We have a typical (albeit fairly slow) set-up that ramps up unexpectedly into a surreal ‘decent to madness’ affair. That plot arc alone, and the fate of the lead actress, is very unusual in a perceived ‘popcorn horror’ like this but there are a few other things that make this interesting:
- The ghetto / projects / black community setting. I’m not aware of any other horror like this and it’s interesting to see characters discussing urban legends in this context.
- The romancing by Candyman himself. He’s really rather ‘seductive’ isn’t he? He sucks our lead in with a dark and unexpectedly romantic hypnosis, half in the sense of traditional romance and have in the sense of the glory of immortality.
- The dreamlike vibe. Quite deliberately, I think, things end up half-explained, as if it were all a dream that you can’t quite remember. It avoids detailed backstory and explanation. I’m not sure whether I actually like this, but it does add to the uniqueness of the cocktail.
Other things of note: the first half of the film does have quite a few ‘false scares’ (very much out of fashion now, rightly so) but the gore (specifically the ‘blood’) is then quite abundant when it gets going. The horror imagery is also good and memorable, particularly ‘hook hand’ and the ‘bee kiss’. There is also a cool image of graffiti that unfortunately comes back too many times and becomes overused.
The soundtrack is also striking and very memorable, clashing hard with concepts of ‘the ghetto’ and adding to the dreamlike vibe.
All of this said, it doesn’t translate to the film being great. It never really feels like it excels at any particular thing and can’t quite make its mind up whether it wants to be a fun slasher story or a brooding spooker, missing the peaks of both sub-genres. But it remains memorable for merely attempting its strange blend.
Finally, it’s hard to not watch the film with 2020 eyes on and think about issues of race and how it addresses those issues. Racism and deprived communities is obviously a theme of the film and it largely succeeds in dealings with this. It does feel slightly awkward at times in having an attractive, naive white female lead and, separately, then having the entire ‘black community’ arriving at the funeral, for some reason. But to some extent that’s just an artefact of the plot and modern day sensitives.
) to say it’s worthy of a watch and I’m interested for your thoughts. Will put my own thoughts in spoilers though so it doesn’t colour your views if you haven’t seen it recently.
