Caroline Barclay Movies

This sequel to director Bernard Rose's superb, metaphorical Candyman is a more straightforward Gothic horror project, discarding any association with the events of the previous film (which was based on the short story "The Forbidden" by horror surrealist Clive Barker) aside from the title entity, played again by the imposing Tony Todd. A melancholy but extremely deadly ghost, Candyman is revealed -- in a compelling sequence of flashbacks -- as the vengeful spirit of Daniel Robitaille, a black portraitist in post-Civil War Louisiana who was set upon and horribly mutilated by an angry white mob in retaliation for his affair with a plantation owner's daughter. In present-day New Orleans, at the height of Mardi Gras festivities (the film's title refers to the literal translation of the Latin "Carnival"), Candyman walks the realm of the undead, with a hook in place of the hand he lost to the lynch mob, waiting to be summoned by the recitation of his name five times into a mirror. The latest victims of his evisceration skills include members of the Tarrant family, with young schoolteacher Annie (Kelly Rowan) next in line. Her family's connection with the Candyman legend is eventually revealed when Annie visits the family estate to uncover the link between her ancestors and Daniel Robitaille himself. This is a well-executed horror film, with fine performances and good use of the subtle menace underlying the Mardi Gras ambience, but the deft hand of Barker is clearly absent, leaving a standard horror plot without the mythical resonance of the original. The chilling Philip Glass score is a definite plus, though. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Embracing the supposed nihilism and cynicism of the "slacker" generation, S.F.W. (1995) caused nary a blip on the media-saturated cultural radar screen that it criticized. Stephen Dorff stars as Cliff Spab, an aimless, hard-drinking youth. Spab becomes a national hero when he is one of several people held hostage by gun-toting terrorists in a convenience store. He doesn't care much about his own life or anything else, and his attitude of "So f---ing what?" translates into debates with his terrorist captors and gloomy pronouncements that charm viewers. After a month-long siege, a crisis erupts when the store runs out of beer and junk food, so Cliff finds himself a free man whose celebrity image is emblazoned on t-shirts and whose presence is requested at a rock concert where he is required to do nothing other than appear. In the meantime, Spab's girlfriend Wendy (Reese Witherspoon) becomes a ubiquitous talk show guest. Ostensibly a satire of the celebrity-obsessed culture of the 1990s, the film was withheld from distribution for a year because of thematic similarities to Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Villard (Eric Roberts) is an expert swordsman who runs a fencing school; he first learned the sport from his father, who was killed in a match when Villard was a young man. One day, an older gentleman (F. Murray Abraham) who looks down on his luck appears at Villard's fencing studio; he introduces himself as Suba and asks for a job teaching fencing. Villard, dubious about the ragged-looking man's credentials, instead offers him a job as a janitor, which he accepts. However, in time Villard discovers Suba really does know fencing, and finds that Suba has a secret -- he is in fact the man who killed his father, out of prison and looking for some sort of redemption. Villard, however, is more interested in revenge for his father's death. The supporting cast includes Mia Sara, Christopher Rydell, and Elaine Kagan. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A resort owner struggles to turn heliskiing into a hot new sport. Along the way he encounters many obstacles that include convincing a millionaire to sponsor him and turmoil within his own family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This eccentric, amusingly sick Canadian production involves a group of annoying yuppies who charter a plane for a camping getaway, only to find themselves making an emergency landing on an isolated, forest-covered island. They are taken in by the only inhabitants, the rabidly-religious "Ma & Pa" (Yvonne De Carlo and Rod Steiger), who seem trapped in a Norman Rockwellian time-warp and are invited to stay the night. This proves to be every bit as unpleasant as it seems -- especially after the hapless campers are introduced to the psychotic, middle-aged "children" (Michael J. Pollard and Janet Wright) -- who appear to be pushing 50. Before long, it's crazed crackers 1, campers 0 and counting, as the warped, scripture-spouting yokels take sharp objects in hand... until one of the campers (Sarah Torgov) reveals her own homicidal potential and goes completely berserk. Despite delightfully weird performances from a top-drawer cast, this campy romp is slightly spoiled by a poorly-scripted climax that suggests a sudden loss of creative inspiration. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide