Candyman: el día final

Saw this for the first time since I am on Candyman marathon.

Of course it was on fast forward mode.

This is the third installment in the Candyman series and a direct sequel to the 1995 film Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh.

Surprisingly the movie was made in 1999 but the events takes place in 2020.

Wow this one has good amt of nudity n since Tony Todd is the producer, he gets to kiss the nude woman. The first two has zero nudity inspite of a shower scene in part 2.

In part 2 they show that his hand was chopped off by a rusted saw n his body was rubbed with honey so that bees can wreak havoc on him n he was not tied on a crucifix/pole but he was on the ground.

In this part he was shown as tied on a crucifix n then the honey n bees stuff.

We have Wade Williams before his Prison Break stint.

I realized that I had never seen any of the Candyman movies, so I rented all three, and watched them one after another. The first two were really good. But this? The dark atmosphere has been thrown out the window. The awesome Phil Glass score is gone. Having a Baywatch chick as your lead?!! C'mon. This movie has no class. It was obviously thrown together by hacks. Heck, there's a shot of a building, where they obviously threw an orange filter over the sky in color correction, but it covers up the top of the building as well! This movie just looks cheap, which is a shame considering how well the first two were made. Candyman says "Be my victim" so many times it borders on self parody.

The Candyman returns once again to torment and kill a distant relative for further undisclosed or vague reasons.

This time it's Baywatch alumni Donna D'Errico taking the lead and boring the hell out of us for the films 90 minute duration.

Granted this is a marginal step up from Farewell To The Flesh (1995) but still spotlights why the Candyman franchise died such a death.

I've never understood how Tony Todds Candyman became so iconic, how do people place him alongside the likes of Freddy, Leatherface and Jason when he had just 3 rather mediocre films to his name.

I'd like to see Candyman reborn, whether a 4th film or a reboot I don't mind but we a) Need Todd to remain the titular role and b) New writers.

The Good:

Wade Williams

Donna D'Errico is far better here than I've seen her before

The Bad:

Plot is still pretty messy

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Remaking the origin scene and making it different makes about as much sense as nipples on men

Donna D'Errico is allergic to bra's

First off this had a couple of things going against it(no philip glass score, not released theatrically, baywatch babe in lead role) but it is a pretty good movie. Sure Donna D'Errico just stands around and screams terribly when she should be running for the doors but she holds up in SOME scenes. The movie's score is at first crappy for a candyman movie(it sounds like a rap beat or something) but when candyman appears in the subway its all good. Other characters are kinda underwritten and some of the movie is a little bit to much the same as the first but the writer and director try to merge the best of the first two and for the most part do a good job but it's a nicely edited and well photographed movie that should hold up for fans of the first 2.....it's a movie that is well made and is more theatrical than direct-to-video.....nice n gory too.

For some reason, the third part of a trilogy always disappoints me, if only slightly. And that's just what Candyman 3: Day of the Dead does: slightly, not heavily, disappoints.

It seems that Caroline (the now-grown-up daughter of Annie from the second film) is on her in LA. She owns Daniel Robetaille's (the Candyman) paintings which she has chosen to show at the gallery of an aspiring artist.

Tempted by her friends, she says the Candyman's name five times because she feels she'll be doing him justice by proving his supposed non-existence. Although nothing happens while she is at the gallery opening, her life later begins to unravel as she finds the vengeful spirit slaughtering everyone around her (he killed her mother years before), with only Caroline appearing to be suspect.

Co-produced by Tony Todd, this somewhat hokey (and hopefully FINAL) entry to the Candyman films is not that bad. Although I consider anything to outwit its bland and tepid predecessor, this is not much better with acting (Donna D'Errico's Caroline is a shrieking wimp at best), and our heroine seems to exist only to scream, fill out a tank top, and see her friends slaughtered in extremely gory fashion.

The Latin "Day of the Dead" festival has almost no relevance in this film, as its concept is only used in one scene I can think of, but then again, it wouldn't have been wise to just call this entry "Candyman 3" and leave it at that. Let's hope after this fairly decent entry that film makers will do what they should...leave it at that.

Rating: **1/2 out of ****