterly irritating quite quickly. This also manages to continue the series long flaw of having no real point for his actions against her since he spends so much of the film time simply appearing behind her without actively making threats. That comes off here as a tired act of something that was utilized in the first one and continues in this one. These here drop this down but not enough to really hurt it.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and Brief Nudity.