Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 18, 1995 TAG: 9503230008
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The 1992 original attempts to use "urban legends" as a basis for a horror story firmly set in today's world. With its Chicago locations and a hypnotic score from Philip Glass (repeated here), it's effective, well-acted and sometimes frightening.
This time out, the story is repeated in New Orleans with the same gimmick. If anyone looks into a mirror and says the name "Candyman" five times, a towering hook-handed man (Tony Todd) will appear and eviscerate the speaker. Guess what happens about every 15 minutes.
Our heroine is teacher Annie Tarant (Kelly Rowan), whose father was mysteriously murdered that way years before. Now her mother (Veronica Cartwright) is dying of cancer, and her brother has been locked up for yet another bloody murder. She and her husband (Timothy Carhart) go tromping around her family estate for no real reason. At the same time, one of her students (Joshua Gibran Mayweather) is having visions of Candyman.
Two large flaws sink the film before it has a chance:
First, Clive Barker's story demands that in any potentially dangerous situation, the characters involved must do the most stupid thing possible.
Second, director Bill Condon lets the action ooze along at a tedious pace. Almost all of the scares come from the hook-through-the-guts routine, which isn't even very disgusting after the third or fourth time, or generic spooky stuff - one character creeping up on another, a flapping crow, swarming bees, etc.
The climactic special effects are visually impressive, though they don't make much sense, even in the undemanding logic of a horror film.
Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh
* 1/2
A Gramercy Pictures release playing at the Salem Valley 8, Valley View Mall 6. Rated R for graphic violence, language.
by CNB