Click here to copy URL

Candyman

2021

Nia DaCosta

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Brian King ...

5.0

5,385

Horror For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II; HBO’s Watchmen, Us) and his ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Brandon Katz The New York Observer	"Director and producer remind Hollywood that you can make a pointed film about societal divides regardless of the brand or scale (...) It is enthralling start-to-finish, one of the best films of the year (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Kambole Campbell Empire	"Though it delivers some entertaining comedy and bloodshed, 'Candyman' is clunky and overly instructive in its metaphorical purpose (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"New 'spiritual sequel' has striking images to show and bold things to say (...) Gory yet strikingly beautiful and socially relevant (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Siddhant Adlakha IGN	"It pays homage to the existing saga, but it also digs deeper into the mythos, unearthing volatile ideas that had always lurked just beneath the series surface. The result is inventive, introspective, and above all, unsettling"	POS
United States	Angelica Jade Bastien Vulture	"Its screenplay is remarkably didactic (...) In 'Candyman', the filmmakers are interested in the Black body but not the soul and mind that animates it"	NEG
United States	Odie Henderson rogerebert.com	"'Candyman' caters to fans of the original without sacrificing its own vision and story (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Leslie Byron Pitt The Playlist	"DaCosta’s continuation of the 'Candyman' saga becoming not only fascinating but terrifying in how even the events of the first time are craftily repurposed depending on who’s mentioning the story and why"	POS
United States	Kate Erbland IndieWire	"Leave it to Nia DaCosta’s alternately artful and brutal 'Candyman' sequel to make plain the power of political symbolism in good, old-fashioned gore"	POS
United Kingdom	Tim Grierson Screendaily	"Director Nia DaCosta’s follow-up is both bitingly satiric and elegantly suspenseful, illustrating how race and class still bedevil modern life"	POS
United States	Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"It’s easy to shock viewers with splatter (...) Far better is the slow creep, the horror that teases and then threatens. The dread inexorably builds in 'Candyman'"	POS
United States	Chris Evangelista SlashFilm	"None of the sequels are as clever, as interesting, as effective as this (…) Rating: ★★★★★★★★ (out of 10)"	POS
United States	David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"A fresh take that flips the perspective of the original, almost showing a mirror image as it continues the tradition of campfire ghost stories that acquire new dimensions and details as they are retold across generations"	POS
United States	Elizabeth Weitzman The Wrap	"DaCosta and co-writers Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld update and rethink the material in provocative ways"	POS
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"This film is a very tasty confection of satire and scorn (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Brian Lowry CNN	"The filmmakers have done an admirable job weaving the mythology together while employing inventive touches to explore traumatic events without exploiting them (...) Yet it appears to have bitten off a bit more than it can chew"	NEU
United States	Robert Daniels Polygon	"It’s cluttered, preachy, and not nearly scary enough (...) DaCosta doesn’t have the voice required to approach these issues with depth"	NEG
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"In 'Candyman', there’s plenty of horror, but none of it is as disturbing as the true-life horror that can make people feel like they’re ghosts of the past"	POS
United States	Keith Watson Slant	"A haunting allegory for black trauma and resilience (...) The confidence with which the film synthesizes an adherence to franchise continuity with striking contemporary relevance is hard not to admire (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Jared Mobarak The Film Stage	"DaCosta and company do a great job sprinkling in flashbacks via shadow play, but don’t rehash the conclusion (...) This one shows how the oppressors have become too comfortable on their perch to realize tides have changed"	POS
United States	Jacob Oller Paste Magazine	"The power of martyrdom, the cycles of economic exploitation, the blood price expected for progress are so compellingly introduced as to solidify 'Candyman' as a must-see horror and a must-discuss tragedy"	POS
United Kingdom	Amon Warmann Time Out	"It’s just as terrifying and timely as ever (...) 'Candyman' is exquisitely shot. Right from the first frame, DaCosta is always doing something interesting with the camera (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Anya Stanley AV Club	"Almost too stuffed with ideas (...) But there are worse crimes for a movie to commit than having too many ideas (...) DaCosta relocates the horror from one man to the many structures that foment brutality upon the Black populace"	POS
United States	Brian Truitt USA Today	"A visually arresting work that’s deeply timely and entertaining (...) No matter if you come to 'Candyman' for the message or for the gore, it’s impossible not to feel the sting"	POS
United States	Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune	"Sleek, brooding, methodical, thoughtful (...) Many will find DaCosta’s take on the story didactic, I suppose, or low on genre payoffs. I’m eager to see it a second time, flaws and all. It’s alive and awake to where we are now"	POS
Canada	Mae Abdulbaki Screen Rant	"Even though not all of its storylines get their due by the end, 'Candyman' is haunting and visually striking, providing depth while advancing the story that began decades ago"	POS
United States	Richard Whittaker Austin Chronicle	"The golden era of slashers was defined by vicarious, often overblown pleasures, while the mood of 'Candyman' is overwhelmingly dour and gloom-cloaked. No surprise, considering the weightiness of the issues at hand (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly	"Who can take a reboot, sprinkle it with something new, cover it with blood and bumblebees and a pointed social commentary or two? 'Candyman' can, at least for a little while"	POS
United States	Michael O'Sullivan The Washington Post	"'Candyman' can’t seem to decide whether it wants to scare you or make you think"	NEU
United States	Mark Feeney Boston Globe	"Acute and skillfully made, 'Candyman' is also pointedly political (…) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Tim Robey Telegraph	"This follow-up to the acclaimed 1992 horror film of the same name has far more substance than your average popcorn chiller (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Total Film	"Despite the tension, and the solid performances, it doesn’t quite make sense, narratively (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Richard Lawson Vanity Fair	"With a tighter, more incisive script, DaCosta probably could have triumphed"	NEU
United States	Peter Travers ABC News	"You can fault the film's heavy messaging but not its blazing passion for racial justice and the need to see the demon inside ourselves (...) Welcome to a new horror classic"	POS
United States	Meagan Navarro Bloody Disgusting	"It's an ambitious and haunting reclamation realized by DaCosta's bold vision, blending horrors real and supernatural (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
Canada	Shelagh Rowan-Legg Screen Anarchy	"A more than worthy succesor to the classic 90s horror (...) [It] keeps the audience on the other side of the mirror, watching as that individual and collective trauma is forced to be inescapable to those left vulnerable"	POS

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.