Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh Review

Review of Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) by screenqueeen: 👎 2.5/5

Somewhere in the middle of all this NOLA carnival window dressing is an interesting deepened origin for Robitaille that could really start saying something about white parties having sexual relations with African-American and black parties, and the systematic drop-off of treatment surrounding blackness after a new life comes out of a white body. This fascination comes across a couple different times but reads more like an accepted fetishization of black people in an era where white people think that shows support to the communities they have actively and passively continued to marginalize.

The strange framing of this film's events against a wacky AM radio DJ puts the movie in the corner of not really wanting to think about what Rose's 1992 film was trying to do however misguided. It instead prefers to treat Robitaille's titular tortured monster as a slasher that is summoned by those he will kill, not too unlike Pinhead in HELLRAISER 3. But Bradley's character in that is so disconnected from humanity it makes sense. By using the same approach for FLESH, it comes across as a disconnection of his true origin but is conflicted by the extra backstory that is supposed to be added to Todd's character in this.

It's cheap, mostly vapid and barely thoughtful.