Jsu Garcia – Tripping Through Gateways

Vampire In Brooklyn was a meeting of minds. Eddie Murphy was coming off a string of films and sequels that were not failures, but not grand successes. Eddie states he agreed to make the film for the studio for the rights to the Nutty Professor.

Maximillion is the last of a clan of Caribbean vampires who arrives one night in Brooklyn via a large freighter. He is seeking a woman to be his queen, and to help him, turns small time hood Julian into a servant ghoul.

Maximillion is searching for a woman born of a vampire and he discovers police detective Rita ( ridiculously gorgeous Angela Bassett) is the woman he is seeking. As he tries to enter her life, he runs into competition from her partner.

Vampire in Brooklyn really feels like a movie competing with itself. On the one hand, it is a gory vampire flick. On the other hand? It is an Eddie Murphy comedy that has the things you expect, like Eddie in various costumes as side characters. One is an Al Sharpton styled preacher which does result in an amusing scene where he bursts into flame and convinces the congregation to rush outside.

It is not that comedy and horror cannot mix, and honestly it is hard to tell where the conflict lies. I have read accounts that Eddie and the other writers intended this to be a more serious vampire film and it was Craven who altered the tone. Other accounts suggest that Craven pushed for Eddie to play the role more serious and Eddie did his own thing.

The movie is full of terrific performers, and so there are plenty of fun bits. Kadeem Hardison’s Julius finds himself falling apart as his body begins to rot, which results in a lot of funny moments as he freaks out. John Witherspoon is funny. And I think it is the problem…these are all talented performers and creatives…but it often feels like they are all working in totally different movies.

Candyman picks up a couple of decades after the second film, where we meet Annie’s grown daughter Caroline (Baywatch actress Donna D’Errico) living in Los Angeles. She is running an art gallery and allowing her friend to do a theme around her great, great grandfather. She is frustrated that he chooses to focus on the legend of Candyman.

During the show, Caroline calls out to Candyman Five times, apparently, causing him to return into the picture. She starts seeing visions of him, and he tells her she must believe. While upset with her friend, she decides to visit him…inter-cut with her entering his apartment are visions of Candyman killing him and his girlfriend.

And so, Candyman starts offing Caroline’s friends, causing her to look like the prime suspect. This has been an ongoing theme in the films, people keep suspecting the lead woman. And it does not help matters that Candyman kills one of the cops.

All the films are kind of vague on Candyman’s rules. While he has to be called by saying his name five times while looking in a mirror, he seems to get around and kill a lot of people who never called his name. The film also establishes things like…bees can smash through windows.

The film reminds us of the backstory…with flashbacks that are in contradiction to the flashbacks of the previous film’s flashbacks. In Farewell to the Flesh, he is stripped of his shirt, in this film he is fully clothed. More noticeable, in the last film it all occurs in daylight, here he is killed at night. The brief shots here have less of an impact than the ones created for Farewell to the Flesh.

This is not a particularly good film. The script has D’Errico spending a tremendous (and ridiculous) amount of time screaming. And most of the acting is not particularly good, save for Tony Todd (as is expected). In fact, the thing that really hurts this film is that anytime Tony Todd is not on the screen? The film gets incredibly boring.

Not remotely entertaining, it is no surprise this film killed the franchise.

Tag: Jsu Garcia

Vampire Swipes Right (Vampire in Brooklyn, 1995)

Tooth Decay (Candyman 3: Day of the Dead, 1999)