‘Candyman’ A Worthy Successor to the Original (FILM REVIEW)

Rating: B

The nature of folklore is change. That’s the first (and, really, only) rule that should be understood when going into Candyman, director Nia DaCosta’s sequel to/reboot of the 1992 classic. The stories we tell each other evolve from region to region, generation to generation, teller to teller. Whether it happened to your uncle or your best friend’s sister’s ex or a guy you know, the stories might have a kernel of similarity that are molded to fit the shape of the time and place of the teller.

This idea was central to Helen Lyle’s character in the original Candyman. Helen (Virgina Madsen), you’ll recall, was a graduate student writing her thesis on urban legends, specifically how the stories change and evolve from teller to teller, when she first encounters the legend of the Candyman. Her research led her to the story of Daniel Robitaille (Tony Todd), the son of a slave brutally murdered for the “crime” of loving a white woman. His death spawned the legend of Candyman, which states that saying “Candyman” in the mirror five times would lead to his appearance in your mirror and your death.

It’s the kind of ghost story people have been telling each other for centuries and given new relevance every generation. DaCosta’s film explores that generational evolution, supposing that Robitaille isn’t the only Candyman out there. Indeed, the legend of Candyman comes to reflect whatever violent trauma the people need it to creating a “hive” of Candymen, as one character puts it.

It’s a clever way to both pay respects to the original film while allowing the new film to do its own thing. DaCosta, who co-wrote the film with producer Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, turn the Candyman mythos into a way to explore and deal with victims of violent racism and injustice. “The Candyman” is whatever his believers think he is, a symbol of violence and victimhood that allows traumatized communities to make some kind of sense of their situation.

Here, the Candyman is Sherman Fields (Michael Hargrove), a hook-handed victim of police brutality at Chicago’s Cabrini Green in the 70s. We, the audience, know that he’s just a stand in, a perfect representation of the legend begun by Robitaille, but the implication is deeper and delves into the folkloric roots of the mythos itself. What the film implies is that Candyman is the story you hear. Helen encounters Robitaille in the original film because that’s what she knew. In this film, Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) encounters Fields because that’s the story he learns.

This will undoubtedly be the hardest pill for fans of the original movie to swallow. Todd’s performance in the original movie remains one of the greatest horror performances of all time and he so embodied the character that it’s, to this day, difficult to disassociate his voice with that of Candyman. That anyone besides him could be Candyman feels, well, wrong. And yet what DaCosta has done here is remarkable in its own right. Candyman dives right into the heart of myth, not only using the narrative to explore the legacy of racist violence and generational trauma but to also examine the nature of legends and folklore.

Abdul-Mateen’s character, Anthony McCoy, should be a familiar name to those familiar with the original Candyman, though it’s played here as a twist. This is a particularly salient metaphor for the problems I had with this movie. Though I mostly enjoyed and appreciated the film’s updating of the story and how it tied back into the concept of myths and legends, the script leans a bit too hard into expositional handholding, in some areas, and often doesn’t give enough elements space to breathe and spread.

That said, DaCosta’s film is a worthy successor to the legacy of the original Candyman. While it may be hard for some of the more ardent fans to get behind the expansion of the mythos, Candyman remains as terrifying and relevant as it ever was. With the added weight to the legend, DaCosta has created a new vision of the horror classic that stands shoulder to shoulder with its predecessor and ensure the name “Candyman” will live on for at least another generation.

Candyman now playing in theaters everywhere.

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