Candyman (1992)

Creepy, original, sociological… this movie has it all! Based on a short story by Clive Barker, this film is creepy, has the perfect amount of purposeful gore, and is wonderfully acted. Plus if you’re scared of bees it will haunt your nightmares even more. This film breaks the mold most horror films were following in the late 80’s, that of the generic slasher, and went to a totally different place and I think that is partially why this film stands out so much; there’s not many other films I can think to group it in with, it really stands on its own.

Candyman follows Helen, a graduate student who is studying urban legends and decides to investigate the local Chicago legend of “candyman”. Candyman was the son of a slave owner who becomes a successful businessman and painter. He is killed in a lynching when he fathers a child with a white woman. In the process of the lynching the mob cuts off his painting hand and replaces it with a hook, then covers him in honey to attract bees, which sting him to death. It is rumored that his spirit can be summoned by saying his name five times in the mirror, and that he murders the summoner with his hook hand. Helen and her friend Bernadette attempt to summon candyman but nothing happens. While researching the legend in a poor apartment building, Helen encounters a gang, whose leader goes by the name “candyman” and carries a hook, further cementing her theory that the legend is merely a legend. Soon, the real Candyman appears and informs Helen that he must kill in order to reinstate fear in the people of the neighborhood and Helen becomes trapped in his game of murder.

I don’t want to reveal too much about the ending, as it is a little convoluted and it is hard to summarize without giving too much away. So what works and what doesn’t. For me, this film mostly works. The acting is the strongest part of the film, Tony Todd is absolutely chilling as the titular character, and Virginia Madsen does a nice job as the scholarly skeptic turned believer. One thing I really love about this film is that it does address the underlying of urban legends, why they exist, and uses their sociological purpose as the backbone of the film. I like that the film isn’t centered around bland replaceable teens, but is set in an urban setting where people are struggling to survive as it is. The other thing that this film really has working for it is some shocking but purposeful gore. Unlike in torture porn movies, where the gore is just there for shock value, the gore in this film has a reason to exist, which makes it all the more horrifying.

I highly recommend checking out this film, if you couldn’t tell. It’s original, it’s frightening, and it still holds up 26 years later. I’ve never seen the sequel because I’ve been afraid of it ruining the original for me, but perhaps I’ll check it out sometime. The good thing about this film is it stands so well on its own. This film is one of the great horror movies of the 90’s and every horror buff should check this out.

Netflix available: No

Hulu available: No

Xfinity available: I don’t know because I am a victim of the nation-wide Comcast outage, but I’ll try to update this as soon as I can check.

Rating: 4.5/5