Sunday, February 9, 2014

Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)

In the first Candyman movie, it seemed that Candyman was based in the projects of Chicago, since that's where the legend was based and there was a huge painting of him there.  But instead Candyman can go everywhere that there is a mirror and someone stupid enough to invoke his name five times while staring into it.  Turns out this also works with other objects, such as a silver reflective book cover which an author uses during his lecture tour for his new book on the Candyman.

Annie, who teaches art to teenagers at a public school, gets a phone call that her brother Ethan has been arrested for murder.  A bar full of people heard Ethan threaten the author, who was later found murdered in the bar's bathroom.  Even stranger, Ethan has confessed to the crime.

When Annie visits him in jail, she tells him she doesn't believe he's the killer and wonders if this connects somehow to their father's murder which was similar. In her quest to prove Ethan's innocence, she goes back to her childhood home. The mansion is abandoned, rundown, and full of squatters. It also has a creepy attic with a huge painting of the Candyman with an alter of candles in below it.  That's not really a good sign, especially when your father was found murdered in that same spot.

The students in Annie's class believe the Candyman exists and one student's drawings are all of the Candyman.  Annie decides to test the legend to prove to her class that Candyman does not exist. Not the best idea with a room full of twelve year olds, but I guess Annie's under a lot of pressure.  Well you just know this won't turn out well for Annie.

This movie also tells the backstory via a series of flashbacks. Candyman was a victim of 1800s racism, which actually makes him a sympathetic character.  Of course that doesn't justify him killing any cracker who says his name into a mirror, but you can't blame him for being vengeful.

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