The Worst Film Ever

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

For some reason the whole Candyman mythos is retconned a bit here. They claim he was born and killed in New Orleans and not Chicago now. I don't know why. I would like to think it's part of the very nature of urban legends in that they change to suit whomever needs them. Region by region, time by time.Overall this is a standard retread of the original but lacking the verve, originality, and sense of theme it had. It doesn't expand on it in any significant way, or add anything that wasn't done before. It's more of the same but less well done.

Pretty standard sequel, with the story being originated by Clive Barker. The urban myth of the "Candyman" is re-awakened when descendants from the tortured slaves bloodline attempt to find out the truth and ultimately destroy the legend forever. Some pretty nifty effects are all that are really here, as the weak succession of false shocks and the slow beginning only detract from the picture. The script too is weak, with its complexities of Candymans origins not solidly explained. It tries to achieve the epic and urban mythic qualities of the original but ends up as a formula horror pic, although Tony Todd has prescence as Candyman, and Kelly Rowan is a likable protagonist.The special effects are ghastily realistic, the production design and production values flawless, vivid characterization, and the acting again award-caliber, with special mention going to Kelly Rowan and Timothy Carhight as the main 'protagonist' couple, the little girl who brilliantly plays their lovable young daughter, and of course the always excellent Tony Todd, who turns in great performances even in weak movies and absolutely shines in something like this. "Farewell To The Flesh" also features some of the most memorable visual imagery around, including the unsettlingly surreal sight of the Candyman in the middle of a vast Mardi Gras celebration, slowly stalking down center street amongst the costumed festivities unnoticed (or possibly Unseen?)Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Dr. Philip Purcell has written a book on the Candyman legend that dismisses the myth as nothing but superstition. In front of his audience, Purcell invokes the Candyman but nothing happens. But once the lecture is over, Purcell is torn open by the Candyman in a bar bathroom. The police arrest Ethan Tarrant, a mentally disturbed man, who had assaulted Purcell earlier. But his sister, art teacher Annie Tarrant, believes otherwise. With her husband Paul McKeever, Annie revisits her childhood home, which is now an abandoned property filled with vagrant squatters. She begins to find links between the Candyman legend & her own family history. And as soon as Annie herself invokes him in order to disprove the myth in front of her students, the Candyman appears, killing people around her in order to get her to believe in him. Dodging both the ghost & the police, who are convinced that she is responsible for the Candyman's victims, Annie discovers that Candyman – real name Daniel Robitaille – was a former slave who was brutally murdered by his owners after getting a white woman pregnant. And the kicker is that the child that Robitaille fathered was Annie's great-grandmother.Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh was the first of two sequels to CANDYMAN, an impressive but slightly overrated horror sleeper of the 1992 season that became a big hit & was the second major cult creation of horror master Clive Barker, already famous for the Cenobites of the HELLRAISER series. The film was based on one of Barker's short stories.While the original was an excellent horror flick that engaged on both a cerebral & a visual level, this sequel is strictly by the numbers. Bill Condon relies on far too many false jumps & red herrings during the first half that becomes tiring to watch. This, coupled with the overuse of Philip Glass' score from the original to the point that the ethereal effect it had in the first film became nothing but meaningless in this one makes the film's first half decidedly mediocre.But once the story kicks in the second half & Kelly Rowan's heroine is on the chase to defeat what is essentially her ancestor, Farewell to the Flesh picks up considerably to rank as a passable sequel. The visual effects are good, especially the ending where Tony Todd's hook-handed ghost is defeated by Rowan smashing the mirror, causing his form to shatter like glass, an effect that looks remarkable. Another thing that elevates the film slightly is the whole connection between the heroine & the Candyman, as well as revealing the ghost's origins, finally solving the mystery behind the legend.The acting is okay in places. Tony Todd practically owns the film from his first appearance. He is probably the only actor besides Hellraiser villain Doug Bradley to really get into the nuances of his character, giving the film a good monster. As for the rest of the cast, everyone does passably well, although I found Veronica Cartwright's neurotic mother a bit of an eyesore.

The Candyman legend moves on to New Orleans, and has a whole new set of victims. Annie Tarrant (Kelly Rowan) is a school teacher. Her father was killed by the Candyman. Her brother Ethan (William O'Leary) is wrongly accused of murders, the latest being a Candyman denial writer.The change in setting concerns me, but New Orleans has some great potential for urban legends. It goes into the life of Daniel Robitaille a little bit more with maybe a possible way to kill him once and for all. But it's not as creepy as it needs to be. The movie lacks any tension or fear.Kelly Rowan is playing a typical scared victim. At least she has the skills to back it up. But the atmosphere isn't up to the original. It's all a weaker version of itself. It certainly doesn't have as powerful of an ending as the original.