88 Films, out 25 March

Two years after tragedy struck in Chicago, the author of a book on urban legend The Candyman dies from a copycat-style murder on the eve of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras; And schoolteacher Annie Tarrant discovers that her family’s dark secret is making her a potential next victim.

Two years after Bernard Rose’s Candyman, Bill Condon (Beauty and the Beast, Gods and Monsters) served up another slice of Clive Barker’s hook-handed bogeyman, played again by Star Trek’s Tony Todd, based on a story by Barker. As the law of diminishing returns tends to stipulate in sequels, particularly horror franchises, this isn’t a patch on the original, but the production values and a game cast ensure that it’s not a clunker.

As so often happens when expanding a series, more time is spent on flashbacks and exposition to enrichen the character, but in doing so takes away some of the mystery that surrounds the villain. Candyman was at his best in the first movie as an unstoppable force – it didn’t matter how he was created, it was all about survival – but considerable time is now afforded on his origins. This doesn’t emasculate the character, and we can’t sympathise with his extreme actions, but it does take something away.

The audio commentary by director Bill Condon provides some tasty insider insights into the production, The Candyman Legacy is a 26-minute interview with star Tony Todd about his career pre-, during and post-Candyman, while Down Memory Lane is a 10-minute interview with Veronica Cartwright, who talks about her genre appearances in Alien and beyond.

Verdict: Quality, gory horror with decent shocks and a fantastic, haunting score by Philip Glass. It just doesn’t have the rawness and originality of the original, but is by no means a waste of your time. You can skip part 3, Day of the Dead. 7/10

Nick Joy