Candyman (2021)

R16

2020

91 mins

Directed by Nia DaCosta
84%
72%
Horror

Billed as a "spiritual sequel" to the 1992 horror, produced and co-written by Jordan Peele (Get Out). Set in the... More

Billed as a "spiritual sequel" to the 1992 horror, produced and co-written by Jordan Peele (Get Out). Set in the now-gentrified Chicago neighbourhood where the Candyman legend - a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, the son of a slave killed in the late 19th century, summoned by saying his name five times in the mirror - began. Tony Todd, who played The Candyman in the original, returns.

In present day, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Us) and his girlfriend (Teyonah Parris, If Beale Street Could Talk) move into a modern condo in Cabrini. It's there that they bump into an old-timer (Colman Domingo, Assassination Nation) that spooks them with the true story of what happened there decades earlier. Anxious to kick-start a stalling career, Anthony begins to explore the horrific details in his studio. But he doesn't realise that by doing so, he's paving the way for an all new wave of terror.

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Where to watch Candyman (2021)

Candyman (2021) is available to stream in New Zealand now... More on YouTube and Apple TV Store and TVNZ+ and MGM+ on Prime.

There is no screening information for this title.

Candyman (2021) | Ratings & Reviews

84_%333 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
72_%3,300 reviews
Audience score rating

"Well-intentioned but strangely flat and inconsistent."

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FilmInk

"Both overly didactic and muddled."

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Vanity Fair

"(Candyman) distinguishes DaCosta as a visionary to be reckoned with."

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Little White Lies

"Every intriguing plot point... is squandered by pedestrian direction, facile thought, and a craven commodification of Blackness."

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Vulture

"(Candyman is) overstuffed with numerous relevant springboards for discussion, often at the expense of sustained dread."

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A.V. Club

"Though it delivers some entertaining comedy and bloodshed, Candyman is clunky and overly instructive in its metaphorical purpose..."

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Empire Magazine

"DaCosta stages (the murders) with a spurting operatic dread that evokes the grandiloquent sadism of mid-period De Palma."

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Variety

"(Candyman) artfully weaves together supernatural-powered genre chills with some decidedly real-world truths."

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IndieWire

"Candyman... pays tribute to the original and its legacy while forging a very present, grounded path forward, organically expanding the mythology."

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Bloody Disgusting

"A very tasty confection of satire and scorn."

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The Guardian

"Gory yet strikingly beautiful and socially relevant..."

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Chicago Sun-Times

"A wry, ambitious, occasionally frustrating reimagining..."

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Collider

"There's an elegance to DaCosta's storytelling, always giving us just enough to keep us moving forward without signalling too much of what's to come."

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San Francisco Chronicle

"The attention to race, police brutality, community displacement and related issues doesn’t mean the thrills are any less spine-tingling or the bloodletting less ghastly."

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