Consequence

Candyman pays homage to the original, while still maintaining its uniqueness with a fresh and provocative plot

A review by Okla Jones for Consequence on 2021-08-25

Los Angeles Times

DaCosta, who made her directorial debut with the remarkable abortion drama “Little Woods,” firmly announces herself as an artist at work with Candyman, a genuinely terrifying and artful horror film that speaks with a bell-clear voice to the current moment, the product of centuries of racist power structures.

A review by Katie Walsh for Los Angeles Times on 2021-08-26

IGN

Nia DaCosta’s slow-burn sequel makes Candyman feel vital, both building on and course-correcting the movies in the series that came before it.

A review by Siddhant Adlakha for IGN on 2021-08-25

ABC News

The scares are off the charts, but only as a means to confront the film’s thoughtful messaging about racial injustice. Dynamite star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and director Nia DaCosta make you think hard about everything you see. Welcome to a new horror classic.

A review by Peter Travers for ABC News on 2021-08-27

Observer

Candyman feels like a reclamation project of sorts. One that will scare the pants off of you, yes, but also one that adds depth and resonance to the once-static slasher format.

A review by Brandon Katz for Observer on 2021-08-25

Chicago Sun-Times

From the opening moments of Nia DaCosta’s gory yet strikingly beautiful and socially relevant “Candyman,” it’s clear we’re in for an especially haunting and just plain entertaining thrill ride.

A review by Richard Roeper for Chicago Sun-Times on 2021-08-25

The Associated Press

DaCosta can make a stroll down a well-lit, modern and clean hallway somehow creepy. This is confident, smart filmmaking. There’s a stunning scene in which the Candyman mirrors his prey’s movements and one in an elevator where blood droplets create their own horror-inside-horror.

A review by Mark Kennedy for The Associated Press on 2021-08-25

Original-Cin

What the film lacks in traditional scares, it makes up for with an unsettling scenario that plays slowly throughout the film, indicating harsher realities even legends can't compete with. And DaCosta's vision is highly stylized, accented with performances that resonate with disquieting accuracy.

A review by Thom Ernst for Original-Cin on 2021-08-31

Paste Magazine

While the kills, perpetrated by a being mostly just seen in mirrors, are sometimes a bit too obfuscated by their gimmick to be viscerally satisfying, they slot in perfectly with the film’s themes and aesthetic even when they’re not dumping cascades of blood.

A review by Jacob Oller for Paste Magazine on 2021-08-25

Time

Candyman is a work held together by thoughtful choices, and it has a lot to say. Genre conventions are themselves like urban legends, a framework that each new generation adds to and builds upon. Candyman is just one reason we continue to believe in them.

A review by Stephanie Zacharek for Time on 2021-08-31

Wall Street Journal

The filmmakers find a way to expand their slashifications into provocative reflections on the white world’s fear of ostensibly menacing Black men, and, secondarily but importantly, art’s power to shape our understanding of the world around us.

A review by Joe Morgenstern for Wall Street Journal on 2021-08-26

The Irish Times

Nia DaCosta, young director of the fine Little Woods, is behind the camera and she shows a real gift for gruesome showboating.

A review by Donald Clarke for The Irish Times on 2021-08-26

The New York Times

It’s easy to shock viewers with splatter but the old gut-and-run gets awfully boring awfully fast. Far better is the slow creep, the horror that teases and then threatens. The dread inexorably builds in Candyman, which snaps into focus after Anthony learns of the boogeyman.

A review by Manohla Dargis for The New York Times on 2021-08-26

Time Out

It helps that Candyman is exquisitely shot. Right from the first frame, DaCosta is always doing something interesting with the camera. There is smart visual storytelling almost everywhere you look, from the clever use of mirrors, to edgy scene transitions, to set design that starts to mirror Candyman’s look in interesting ways. The jump scares are rare but hardly needed: all this contributes to a growing feeling of dread as the film speeds towards its bold conclusion.

A review by Amon Warmann for Time Out on 2021-08-25

Arizona Republic

We don’t need to continually revisit every horror movie ever made. How many versions of “Friday the 13th” are we up to? Too many. But the best thing about this is that Candyman is not just another sequel. More like a revelation.

A review by Bill Goodykoontz for Arizona Republic on 2021-08-25

Screen Daily

Director Nia DaCosta’s follow-up is both bitingly satiric and elegantly suspenseful, illustrating how race and class still bedevil modern life. Produced and cowritten by Jordan Peele, and featuring an arresting performance from Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Candyman has an unmistakable anger embedded within its scares, persuasively depicting how Black Americans feel traumatised by a country that treats them like monsters.

A review by Tim Grierson for Screen Daily on 2021-08-25

Slashfilm

A dark, ominous undercurrent runs through "Candyman," signaling Nia DaCosta as a filmmaker with a firm, unique grasp on the genre. The original "Candyman" already had a few sequels, but none of them are as clever, as interesting, as effective as this. Go ahead. Dare to say his name five times in the mirror. "Candyman" will live on.

A review by Chris Evangelista for Slashfilm on 2021-08-25

The Hollywood Reporter

Director Nia DaCosta, working from a script she wrote with Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, uses Bernard Rose’s 1992 film as a jumping-off point for bone-chilling horror that expands provocatively on the urban legend of the first film within the context of Black folklore and history, as well as the distorting white narrative that turns Black victims into monsters.

A review by David Rooney for The Hollywood Reporter on 2021-08-25

TheWrap

DaCosta uses a range of thoughtfully considered media to shape their already-sharp script; the film’s violence is equally startling whether it’s depicted graphically and up-close, or through old-fashioned shadow puppets and oral traditions.

A review by Elizabeth Weitzman for TheWrap on 2021-08-25

LarsenOnFilm

What’s really spooky about Candyman is that the movie is confused in almost exactly the way that the first film was. Maybe the material itself is haunted.

A review by Josh Larsen for LarsenOnFilm on 2021-09-02

ReelViews

This is one instance in which the return of a horror icon has a greater purpose than the exploitation of a recognizable brand. Would that more genre films were as thoughtful and thought-provoking, mixing substance with splatter in a fashion that builds uneasiness on more than one level.

A review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews on 2021-08-31

New York Post

While the movie could be a notch scarier, the unsettling imagery and slow build to chaos make me want another movie by this director stat.

A review by Johnny Oleksinski for New York Post on 2021-08-31

Slant Magazine

Candyman doesn’t merely note the connection between fear and remembrance, it also interrogates it from every possible angle.

A review by Keith Watson for Slant Magazine on 2021-08-25

The A.V. Club

The Candyman of 2021 represents more than he did three decades ago—indeed, more than a 91-minute movie can adequately explore. But there are worse crimes for a movie to commit than having too many ideas.

A review by Anya Stanley for The A.V. Club on 2021-08-25

San Francisco Chronicle

Of course, DaCosta’s restraint keeps its interesting. There’s an elegance to her storytelling, always giving us just enough to keep us moving forward without signaling too much of what’s to come.

A review for San Francisco Chronicle on 2021-08-25

USA Today

Hide your mirrors and look out for bees: Candyman has returned, more relevant and terrifying than ever.

A review by Brian Truitt for USA Today on 2021-08-25

Chicago Tribune

Many will find DaCosta’s take on the story didactic, I suppose, or low on genre payoffs. I’m eager to see it a second time, flaws and all. It’s alive and awake to where we are now.

A review by Michael Phillips for Chicago Tribune on 2021-08-25

Film Threat

I will say Candyman is worth watching. But I will advise not going in with preconceived ideas or comparisons to the original because that is where the disappointment will hit you like a brick to the head.

A review by Dante James for Film Threat on 2021-09-09

The New Yorker

For all its symbolic heft and keen-eyed flair, there’s a scattershot quality to Candyman that has to do with the seemingly inescapable demands of its genre source. The horror-film combination of constrained tautness and calculated gore keeps some of the themes from fully developing and leaves narrative loose ends dangling.

A review by Richard Brody for The New Yorker on 2021-08-26

Variety

The new Candyman references the plot of the original as a sinister fanfare of shadow puppets, as if to say, “That was mythology. This is reality.” It’s less a “slasher film” than a drama with a slasher in the middle of it.

A review by Owen Gleiberman for Variety on 2021-08-25

Screen Rant

While introducing a few arcs it doesn’t fully explore, Candyman is replete with haunting imagery, disconcerting horror, and thought-provoking themes.

A review by Mae Abdulbaki for Screen Rant on 2021-08-25

Uproxx

Candyman is certainly elevated in terms of acting and of composition (with fittingly spooky shots of the Chicago skyline), it was just hard to appreciate much of the action on a visceral level.

A review by Vince Mancini for Uproxx on 2021-08-26

Austin Chronicle

The golden era of slashers was defined by vicarious, often overblown pleasures, while the mood of Candyman is overwhelmingly dour and gloom-cloaked. No surprise, considering the weightiness of the issues at hand. Yet there are pointed discussions between Anthony and others in the art scene about the relative power of overt depictions of brutality and metaphor, something that somehow eludes this Candyman.

A review by Richard Whittaker for Austin Chronicle on 2021-08-26

Entertainment Weekly

Who can take a reboot, sprinkle it with something new, cover it with blood and bumblebees and a pointed social commentary or two? Candyman can, at least for a little while, even if the movie doesn't really find its more-than-body-horror groove in the end.

A review by Leah Greenblatt for Entertainment Weekly on 2021-08-25

CNN

For all that the film does well, in trying to balance its cerebral, visceral and sequel aspects, Candyman appears to have bitten off a bit more than it can chew.

A review by Brian Lowry for CNN on 2021-08-26

Boston Globe

Acute and skillfully made, Candyman is also pointedly political.

A review by Mark Feeney for Boston Globe on 2021-08-26

Washington Post

Candyman can’t seem to decide whether it wants to scare you or make you think.

A review by Michael O'Sullivan for Washington Post on 2021-08-25

The Observer (UK)

The overall tone is one of wry knowingness, which is DaCosta’s achilles heel.

A review by Simran Hans for The Observer (UK) on 2021-08-29

Slate

The first hour of Candyman does a bang-up job of mixing such audience-teasing popcorn thrills with trenchant, if sometimes too flatly stated, social critique. But by the last half-hour, there are so many themes, plotlines, and flashbacks in play that the movie’s message becomes muddled, and the forward momentum slows.

A review by Dana Stevens for Slate on 2021-08-26

The Atlantic

By the end of this new Candyman, little personal investment remains for the audience, just a miasma of provocative thoughts failing to cohere into something greater. The film has enough visual panache to make it an involving watch, but it struggles to live up to the audaciousness of its deeper ideas.

A review by David Sims for The Atlantic on 2021-08-25

Total Film

Sharp social commentary and slick genre trappings make for thought-provoking entertainment, even if it never entirely hooks you.

A review by Matt Maytum for Total Film on 2021-08-25

Rolling Stone

What the movie’s effortful attempts at symbolism and meaning do most effectively are undercut what’s smart about the questions it raises — and DaCosta’s fine hand at creeping us out. The movie wants to be more than it is. The result is that it winds up amounting to less than it could have been.

A review by K. Austin Collins for Rolling Stone on 2021-08-26

Vanity Fair

The film is so busy working through what it’s trying to say that it loses its specific pacing and texture, tumbling toward a finale that subverts its own rules and confuses its argument.

A review by Richard Lawson for Vanity Fair on 2021-08-25

The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

In its attempts to revisit the original film’s discrepancies, DaCosta’s film ends up only retracing its narrative inconsistencies with full force and even deeper perplexity. Gone is the alluring entanglement of erotics and fright, replaced here by flat characters limply stumbling over a script intent on hitting us over the head with its social commentary.

A review by Sarah-Tai Black for The Globe and Mail (Toronto) on 2021-08-31

New York Magazine (Vulture)

In trying to reckon with the contradictions of the ’92 film, as well as carve out their own work, DaCosta and her collaborators have created a misfire that can’t make its tangle of politics — about gentrification, the Black body (horror), racism, white desire — feel either relevant or provocative. When Blackness is whittled down, this is the kind of poor cultural product we are sold.

A review by Angelica Jade Bastien for New York Magazine (Vulture) on 2021-08-25