Nia DaCosta and Jordan Peele imbue the horror cult classic with political dimensions that are poignant and darkly comic by turns.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 23, 2024

Nia DaCosta’s direct sequel to the 1992 original, itself based on a Clive Barker story, is plenty scary with horrors imagined and real.

| Jul 28, 2024

But reframing the legend as a vengeful specter instead of Tony Todd’s romantic, Byronic icon inadvertently erases Anthony’s agency and individuality, and glosses over how Candyman terrorizes his community.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 16, 2023

The film keeps you on edge the entire way through with its different strains of Horror, Body, Psychological, & Slasher! The film might be too short & rushed but its journey was an impressive one

| Jul 26, 2023

Nia DaCosta does a fabulous job at modernising Candyman; the gore, violent sequences, and general atmosphere are almost suffocating.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 25, 2023

At its core, Candyman (2021) attempts to explore how Black trauma is intergenerational. Exploring how the atrocities inflicted on our ancestors years prior still affect our lives today.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 4, 2022

Candyman has style to spare in its horror setpieces, but the script is far too cluttered and confusing for its social commentary to land, despite director Nia DaCosta's best efforts behind the camera.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 1, 2022

It’s a great idea on the surface, but the story ends up needlessly convoluted and with gaping holes in its logic. And while it seems interested in meaningful topics such as race and gentrification, just referencing them isn’t the same as dealing with them

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 17, 2022

There is hardly a moment when the characters and themes are all that alluring, leaving dissatisfaction at the bungled storytelling that ends on a ridiculous note that is unfulfilling.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Jun 5, 2022

The ending of the movie doesnt quite work, and comments on contemporary issues such as police violence, gentrification and systemic racism dont always fit with the established mythology of the series.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 13, 2022

CANDYMAN has a lot of exciting ideas on its mind and it continues the classic original pretty cleverly, but as an intense, gripping slasher film it just doesnt completely work for me.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 13, 2022

DaCosta builds upon the thoughtful original to investigate the politics of race, gentrification, and history in a manner better suited to the metaphoric potential of horror, resulting in a far more decisive, clarified, and emotionally involving tale.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 12, 2022

What so easily could have been a bland sequel that is simply trying to make a quick buck on an established character is instead a motivated and inspired final product that is truly one of the best films of the year.

| Original Score: A | Feb 12, 2022

Candyman is a worthy sequel to the 1992 original. It's well-paced and it builds upon the universes mythology in a meaningful way.

| Feb 12, 2022

Nia DaCosta's reboot/sequel retains the Chicago setting of its influential 1992 predecessor but relocates the shocks to a bougie-artsy 2021 milieu where talent and education ultimately provide no escape or defense from the racist past or present.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 3, 2022

What's most satisfying about Candyman is just how smart it is without ever becoming smug.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 9, 2022

CANDYMAN is a breathtaking beauty of a horror film. Clever, brutal and entrancing, it spreads its dark wings over you as you watch the colors in front of you.

| Dec 31, 2021

Viewers of the new Candyman movie get overblown discourse instead of genuine horror.

| Dec 17, 2021

It's ironic that, for a movie marinating in major issues, the most imagination is exhibited in the kill scenes.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 21, 2021

A tremendous and impressive piece of work, that manages to revive an old horror classic while also charting its own distinctive path through the material.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 11, 2021