Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)★★★★☆

I wanted to celebrate Mardi Gras today by finding a movie somehow related to the holiday, and discovered there are surprisingly few out there. There are several horror movies that use (Louisiana) voodoo and similar folklore to build their story, but very few actually take place during Mardi Gras.

There is a movie called Mardi Gras Massacre, but everything I’ve read about it says it’s awful, and I was hesitant to do my first non-Thursday throwback review for something I knew would be terrible. Then I found that most of the events in this movie take place around Mardi Gras, and decided to make it the first sequel I’ve reviewed (it’s the second movie in the Candyman franchise) and the first throwback review I’ve done on a day other than Thursday. And I’m glad I did, because I mostly liked it.

The opening scene was killer (I’d say no pun intended, but…), and the background music for the title screen was awesome. Tony Todd continued to impress with his reprise of the title role, as expected. I’d only ever seen Kelly Rowan in The O.C. before and didn’t realize she was the star of this film, but I was pleasantly surprised when she showed up on screen, much younger and with shorter hair than I remembered.

I did feel like the connection to Mardi Gras was a bit contrived, and this film definitely uses more jump scares and blood and gore than the first one, but I’d still put it ahead of many other horror films of its time. The effects are never too over the top, the acting is well done, and the score was beautiful (like I said, Philip Glass should do the music for every scary movie ever). It certainly wasn’t the worst sequel I’ve seen, and overall it was an entertaining way for me to honor Mardi Gras with horror.