Harefooted Halloween: Candyman: Day of the Dead

What I Liked: This one follows the adult daughter of the previous film’s protagonist which means that it’s amazingly set twenty five to thirty years after Farewell to the Flesh which was in 1995.  The thing is everything looks like modern day 1999.  It’s just funny that the filmmakers clearly didn’t think about this at all.

The visions Caroline (Donna D’Errico (The Big Easy TV show)) has of her dead mother with the Candyman are effectively kinda disturbing.  She’s got her throat slit and she’s still bleeding and her eyes are all black and she’s smiling like she’s thrilled to be a Candyman victim and job well done with this one thing.

What I Didn’t Like: Everything else, even Tony Todd doesn’t look like he’s into it.

Overall Impressions: They combined parts 1 and 2 where Caroline is framed for several murders by the Candyman but she keeps eluding the cops so there isn’t a descent into madness.  And without that this has a slasher-y feel.

The New Orleans backstory is stuck to as well as the Candyman going after his own family members (once they do the chant into the mirror of course).  And again it’s fucked up that for the second time the Candyman wants an incestuous relationship with his own kin.  Since he couldn’t swoon his great granddaughter he aims for his great great granddaughter.  What’s this dude’s problem?

Another strange aspect is the movie has an almost soft core porn vibe.  Aside from this being a low budget direct to video production several women get topless, one woman licks and fetichizes honeycomb, our hero has a few scenes in just her underwear and one in the shower and there’s a sex scene.  Director Turi Meyer’s biggest claim to fame is producing and writing Smallville so I don’t know where this sleazy shit is coming from.

Part 3 here is definitely the weakest in the franchise.  For one thing the racism is too in your face with a couple of asshole cops at the forefront.  Where the other films left it more subtle this one overcompensates and has racism ultimately be the bad guy.

However, the main issue with the movie is it’s redundant.  And not in the usual slasher picture way where even though all the Halloweens and Nightmare on Elm Streets are basically the same the sequels are still fun to watch because of the inventive twists on how the victims are dispatched and how that fits into the overall story.  We also typically learn something new about the killer putting a wrinkle in what you thought you knew about the monster.

When it comes to the Candyman he pretty much murders his victims with his hook every time and he almost always attacks from behind.  Aside from some backstory shenanigans in part 2, which doesn’t fundamentally change the character, we learn practically everything we know about the guy in the first film.  In number 3 we don’t gain any new knowledge whatsoever about the Candyman’s past.  I think that’s why this installment comes off particularly tired and uninteresting.  We’re just going over the same ground as before.

Setting each film in very different locations highlighting unique local cultures was a good idea though (I can’t imagine that was done on purpose).  The first involves inner city Chicago, the second New Orleans Mardi Gras and the third Los Angeles Day of the Dead festivities.  I’m not saying it makes any sense but the diversity is neat.