According to the urban legend, the Candyman, the spirit of a wealthy descendent of slaves, will appear behind victims and kill them if they say his name five times while looking into a mirror. For Helen and Bernadette, two graduate students played by Virginia Madsen and Kasi Lemmons, this ghostly menace is simply material for a thesis on contemporary folklore. When our two adventurous heroines visit a crime-stricken Chicago housing project, Cabrini-Green, to investigate the backstory of a murder believed to have been committed by Candyman, Helen discovers that there is more to this villain than mere myth. As the hook-handed figure, played by Tony Todd, draws Helen into his fold, her life is besieged by violence and mayhem.
The 1992 supernatural slasher,
Candyman, based on the short story, "The Forbidden", by Clive Barker, and directed by Bernard Rose (
Immortal Beloved), was released just months after the Los Angeles riots that erupted after the trial for the beating of motorist Rodney King by policemen. The self-aware narrative, which forces viewers to examine the past and present race-related stereotypes of violent black men, an allegory made even more edgy at the time by the casting of a white woman who is lured into the titular villain's control, was greeted by controversy upon its release for its ability to shatter false myths while also catering those those long-held beliefs simply due to the nature of the monster. Having been a fan of Barker's fiction since my teenage years, I was initially disappointed by the deviations from his prose taken by this adaptation when I saw it at the theater during my college years, but my love and respect for the end result has grown over the decades.
Tony Todd, a strong-spoken actor who lends a Shakespearean stage authority to what could have been an exploitative role in lesser hands, is the force that drives this riveting engine. Nobody who has seen this film will forget his terrifying dialogue to the equally-capable Madsen's protagonist.
“The pain, I can assure you, will be exquisite. As for our deaths, there is nothing to fear. Our names will be written on a thousand walls. Our crimes told and retold by our faithful believers. We shall die together in front of their very eyes and give them something to be haunted by. Come with me and be immortal.”
The encounters between Madsen's Helen and Todd's Candyman that ultimately enable the legends of the supernatural being to flourish in nightmarish infamy forever after serve as a grim reminder of how media frenzies in the wake of inner city crimes continue to perpetuate unfair assumptions about race and ethnicity. The thematic shift from Barker's original story, which explored British class divisions, to the dynamics of America's metropolitan neighborhoods remains a stroke of genius on the part of Rose's screenplay.
Those who simply want to enjoy a masterfully unnerving horror tale without feeling inundated by allegories, however, will not be disappointed.
Candyman, with its imaginative gore effects, its looming title character, its bees...a lot of bees, and its supporting roles from the likes of Xander Berkeley, Ted Raimi, Vanessa Williams, and Michael Culkin, captures the irresistible head rush of the 1980s golden age of slasher cinema while supplementing it with a big budget aesthetic. The haunting music score by none other than composer Philip Glass is the final “hook” that sinks into the collective psyche of the audience.
The main draws of this Scream Factory Blu-ray are superb audio and video presentations of both the theatrical cut and the unrated cut (which differs from the theatrical in a barely negligible way). This package, however, does not shortchange us in the department of razor-laced sugary extras. In addition to four, yes, four, commentary tracks, all of which have their separate merits, we have several documentaries and excellent present-day interviews.
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