'Candyman' 2021 is a mess on every level included in the film.
It's a tonal mess, where the supposedly scary parts are mixed with parody-level dialogue (and delivery), satirized or serious social commentary, flamboyantly gay characters played as they walked right of the set of 80s or 90s comedy show and more. This was kind of anticipated after 'Us' 2019 though.
It becomes clear that there wasn't enough story for a feature film, hence the short run-time by modern standards.
Even with a lacking story and the film constantly pulling away into different themes and tones, there were no characters or character development in the film. There is none, trust me.
Acting-wise it was also very reminiscent of 'Us' 2019 since almost everyone was acting like they were trying to do an impression, a parody. I think the initial idea was to make the African-American cast act like rich white people, probably. If not - they were barely believable. The inclusion of the same-sex couple was also more comical for some reason. Again, maybe intentional.
All the political stuff was extremely overexaggerated to a point I wasn't sure if they were serious. I laughed at most of the police brutality scenes just because they were delivered this way.
To summarize the story, it seems like the Candyman is a passing spirit that protects the hood from white people's police brutality by violently murdering them for being extremely stupid and goofy.
I'm planning to see 1992 original, since this one acts more like a sequel, maybe it's better.
And yeah, there's also a theme of gentrification but the film abandoned it just like most of the other ones.
From a positive standpoint, I did like some of the shots and it was nice to see Tony Todd, even in his CGI state.
It is impossible to perceive this as horror since 90% of the murders are obscured behind the scenery. It is also impossible to view this as a mystery film since there is none. And since there were no characters or character development...it's hard to view this as a film altogether.
At first, I thought this was going to be a style-over-substance film with all the allegories to the world being upside down, even the music felt like it was playing backward, but in the end, it was just a gimmick, because mirrors, yeah, ok.
I'm looking forward to seeing the 1992 film and forgetting about this one as fast as possible. At least it was funny in places.
It's a tonal mess, where the supposedly scary parts are mixed with parody-level dialogue (and delivery), satirized or serious social commentary, flamboyantly gay characters played as they walked right of the set of 80s or 90s comedy show and more. This was kind of anticipated after 'Us' 2019 though.
It becomes clear that there wasn't enough story for a feature film, hence the short run-time by modern standards.
Even with a lacking story and the film constantly pulling away into different themes and tones, there were no characters or character development in the film. There is none, trust me.
Acting-wise it was also very reminiscent of 'Us' 2019 since almost everyone was acting like they were trying to do an impression, a parody. I think the initial idea was to make the African-American cast act like rich white people, probably. If not - they were barely believable. The inclusion of the same-sex couple was also more comical for some reason. Again, maybe intentional.
All the political stuff was extremely overexaggerated to a point I wasn't sure if they were serious. I laughed at most of the police brutality scenes just because they were delivered this way.
To summarize the story, it seems like the Candyman is a passing spirit that protects the hood from white people's police brutality by violently murdering them for being extremely stupid and goofy.
I'm planning to see 1992 original, since this one acts more like a sequel, maybe it's better.
And yeah, there's also a theme of gentrification but the film abandoned it just like most of the other ones.
From a positive standpoint, I did like some of the shots and it was nice to see Tony Todd, even in his CGI state.
It is impossible to perceive this as horror since 90% of the murders are obscured behind the scenery. It is also impossible to view this as a mystery film since there is none. And since there were no characters or character development...it's hard to view this as a film altogether.
At first, I thought this was going to be a style-over-substance film with all the allegories to the world being upside down, even the music felt like it was playing backward, but in the end, it was just a gimmick, because mirrors, yeah, ok.
I'm looking forward to seeing the 1992 film and forgetting about this one as fast as possible. At least it was funny in places.