Reviews by:
@ryan_the_nixon
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2021
15
director: Nia Da Costa
Starring: Yahya Abdul Mateen the second, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Jarrett, Colman Domingo, Kyle Kaminsky, Vanessa Williams, Brian King, Michael Hargroves.
In present day, many years after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, Anthony and his partner move into a loft in the now gentrified Cabrini. A chance encounter with an old-timer exposes Anthony to the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to use these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, he unknowingly opens a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifying wave of violence. I thought Candyman was very good, But I had some issues that bought the film down a bit for me.
My first few positives would be the fantastic cinematography, visual style, and soundtrack. As well as the great set up, character background and uncomfortable tone. This film had an incredible visual style and cinematography. This film was so beautifully artistic, and I can’t compare it to anything else I have seen. With some amazing tracking shots of the city landscape but everything was upside down. The film paid a lot of detail to its shots, often zooming out of a scene but still allowing the audience to know exactly what’s going on. I also thought the use of shadow puppets was a fantastic visual style to use. It was inventive, unique, and was a fascinating way to tell some of the story and was surprisingly frightening in parts. I also thought the soundtrack and the sound design was very good. The jarring and intense soundtrack really elevated a lot of the scenes and made them really fascinating and intense to watch. The sound design for the hook of Candyman and the dropping of bits of candy was excellently used to build tension and was very uncomfortable. The film executed a very frightening and intense tone. With the killing scenes really sticking with me, they were shot beautifully, and the sound design was just insane with the constant use of deep humming and Candyman was Scary. I thought the set up was effective, having Anthony (Yahya Abdul Mateen) struggle with his art career and discovering the mythology of Candyman really set up his character and his obsession with the legend very well. I also really liked the character background they gave to the mythology of Candyman and the different characters experiences with the legend. It had purpose and linked with the characters in the present so it was very well written.
My next few positives would be the humour and chemistry between the cast. The fantastic performances. As well as the use of art, slow building of tension and clever characters. The cast had excellent chemistry here. I think Yahya, Teyonnah and Nathan in particular had fantastic natural chemistry with each other, their relationships were fun, and it looks like they worked well together. Nathan Jarrett was great, not only offering refreshing LGBTQ+ representation by being a proper character but also providing some great humour to some scenes, the dialogue was a big help playing against a lot of stereotypes for black or gay characters in horror that worked really well. The performances here were also brilliant. Yahya Abdul, Teyonah Parris and Colman Domingo in particular did fantastic jobs. Their roles were very challenging, but they all stepped up. Their performances were intense, uncomfortable, and powerful. Particularly Yahya who was incredible here, I look forward to seeing his future work. I also really liked that the film really incorporated the art industry into the idea. It was fascinating to see how the art industry worked and seeing different art displays and how it all works with promoting yourself as an artist was a great part of the film which I am glad they added in such detail. I also liked the slow building of tension, the film did a fantastic job at slowly getting darker and more uncomfortable as the film developed, it took its time with its scares and building its atmosphere which for me really paid off. Finally, I also thought the characters were actually clever. In so many horror movies the characters are dumb and just follow every noise they here or they are stereotypical and go down into basements. But in this film the characters felt like humans and thought for themselves, going against genre stereotypes and it was refreshing.
I did, however have a few issues with the film, particularly with the script. There was a lot of lapses in the logic and underused characters. As well as underdeveloped characters and forced dialogue and themes. I thought that the film had a lot of cases where certain plot points didn’t make sense, in particular when Anthony started have his skin change and his behaviour became more erratic, for a long time the characters didn’t really do anything and just acted normal, I also would have like to have seen more of Teyonah Parris’s character as I thought she could of had a bigger role in terms of developing her relationship with Anthony. Because of this the characters felt underdeveloped. I understood their connections to the Candyman and what career they had but nothing much else, so I could never fully connect with the main characters relationship due to the lack of attention to their characters. My biggest issue was with the forced dialogue and themes. I respect the film for the themes it put across about racism, but I thought the execution of them was bad. The dialogue felt very forced and clunky constantly mentioning all of these things but never really incorporating them into the plot. A lot of the dialogue was so harsh that it almost felt anti-white in parts.
My final few positives would be the development to the plot and the plot twists. As well as the use of gore, some good themes, and a great final act. The plot development was excellent, Anthony slowly losing his mind and morphing into Candyman was handled excellently in order to build the tension and it really gave the film some room to breathe and make it a slow and frightening descent into madness. I also thought the plot twists were very strong. Particularly with Anthony and his origins with the Candyman. The twists were dark and gave the plot more depth. I also really liked the use of gore in the death scenes. They really added a lot more impact to them with the large amounts of blood used combining slasher and horror very well. I also appreciate some of the themes the film expressed. Despite me not liking the execution the film raised some important issues on police brutality and gentrification that are linked to a lot of issues still embedded in society, so I still had some form of respect for what they were going for. Finally, the final act for me was very strong. Some people have criticised it. But for me it was intense and frightening and the tension that was being built so well all came together here for a very well-crafted and written final act that concluded the story well.
Overall, Candyman is elevated by Nia Da Costa’s beautiful and inventive creative vision. And is one of the most stylistic and creative horrors I have seen, with incredible performances. And has some of the best use of tension and sound design I have seen in a horror. But the script was not up to the standard of the creative vision, and the bigger and deeper themes are lost due to the execution.
Overall rating 82/100
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