CANDYMAN, CANDYMAN… DESPITE ITS ICONIC STATUS IN THE ANNALS OF HORROR, the Candyman franchise immediately succumbed to the curse of diminishing returns. This might not have been the case, however, given that Bernard Rose, flush from the first film’s success, originally proposed a prequel in which Candyman and a Helen “lookalike” would fall in love. Worried about how an interracial romance would be received, the studio did not greenlight the project.
Three years later, 1995’s Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh went a different (if not familiar) route. In it, schoolteacher Annie (Kelly Rowan) investigates several killings via hook, and inadvertently summons the honey-coated cadaver to New Orleans. Tony Todd reprises the role of Candyman, who has his back story (ahem) fleshed out further: his name was Daniel Robitaille, and the…
