The hook-handed, ghostly Candyman (Tony Todd) is haunting New Orleans and the Tarrant family. He killed Annie Tarrant’s (Kelly Rowan) father and husband, and her brother has been arrested for the crimes. Annie realizes there’s a secret that connects her to the ghost, and sets out to uncover it.
Candyman was a frightening and artistic Slasher/Ghost Story, with original concepts that question the assumptions of society. Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh is a sequel. It is less frightening, far less artistic, and reuses some of the ideas from the first while introducing none of its own. It dumps Helen, the intriguing lead who should have been in any sequel and was excellently portrayed by Virginia Madsen, and introduces us to Annie, a slightly-better-than-the-norm Slasher victim, played reasonably well by Kelly Rowan. It brings back Tony Todd, but with little of the intensity he’d previously shown, and gives him plenty of unnecessary dialog to spout. It repeats the score by Philip Glass, which gave the first a transcendent feel, but here sounds tacked on. It isn’t a bad film, but it isn’t anything special either.
The gore is still there. For anyone who doesn’t enjoy suffering and blood, there are some seriously unpleasant moments before the credits role, topped by the sawing off of a hand. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your disposition), the frights don’t have the same kind of impact as the violence. Filled with far too many cheap jump scares, we get: “It’s just a cat,” “It’s just a bird,” and three cases of “It’s just a person I didn’t notice walking up behind me.” And of course, there’s the always unnecessary dreams of killings that don’t take place.
It’s best not to watch this soon after the first as the concept and background has changed. The urban-legend-come-to-life has been abandoned in all but name, as has the racial issues except to point out that things were bad when slavery was legal (isn’t that a given?). Nothing about modern prejudices pops up. Instead, there is only a standard revenge haunting. That Candyman has a slightly different past and reason for existing is easy to ignore, although it does raise questions about the filmmakers: Did they not recall the first film? Didn’t they like it?
While shot in New Orleans, little is made of the city. Marti Gras is going on, but it might as well have been any Monday. The pointless narration from a DJ may have had some connection to the celebration, but then it might not. Either way, his dialog doesn’t clarify anything, nor is it amusing.
For a film with a great deal of emotional upset, none of it rings true. Annie’s brother just yells all the time. Annie’s mother isn’t given a realistic line in the film. And Annie seems hardly to notice that her husband had a hook shoved through him. I should have been empathizing with them, instead of just watching.
By Ghost Story standards, Candyman 2 is unimpressive, however, most of my complaints vanish if you are looking for a Slasher. There are plenty of killings with tons of blood and a monster who can stand with Jason and Freddy. It certainly beats picking up a Friday the 13th sequel.
While functional on its own, it’s sad to see so little of what made the first chilling. Candyman is a movie that has stayed with me. I barely remembered this follow-up one a minute after I left my seat.