Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com April 11, 2023

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This was a decent sequel. We get more Candyman time, and there’s more about his back story. The excellent music is still there, and the new cast with Tony Todd is good. And the New Orleans setting provides great atmosphere.

Synopsis

Dr. Purcell, from the first film, lectures about the story of Daniel Robitaille, an artist who was brutally murdered. Even here in New Orleans, murders have been committed in his name—he tells the story of Helen. When asked if he believes the legend, someone in the audience asks him to prove it, and he says it five times in the mirror. He then gives us a fake-out jump-scare.

After the lecture, he runs into Ethan Tarrant. Ethan’s the son of someone who believed Purcell and said the name. His father died. “You’re next, Purcell!” Ethan then attacks the professor in a bar. Purcell goes into the restroom to wipe the blood off and learns that Ethan was right. Credits roll.

We hear that it’s three days before Lent in New Orleans, and Mardi Gras is in full swing, “Carnival: Farewell to the Flesh,” says the radio DJ. Annie drives to school, and we see “No Hook-Hand” posters on the walls. The principal says there’s some trouble with her brother, so she takes off.

Annie goes to her mother, who’s dying of cancer. The two of them meet up with Paul at the police station to see Ethan, who was arrested as a suspect in Purcell’s death. The cops talk to each other; there have been four identical murders, starting with Ethan and Annie’s father, Coleman. Ethan confessed to it. Annie says she’s going to find out what happened, and Ethan freaks out.

Annie talks later to her husband Paul, who runs a restaurant. She looks at old family photos. Her father was obsessed with a certain old house, the one where he died, so the pair go for a visit. She says she hasn’t lived there in 13 years, but it looks like it’s been abandoned for fifty. There’s a group of homeless living there now. They look out the window toward the old slave quarters, where she was never allowed to play. One room has some very familiar-looking graffiti on the wall along with what’s obviously a shrine to Candyman.

Back at school, two students are fighting over a drawing of Candyman. She says the Candyman isn’t real, but they all believe it. Annie stands in front of the mirror and proves it by saying the name five times. One student notices a bee on the window. “There are no monsters,” she says to herself.

When she gets home, she sees him. “I am the writing on the wall; the whisper in the classroom.” He then kills Paul, who’s done absolutely nothing wrong. Annie scratches Candyman’s face, and a bunch of bees pours out.

Candyman vanishes, and Annie goes to the police. She insists that Candyman is real. She talks to her mother, Octavia, about Candyman. We see that her mother may know more than she’s letting on. Annie has nightmares.

A couple of her students come over and say that Matthew has disappeared. She goes to see Matthew’s father, a priest. He says that Matthew stayed up all night painting most nights and stopped sleeping. His “studio” is all Candyman art.

Annie finally goes to see Ethan, who says he and his father were trying to protect her. “All Dad ever talked about was calling it.” We get a flashback to what happened with their father; he died right in front of the Candyman shrine. Their father said he had found a way to destroy Candyman but wouldn’t tell Ethan. He says a man named Thibideaux may know the truth.

Annie goes to find Thibideaux, but the police detectives are following her. He’s got a whole room full of weird antiques. Her father figured out that Daniel Robitaille was born in New Orleans and fell in love with Caroline Sullivan. She had a mirror, and it’s believed that his soul became trapped in her mirror. Her father thought that if he broke that mirror, it would kill the Candyman.

Candyman appears, and his bees kill Thibideaux. He says Annie has a daughter growing inside her. He starts chasing Annie through town. Annie goes to Reverend Ellis and they talk about Daniel Robitaille being born here. He was born in their house. He takes her to a cemetery, and she finds Daniel and Caroline’s tombs; they had a daughter, Isobel!

The detective roughs up Ethan in the interrogation room. The cop teases him by saying you-know-what in the mirror and then dies in seconds. Ethan makes a run for it, but the cops shoot him. The good cop watches security footage showing someone invisible killing the cop.

Annie goes back to her mother’s place and finds an old photo of Isobel. She confronts Octavia about the story. She screams, “We’re his family!” Octavia screams back that he’s not real, which he quickly disproves.

Annie runs out of the building and runs right into the good cop, who tells her what happened to Ethan. Annie runs back to the old house and starts smashing all the mirrors.

She runs out to the slave quarters and finds Matthew. The place is literally crumbling and falling down, so Annie sends Matthew for help. She finds the mirror among several skeletons. “The mirror is the secret of my strength, the keeper of my soul.”

We get a flashback to Daniel’s final moments. The white men chased him down, sawed off his hand, and stuck a hook in. Then they smeared him with honey. They all called him “Candyman” because of the honey. A huge swarm of bees appeared and covered Daniel. Caroline ran up to help him, but the other stopped her. Caroline’s father shows Daniel his face in a mirror. Then Daniel died, and Caroline kept the mirror.

Back in the present, Candyman begs, “Join me, Annie. We will go together to a world without pain.” Annie grabs the mirror and—Suddenly, water rushes in, flooding the whole place. Annie’s students arrive to pull her out. Candyman comes back, so she smashes the mirror. Candyman turns to glass and shatters into the flood waters. The whole building floats away just as they all get out.

Matthew goes home to his father, as does Annie. Later on, in New York City, Annie raises her daughter, whose name is… Caroline.

Commentary

The location of this one, New Orleans, couldn’t be creepier if it tried, and it all looked very real. While the DJ would be annoying in anything else, he’s really appropriate here. And, of course, the music from the first film carries over to this.

Candyman is much more of an actual character here, and he gets a lot more screen time than in the previous film, where it was debatable whether he was even real or just a legend. We get to see his whole backstory this time.

This was really good, and in some ways, better than the original.