‘Candyman’ (2021) Review: Can I Be Your Victim?

If you don’t know me, I love the horror genre. So as soon as I heard there was going to be a new Candyman movie, I was ready to start avoiding mirrors all over again. Opening night, I was in my town’s theater seeing the movie with my best friend. Now, I have some thoughts. Look Into the Mirror, What Do You See? So, a quick synopsis of the movie: visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is struggling with his next art piece. That is until he hears the story of Helen Lyle and Candyman told to him by his girlfriend’s (Teyonah Parris) brother. Anthony quickly becomes obsessed with the story and goes to the Cabrini-Green housing project to take pictures for inspiration. While there, he is stung by a bee and meets William Burke, one of the last original residents of the area. He owns a laundromat and brings Anthony there to give him the real low-down on the urban legend; telling Anthony the story of the “Candyman” he knew as a child and how that one was wrongfully beaten to death by the police.

via Vulture

As Anthony’s new Candyman-inspired piece is shown at a gallery, he is ridiculed for his work. And of course, we find our first victims who perform the name-calling ritual. The hooked-handed ghoul shows up (the one that we see William talk about) and kills a couple about to have sex in front of Anthony’s work (sex and horror always go together). Anthony’s art becomes darker, his bee sting worsens, and more deaths take place as “Candyman” makes himself known to Anthony…