Lots going on in this ambitious movie, but it got pretty confusing about midway through when they started revealing Candyman’s backstory. It got especially confusing for me at the end, when they started piling themes and imagery on top of each other. It became difficult for me to keep track of the plot / mythology, as well as the themes (I suspect that the gentrification / race theme was, in fact, abandoned). Not sure what the bees were about, not sure what the witch’s pyre was about.
Some quite frightening images / sequences, like around the toilet. I never saw this in the 90s, but I certainly remember it.
I love the device of academics as the basis of a horror film. My favourite horror film, Prince of Darkness, is also about academics. Partially because I like the idea of academics getting into adventures, partially because I think it just grounds the film in the empirical, so that fantastical elements become all the more jarring.