"Farewell to the Flesh" leaves the impression of a remake more than a sequel. Though technically well-written and filmed, it lacks most of the qualities that make the first film a masterpiece of the genre. It lacks originality, it lacks tension, it lacks all-pervading eeriness with which the first film so masterly ruled. Although the story is good, the film leaves a pale impression and is more of a mediocre thriller than a horror movie. The only things that are really worth in this movie are the flashbacks on Candyman's origins and performance of Tony Todd, for which I need to raise my rating from objective (I think) six out of ten to7/10

Candyman is legendary nowadays, a nineties horror film that not only featured a terrifying killer, but also brought attention to life in the Projects, a very real ordeal outside the silver screen.What's wrong with its sequel? Well, I will give it some credit; it has the same classic look and style of the first film, decent actors and even features some of the originals viewers have come to love. However, Candyman 2 is stripped of nearly everything that made the first one memorable.Professor Purcell, formerly a pretentious blowhard who belittles everyone in sight, is now a depressed wreck who gives people cheap thrills for a living and visits the bar frequently. I ended up feeling sorry for the guy, honestly. Why? I wanted to punch him in the face while watching the first film! He was very effective, one of those characters you love to hate, and in the sequel, he's just a victim to be knocked off right away. Where's Helen Lyle, the woman who went for the truth until it took away her soul? Where's Chicago's infamous Cabrini-Green, the eerie housing project with a dark history? Why did they shift the story away from a perfectly good setting, only to drop it in New Orleans for no apparent reason? The first Candyman was daring, innovative for its time, a cult classic and an almost poetic slasher film. The sequel is mostly jump scares, excessive gore, unmemorable characters and a plot that doesn't entirely make sense.Candyman 2 isn't terrible, it's just hollow, dull.

After her brother's involvement in a savage death, a woman's search for the truth leads to a family curse involving the local legend of the Candyman and tries to stop his reign of terror in New Orleans.This turned out to have a lot of good things going for it. One of the better examples here is the continuing nature of the film's expanding story of how the Candyman came into being, furthering the connection even more than it already did. Bolstering the legend quite well with the flashbacks to his torture and paring that against his legend between the family really makes for an entertaining horror effort. The main attack here concerns the appearance at the curio shop which turns into a thrilling chase through a carnival parade as he continually appears among the patrons, though other attacks are bound throughout here. The penthouse attack where he first appears to her, his attack on the detective in the holding cell and the cemetery attack that leads into the final confrontation are all filled with incredibly chilling and fun action. Likewise, the finale gets a lot right here by managing to come full-circle and fully discloses the back-story from earlier but also mixes in some action and spectacle along the way by using the raging thunderstorm to wash away not only the characters but also the landscape in the water torrent and also forcing into it the escape from the collapsing monument. It's a really fun finish and helps to stave off the few flaws in here. One of the biggest issues here is the irritating and useless voice-over narration from the radio show host that permeates this one as none of what's said is in any way, shape or form original, imperative to the story or gets to the point of the scene by just being utterly irritating quite quickly. This also manages to continue the series long flaw of having no real point for his actions against her since he spends so much of the film time simply appearing behind her without actively making threats. That comes off here as a tired act of something that was utilized in the first one and continues in this one. These here drop this down but not enough to really hurt it.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Language and Brief Nudity.

The first Candyman film was a great scary movie for its time, it is obvious a sequel was only made in an attempt to cash in on the success, which is easy to do with scenes containing more blood, from director Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Dreamgirls, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2). Basically in New Orleans, the Latin carnival Mardi Gras is proceeding, "farewell to the flesh" relates to the festivities, and the carnival is celebrating lent, and it is at this time that murders are being committed around the city. People are still testing out the theory of whether the Candyman (Tony Todd) exists or not, by saying his name in the mirror five times they see if he will appear, and of course every time he does, and brutally kills them. Young schoolteacher Annie Tarrant (Kelly Rowan) has some connection to the man who became the Candyman, slave Daniel Robitaille who, seen in flashback, was punished for having a relationship with a white woman, and the villagers captured him, sawed his right hand off, replacing it with a large hook, and smothered him in honey (hence the name Candyman) for the bees to cover and sting him to death. She says his name in the mirror five time, but he does not want to kill her, because of the connection she has to him he sees her as his love that he will take back with him to hell, and until she accepts her "destiny" and goes with him he will kill many people around her, and of course those who call his name five time in the mirror. Of course in the end, following investigations of the origins of the Candyman, numerous people being murdered, including Candyman expert Phillip Purcell (Michael Culkin) and Annie's mother Octavia (Veronica Cartwright), and being accused of involvement in the murders, she finds a way to defeat him and send him back to hell, and he is killed off once again before the end of Mardi Gras. Also starring Timothy Carhart as Paul McKeever, William O'Leary as Ethan Tarrant, Fay Hauser as Pam Carver, Bill Nunn as Reverend Ellis, Matt Clark as Honore Thibideaux, David Gianopoulos as Detective Ray Levesque and Joshua Gibran Mayweather as Matthew Ellis. Todd is still relatively creepy with his hook for a hand and saying a couple of familiar lines in his cool voice, but the rest of the cast are naff, the origins story is relatively good to watch, and the deaths are still bloody, but it is predictable and a bit ridiculous, it is a rather pointless horror sequel. Adequate!