Say his name...

Candyman... Candyman... Candyman... Candyman... but I'm not going to say it 5 times.

Let me open by saying, every horror series has a black sheep methinks. "Friday the 13th" had the Jason-less fifth installment, "Halloween" the Michael Meyers-less third entry, and "A Nightmare on Elm Street" the silly first sequel. For me, "Candyman 3: Day of the Dead," is the embarrassment of the Candyman saga... a plot straight out of a cereal box, bland acting and over saturated action scenes. I thought that film was so bad - I could have done better with a video camera and no script.

Clive Barker did a good job on the original Candyman, it holds a special place in the pantheon of horror movies because of it's lore, atmosphere and Tony Todd's performance. Trying to keep the critical hat in my pocket, this one starts off promising, creates the right atmosphere and keeps a similar tone to the original Candyman. I did like the first half, but unfortunately,  the second half morphs into a different flick and just fell apart.  It felt like those cheap generic horrors that I’ve seen again and again. There are far too many scenes of people standing in front of mirrors saying Candyman over and over.  But what it does do is it gives enough backstory to introduce a new audience and it’s not essential to have seen the original beforehand.

While Candyman is well-shot, its hand-puppet scenes are well done, and its themes of art and artistic approach are good, it disappoints as an overall film in the end. One of the biggest gripes is it truly isn't scary or intense in any way beyond the body horror shown on occasion. Also, its gentrification themes felt forced and are done with absolutely no subtlety or nuance whatsoever, making it feel rather shallow and preachy relative to the original. Finally, much of the third act is poorly done, leaving this viewer cheated and bored in the end.

Anywaz, it has merits in its direction and design, but its actual substance leaves a lot to be desired and could have been done way better with more nuance and better writing.

Well said, Ghostie. I couldn't agree more. Bummer. It could have been great.

Yep, great review, Ghostie Gal!
I must admit I've only seen the trailer so far but I think nothing was ever going top the original which scared the sh** out of me (on a very visceral level), so much so that I contemplated turning it off at the time. Yep, scaredy-cat that I was.

I might still give this a go but your review lowers my expectations going in, which is a good thing cause hopefully some aspects might surprise me.