Candyman (2021) - Dare You Check Him Out!

 

★★★☆☆

I have absolutely no idea what ‘Candyman’ is about beforehand. Whether it’s a sequel or a reboot or a remake or whatever! All I know is, it’s a horror, and turns out it’s an artistic one in terms of score and cinematography. If you expect a bloodthirsty slaughter, you’ll be rather disappointed. Here we have is a well-paced, nerve-wracking, heart-breaking urban legend told in a stylish way, involving art, gentrification, race and memory, which is sort of a surprising treat indeed.

The story itself is, to be honest, more or less of a supernatural cliché, where a black man falls in love with a white girl. Later, when the girl gets pregnant, her father chases down the black man, cuts off his right hand and inserts a hook instead, covers him with honey and lets bees sting him to death before setting him on fire. The innocent black man becomes the Candyman afterwards, who would come and get you if you say his name ‘Candyman’ five times in a mirror regardless of who you are and what you do! Sounds like some crazy ludicrous bullshit right? Indeed the film could’ve been made a mindless, laughable bloodbath if they’d adopted a much more commercial approach on it. But instead, with an ingenious directorial effort and thus a rather fresh way of re-telling the tale, ‘Candyman’ seems atmospheric, psychologically intimidating, and subtly scary!

‘Candyman’ is like old wine in a new bottle. Even if the story may sound stupid to some, you wouldn’t have a problem with it after all, because how it’s presented and how it looks as a result is sure stylish and special. There’re flaws that may bug you at times, but you’d forgive, and after watching it, you may even want to try the legend yourself by saying ‘Candyman’ five times in a mirror! I did! Nothing happened! That’s why this update is possible. Ha!