Kandisha (2020)

I noticed some compared this to Candyman, and I totally get that, but I kept thinking more about The Wishmaster. Just the same, Kandisha seems to be a seductive Moroccan spirit, gradually growing more grotesque and greater in stature, until she's this tall creature barely maintaining her feminine characteristics, with really only her eyes left of what she probably was in life before Portuguese soldiers tortured and executed her, resulting in this hatred of men that really manifests itself when she takes her hoof and smashes areas of Bintou's brother, breaking open his ankle to expose the bone, fracturing his spine, and crushing the side of his head. She also lifts Morjana's pops off the floor and splits him apart (Ouch!) while she looks on in horror unable to stop Kandisha.

Amélie conjuring Kandisha out of anger against her abusive ex-boyfriend might seem understandable since she probably didn't realize the ramifications and was just justifiably pissed at him. Without much research, Amélie didn't know that the men in her life (of all ages) would be targets for Kandisha to brutalize. The irony of this film to me was the very first victim, Amélie's obsessive and psychotic boyfriend, Arid, actually getting off easier in terms of how he dies than the others! A car hits him, that's it! How about Ako being dropped out the window of his apartment, his head exploding on the sidewalk as he body lands with a harsh thud?! Or Ben's face set aflame by a bonfire?! Poor Erwan had limbs broken, his body left not far from where his baby's bed is (covered in blood as he cries!).

I was *that guy*, though, who was enraged the most at Amélie killing a rabbit for a sacrifice that doesn't work. And when she knows the only way to stop Kandisha is to kill herself, Amélie decides not to which results in the death of two more men. I didn't like that ending at all with Amélie's brother...I'm like, "You saw everything that happened, so you decide to just conjure that horror back up because you missed your sister?!"

The abandoned building set for demolition serving as a graffiti haven for the three young women, friends since children, locating a sprayed name of Kandisha that inspires the madness, is a great piece of dilapidated wreck for the finale. The conclusion with Amélie was pretty much the predictable outcome besides what her stupid brother does. I thought personally that Kandisha looked quite menacing, and with each kill growing more intimidating and hideous was a fitting bonus...you'd have to expect fusing your soul with a djinn would result in multiple killings effecting you somehow. The uglier each kill, the uglier the demon.

Some of the CGI is always a big cringe in Bustillo/Maury movies. But the gore is almost always wonderfully visceral and gross. I like how they try different things, never remaining pigeonholed in the horror genre. I really liked the actresses in this, all of whom are put through the ringer...none of them escape unscathed.