Lotta slasher movies getting shitty reboots/sequels that ignore all the other sequels. Not this one's reboot-retcon-sequel. This one's not shitty. Loved this. Great followup to the original. I give it a big smile :)

So I went to the theater yesterday to see the new Candyman and was sorely disappointed. While beautiful in it's scenery and cinematography the story was a mess and the acting was pretty poor in my opinion. So I went home and was reading reviews and everyone was saying the original was better so I watched it last night. I'm not a big psychological horror guy so it didn't really click with me but it's definitely much better than the new one. Felt very 90s. I'm a sucker for a good top down aerial shot though. Hitchcock did that in a few of his films and it always looks great.

Urban legends is something that I'm very interested in. Whether it's the old stories told across school yards over the years or the more modern stories shared on online forums they all share the trait that they are kept alive by our fears and our curiosity. In Candyman we get to witness the death of one such legend but also the birth of another one and how they connect to one another.

We learn that Candyman is a mythic beast wielding a hook for a hand that will stalk the people foolish enough to utter his name five times while staring into a mirror. An eager graduate student by the name of Helen finds herself deeply fascinated by this mysterious figure, and she travels to his supposed nest in the Cabrini-Green housing project, an area looked down on by most and believed to be mostly inhabitated by criminal lowlife. After asking the residents of the area about Candyman she finds out that he is very much feared by the people in the area.

Her search soon gets the attention of a criminal gang that viciously attack her in a public restroom. She is saved however and the gang is put in custody. It turns out that the gang used the creepy legend to terrorize the inhabitants of Cabrini-Green.

So it was all just a bunch of criminals, the mysterious figure was just a spooky boogeyman right? Helen soon finds out that there is something else to the stories..

When Tony Todd first appears as Candyman he instantly creates a terrifying presence. His booming voice and looming figure stands as one of the most terrifying antagonists in all of horror cinema. He actually reminds a bit of the tragic figures from Universal Studios classic horror flicks (tragic backstory and blonde women in his sights and all the other stuff). He uses Helen to continue his legend by staging a series of grizzly murders. Our fearless protagonist lose just about any grip of reality as she is forced to act as a murderous puppet. She knows that she has to end this...

A blazing finale where the Cabrini-Green residents burn their feared tormentor in a bonfire ends in tragedy for our poor heroine as she succumbs to the flames. But she is not dead. No, her story has just started. Candyman is dead and it is now Helen that will haunt the minds of children and men alike. A new legend is born.

Helen...