Tag: Candyman

Best Horror Films of 2021

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Was 2021 better than 2020? Well, at the end of this year, we have vaccines and booster shots. We know the best defense against the virus, and yet, the year was bookended by an insurrection in Washington, DC and a resurgent pandemic with a new variant more contagious than even the Delta. We have a new administration in Washington, and still, the sense that democracy is in crisis mode hasn’t really abated. In fact, the U.S. has been downgraded as a “backsliding democracy.” The tumult that was 2020 bled into 2021.

All of this anxiety should breed solid horror for years to come. Yet, as I went through all the films I reviewed in 2021 (more than 70 when I count the festivals I covered), this wasn’t a standout year compared to the last few. Part of this is due to the fact movies continue to face delays thanks to COVID. Still, this year featured some gems, and those are worth celebrating. So, with that, I bring you my best-of horror film list for 2021. (For my Best-of Shudder 2021 list click here).

Malignant/Directed by James Wan

This is James Wan’s love letter to giallo and 90s horror. This movie would have fit right at home with Dark Castle or Full Moon’s rooster during their heydays. Malignant delivered one of the best monsters of the year in Gabriel, a parasitic twin who could control electricity and broadcast his thoughts through speakers. His grudges and temper sent him on a course of murderous revenge. This movie is so silly and so much fun. It was the type of entertainment that we needed this year.

PG: Psycho Goreman/Directed by Steven Kostanski

Here’s another stellar creature feature. Matthew Ninaber gives a knockout performance as a malevolent space lord…who ends up with the name Psycho Goreman, or PG for short. After he lands on Earth, a group of kids finds a magical stone, and with it, they can command the space monster to do whatever they want. Along the way, he learns about human emotions, including love. Like Malignant, this is horror escapism at its best. This movie is funny, endearing, and wildly entertaining.

Lucky/Directed by Natasha Kermani

When you think the slasher has exhausted itself post-Scream, then along comes a movie like Lucky to put a feminist bite on everything. The killer in this, who wears all black and a non-discreet mask, is a stand-in for daily misogyny that women face. He’s that creep who lurks in the parking lot or the boss who says a woman’s work is never good enough. Starring Brea Grant, who also penned the script, Lucky is a smart take on a familiar subgenre. Grant just may be a new horror queen.

Candyman/Directed by Nia DaCosta

Other than the stinker Halloween Kills, Candyman was undoubtedly the most hyped horror movie of 2021. Did it live up to that? Yes and no. It has an ending that feels totally rushed, but the film is utterly stunning and visually arresting. DaCosta took the familiar story of Candyman and expanded it to reflect the Black community’s pain in the age of BLM. Yet, she did so without ever coming across as heavy-handed. This is a movie that draws on both Black history and the history of a franchise. Oh, and the brief cameo by Tony Todd is totally worth the wait. What’s especially impressive about this movie is the way it combines a typical slasher with some stellar body horror and even possession, especially once Candyman starts to take over the body of artist/lead Anthony McKoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Let’s hope this isn’t DaCosta’s last entry in the horror genre, now that she’s been tapped by Marvel to direct a sequel to Captain Marvel.

Titane/Directed by Julia Ducournau

This, for me, is the best horror movie of the year, hands down. After Ducornau’s steller 2016 debut feature Raw (one of the best horror films of the last decade, if you ask me), everyone waited for her follow-up. She did not disappoint. The film follows the story of Alexia (Agathe Rousselle), who has a weird fetish for cars and eventually has sex with one. Yes, it’s an extremely bizarre storyline with heavy body horror. But the film has layers of human emotion, several narrative turns, gender-bending and the most dazzling visuals out of anything I’ve seen this year. Titane makes it clear that Ducornau is one of the most important directors working in horror right now and one of the most interesting young directors period. Oh, and Ducournau became the first woman in history to win the top Cannes prize, the Palme d’Or, solo.

Runner-ups:

The Vigil/Directed by Keith Thomas

Jakob’s Wife/Directed by Travis Stevens

The Beta Test/Directed by Jim Cummings

Most Looking Forward to in 2022:

Scream, Baby, Scream!

The three survivors are back! Let’s hope this rebooted slasher has more to offer than Halloween Kills did. All trailers look promising, and with how much technology and horror have changed and evolved, isn’t it time for a little Ghostface and a little meta commentary? If you’re worried about the fact Wes Craven isn’t the one behind the camera this time, fear not, the franchise is in good hands with Ready or Not directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Opin.

The Righteous

This was my favorite horror movie that played at Fantasia. It’s a black and white tale about the end of the world, and without giving too much away, I’ll leave it at that. So far, no word on a wide distribution release date, but hopefully it comes out in 2022.

The Last Thing Mary Saw

This is another one of my favorites from Fantasia. It’s folk-horror done well with a chilling atmosphere. and a truly creepy performance by Rory Culkin. It comes to Shudder in January.

Here’s hoping that 2022 goes better than 2020 and 2021. At the very least, there’s a lot more horror to look forward to in the new year!

Candyman, Candyman, Candyman, Candyman, Candyman – Say His Name {Movie Review}

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Courstey of Universal

First, let me start off by saying PLEASE go to Rotten Tomatoes right now and read the reviews by Black critics on Candyman (2021). Those are the reviews what you sould read first, especially after you’ve seen the new movie and the 1992 OG version. Those critics can offer a take on this franchise that well, I really can’t. That said, after seeing the movie, I can’t stop thinking about it, both the good and the bad.

In Nia DaCosta’s “spirtual sequel,” Chicago’s Cabrini-Green is a gentrified neighborhood complete with high rises, Whole Foods, and hipster art galleries. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Anthony McCoy, an artist stuck in a serious rut, rehasing the same social/political art that he’s created for the last few years. After his girlfriend’s brother tells him the story of Candyman, he becomes obsessed with the urban legend and visits what remains of the projects, photographing graffettied walls while smashed glass crunches under his Converse. Colman Domingo plays old timer William Burke, who explains the lore and fuels Anthony’s obsession. He’s one of the last remanents of the Cabrini-Green projects and has one of the best bits of dialogue about an hour into the film about what Candyman is. In DaCosta’s film, he’s not only Tony Todd’s character. He’s a metaphor for Black oppression and violence, taking on many different faces and stories. “He’s the whole damn hive,” to quote Domingo’s character. Yet, even if DaCosta expands the lore, she doesn’t erase the story of Todd’s character or the events surrounding Helen (Virginia Madsen) from the first film. They are referenced quite a bit but placed in a larger, interesting context.

Teyonah Parris plays Brianna, Anthony’s girlfriend who also hustles around the art scene and is pretty much responsible for landing Anthony shows. As his behavior grows increasingly erratic and even dangerous, Brianna, of course, becomes alarmed. One of my main gripes about this film is that Brianna isn’t given a whole lot to do. There is major family trauma revealed through a flashback, but it’s just sort of…dropped. That’s a storyline that needed much more room to breathe. It’s utterly wasted potential. Further, Anthony isn’t given much depth beyond the brushtrocks and serving as a vessel, a body for Candyman to increasingly possess.

The film’s other main issue is the script, especially the last act. So much happens in the last 20-30 minutes that it will make your head spin. Not all of it makes sense. This film probably would have done better with a two hour runtime, as opposed to 90 minutes. There are too many ideas crammed into this movie, everything from gentrification, to Candyman’s lore, to police violence. The film never becomes didactic, but some of the ideas simply feel too thin, mere sketches than a fully realized story. That said, the first half of the film especially has some dazzling visuals. The kills astonish, especially the mirror motif. One bathroom sequence involving high school girls is one of the most innovative scenes in horror that I’ve witnessed all year. DaCosta is one heck of a filmmaker, and I can’t wait to see what she does with a project that isn’t saddled with so much backstory and history.

Overall, Candyman (2021) has some really great moments and a few cameos that I won’t mention because I want people to be surprised. I’m still thinking about it 24 hours after I saw it, and I suspect I’ll be thinking about it for some days to come yet. The visuals are strunning and the way that both Candyman and Cabrini-Green are expanded in the context of this franchise are fasicnating. This film is in conversation with the origional while managing to take some inventive leaps. That said, the narrative falters quite a bit as it rushes towards its conclusion.

Now, please, go to RT and check out those other reviews.

Candyman Reboot?

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The horror world has been abuzz over the news that Jordan Peele is interested in remaking Candyman, the 1992 film about a murdered slave, Candyman (Tony Todd), who will appear if you repeat his name in the mirror. It’s unclear if Peele would actually direct the film or produce it, but regardless, though Candyman is not that old, its themes of gentrification and the past never staying dead are deserving of an update. After the success of Get Out, Peele is the right person to  oversee the project if it moves forward.

Candyman is a film that I really like and recently re-watched. Directed by Bernard Rose and based on Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden,” it is  atmospheric and haunting. Set in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green Housing project, as opposed to Liverpool, the setting of Barker’s story, the film is moody and deals with issues of class, race, and gentrification without being preachy or over-the-top. Of the filming location and housing project, Rose said that it is “an incredible arena for a horror movie because it was a place of such palpable fear.” Yet, who and what are we supposed to fear? These are questions the film asks. The protagonist, Helen Lye (Virginia Madsen), is a white graduate student interested in researching folk tales and myths, which brings her to the housing project and the history of the Candyman myth. Her arrival poses a lot of questions. Is she merely using the housing project and its impoverished residents to further her own agenda? Would she bother to care about any of the residents if not for her research and her personal goal of academic noteriety? Regardless, Helen forces her way into the housing project, snapping photo after photo, taking what she needs in the process. Residents clearly know that she doesn’t belong, but that doesn’t stop her from invading their space. At one point, she literary crawls through a hidden hole to enter another apartment where a murder occurred.

Helen

(Helen played by Virginia Madsen)

Candyman’s story, meanwhile, uses tropes found throughout African American literature and film. He is a murdered slave who fell in love with a white woman and was brutally killed as a result. The past, so to speak, never really stays dead, and once Candyman is summoned, he seeks revenge with a bloody hook hand, while speaking in suave Victorian language.  Tony Todd’s performance is one of the real highlights of the film, and it would be hard to find someone to top him.

 

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(Candyman played by Tony Todd)

It is unclear how quickly production will move forward with a Candyman remake, if it happens at all; however, Jordan Peele is the right person to produce or direct the project. Get Out shows that he has a clear understanding of class and race, specifically how they are intertwined. Candyman does not necessarily need a remake, but I would be interested to see Peele’s take.