CANDYMAN: DAY OF THE DEAD — Movie Review
By John Argote-Rodriguez
ROAD TO CANDYMAN (2021)
“Candyman: Day of the Dead” was released on July 9, 1999 and once again sees the return of Tony Todd as the titular character, joining Todd is Donna D’Errico, Jsu Garcia, Wade William, Alexia Robinson, and Lupe Ontiveros. Day of the Dead is directed by Turi Meyer.
Following “Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh” a sequel following Annie Tarrant’s daughter grown up Caroline McKeever, the little girl at the end of Farewell to the Flesh. Which means since the last film took place in 1995 and 2021’s “Candyman” takes place in 2019 that means Day of the Dead is set AFTER the 2021 film set in 2020, that boggles my mind.
I’m big on canon no matter how shit a film is so as much as we’d like to pretend this film doesn’t exist it does and it’s canon until said so otherwise. That being said this movie is horrible, there is no redeeming quality for it aside from Tony Todd as Candyman himself who in this film is relegated to a cheap slasher killer, but it’s not just the killer it’s the whole film itself that feels cheap and that probably has to do with the choice to make “Candyman: Day of the Dead” a direct-to-video film and it shows.
Right off the bat, Day of the Dead establishes this is a cheap cliched horror film because we begin with Donna D’Errico in her underwear and a tank top with no bra because it’s kind of hard (no pun intended) to miss because numerous times throughout the film she’s in her underwear with no bra because of how hard her nipples are and this isn’t me just being a thirsty fuck it’s something that is made painfully obvious because since the filmmakers don’t know how to make a good horror movie that they thought oh I know what’ll make it passable, boobs! Now I like a naked lady as much as the next film, but my God these filmmakers make sure you see this because of how they shoot the scenes.
Speaking of nudity this film has quite a few of nude scenes including a sex scene between Daniel Robitaille and Caroline Sullivan… you read that right ladies and gentlemen Candyman has a sex scene. When it comes to nudity in film I think it should be used if it only makes sense or adds to the story because if not then it’s unnecessary nudity because if it’s a naked woman you want to watch there’s an endless amount of it via porn and Day of the Dead used nudity as eye candy not something that can enhance the story.
However, aside from the repetitive story the worst aspect of the film is the acting because oh man it’s bad, it’s very damn bad and of all the actors to suck it had to be Donna D’Errico; the protagonist. Donna D’Errico as Caroline McKeever was just bad. Her acting was stale and the chemistry she had with Jsu Garcia/Nick Corri’s David de La Paz (a.k.a. Rod Lane from A Nightmare on Elm Street) was hard to watch, these two have zero chemistry and yet they’re forced to have chemistry because the script says so and it’s painful to watch especially during the sex scene because you know there’s no real connection it doesn’t even feel like a hookup because even those have connections. This just felt awkward because these two had no attraction then out of nowhere they’re forced to act in love then jump to sex.
The film also has these racist cops that are made extra super racist to make them even more unlikable then they already are to make their inevitable deaths fun, but the racist cop you really wanna see die gets the most mediocre death in the film. I also love how this racist cop; Lt. Detective Kraft is not only racist, but a totally douchebag who wants to sleep with Caroline, so much so that he buys her roses because I guess he caught feeling even though that was never hinted at aside from him wanting to just sleep with her and then when he sees her with David he drops the roses and walks away apart heartbroken and becomes even more antagonistic when it becomes clear she wants nothing to do with him. Like what the fuck were you expecting you were a total dick along with being a sexist misogynistic asshole to her.
Anyways, “Candyman: Day of the Dead” is the same old “Be my victim.” bullshit this time with a low quality, shit story, shit characters, and it’s really just a repeat of the last two films just told really poorly and the social commentary message on race is completely absent here with the exception of one brief scene where Caroline brushes off David’s concern that he will get pinned for the murders, something that David shuts down because she’s a white woman who’ll be believed where as David; a Latino man will be the one to be viewed as a criminal regardless of whatever evidence is presented. It’s a good element, but I’m really giving this movie more credit than it deserves because this discussion is briefly brought up then never spoken of again.
The only true positive is Tony Todd as Candyman, even with a awful script Tony Todd makes the best out of it and always brings his A-Game. However, even the great, the legendary Tony Todd himself couldn’t redeem this movie.
Grade: F
