Candyman Farewell to the Flesh
Directed by Bill Condon
Written by Rand Ravich, Mark Krueger, Clive Barker
Starring Tony Todd, Kelly Rowan, Timothy Carhart, Veronica Cartwright
Release Date March 17th, 1995
Published March 20th, 2025
The journey to bring Candyman Farewell to the Flesh, the sequel to the hit horror movie, Candyman (1992), to the big screen is far more entertaining than the movie that was the result of that journey. Following the surprising success of Candyman, producers went to Candyman director Bernard Rose to start work on a sequel. Rose was not ready for this request. He had no idea what to do with a sequel as he believed he’d killed the title character at the end of the first film. Indeed, (Spoiler Alert) Tony Todd’s Candyman burns to death alongside Virginia Madsen’s Helen Lyle. So, not only is Candyman destroyed but his legend is passed to Helen who now appears if you say her name five times in front of a mirror.
So, what to do with a sequel? Candyman is dead and Helen is the new Candyman. Rose had to scramble for an idea. He had a green-lighted movie, he needed to get a story fast to take advantage of this rare Hollywood sure thing. Thinking that since the first story had been based on a Clive Barker short story, Rose began searching through Barker’s catalogue of shorts for a new story to tell. Again, in Rose’s mind, the Candyman is dead. So now, for a sequel, he’s viewing it as an anthology under the umbrella title of Candyman.
Find my full length review at Horror.Media, linked here.
