THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When it comes to urban legends, they are an interesting subject because some don’t have actual proof of happening. With that in mind, the last you would want is to discover that it’s real.
PLOT
Based on Clive Barker’s The Forbidden, Candyman takes place in Chicago, Illinois. The story follows semiotics graduate student Helen Lyle working on a thesis of modern folklore with her best friend Bernadette Walsh (Kasi Lemmons). Their past interviews revolve around various urban legends. Her last interview was about Candyman, a hooked figure that appears after saying his name five times in the mirror. When a cleaning lady overhears the recorded interview, she and a co worker share with Helen that a woman named Ruthie Jean was killed in the low income housing project Cabrini–Green, but rumored to be the work of Candyman. Helen decides to do research of the area and discovers that many murders before Jean have taken place there and that her apartment is the original Cabrini–Green. Developers scrapped the idea when they realized the location was too desirable and relocate the project to separate the Ghetto from the rest of the city. She than theorizes that every resident uses the legend of Candyman to cope with hardship. She does try the ritual with Bernadette and while she does it right by saying the name five times, her friend stops at four. The next day, they go to Cabrini–Green to visit the apartment of Jean. When looking through the medicine chest, she finds a lair with multiple holes and graffiti. She also meets Jean’s neighbor Anne-Marie McCoy, who lives with her baby boy Anthony and pet Rottweiler. During their conversation, McCoy shares that she believes in Candyman. When having dinner with her husband Trevor and fellow professor Philip Purcell (Michael Culkin), they discuss the original origin of the urban legend: In 1890, Candyman was a black man who fell in love with a white woman, impregnating her with their first child. When her father was jealous of him because of his color, he hired a lynch mob to saw off his hand and get him stung to death by bees after being smothered by honeycomb, all in the same location of Cabrini-Green. When she scouts the area again to take more photos for the thesis, she is attacked by a gang member who poses as the urban legend. When she reports him to authorities, he is found responsible for Ruthie Jean’s death as well. When she recovers from her injury, she encounters the real Candyman at a parking garage who claims that because of her discrediting him, he will shed innocent blood to perpetuate it. When she sees him, she passes out. She does wake up, only to find herself covered in blood in the bathroom of McCoy. As she enters the hallway, she finds her dog decapitated and when entering the living room, she sees McCoy screaming in agony because her son has been stolen. The police soon arrive and Helen is found responsible for the bloodshed. She calls Trevor during her incarceration, but doesn’t appear to be home. When he bails her out the next day, he lies and says that he was home when she asked of his whereabouts. When he leaves her home alone to do something work related, she looks through her photos and finds Candyman in one of them. Just as she notices this, he appears through the bathroom mirror and causes her to pass out when cutting her neck with his hook hand. He would than frame her for the death of Bernadette who he kills as well. She would remain in a psychiatric hospital for what happened to her friend. A month later, she gets interviewed by psychiatrist Dr. Burke (Stanley DeSantis) to prepare for her upcoming trial. She chooses to prove her innocence by summoning Candyman. When he shows up, he kills Dr. Burke and frees her from her restraints. When she flees, she heads home, only to discover that Trevor has left her for one his students named Stacey (Carolyn Lowery). After she leaves heartbroken, she goes to Cabrini-Green to rescue baby Anthony, who Candyman claims to hold captive. He does find him at his lair asleep. But as he wakes up, he promises to free the baby if she surrenders herself to him, offering immortality. He kisses her with a mouth full of bees and when she wakes up again, she finds a mural of Candyman's lover that strongly resembles her. She hears the baby crying outside the building and follows his voice to be found in a pile of scrap wood and garbage. The child resident named Jake (DeJuan Guy) notices Helen outside and draws suspicion that Candyman is back, resulting him to convince the other residents to start a bonfire. Candyman tries to keep her from escaping, but Helen defends herself by impaling him with a burning shard of wood. She is able to escape with the baby, but she dies from her severe burns. On the day of her funeral, Anne-Marie and Jake lead a march with the residents to pay respects to her. Jake also drops Candyman's hook into her grave. Trevor, who was also present at the funeral, gets killed by the ghost of Helen after saying her name five times in the mirror. The film ends with Stacey screaming in shock that her love is gone.
THOUGHTS
I first got the chance to see this film in the fall of 2018 and I got to say this one was very interesting to watch. Director/Writer Bernard Rose is able to tap our deepest fear that we try not to share and that is believing in the worst to happen. It remains scary because before the violence begins, it makes you question your own reality. While there is a fictional boogeyman that is the star, the movie has my respect for being socially conscious by acknowledging a boogeyman to the real world, social injustice. Because of the discussion of Candyman's origin and Helen's assault, you respect the movie for becoming relatable to the audience. For a story like this, you need a cast that can carry it well and we couldn't be anymore with what was provided. Virginia Madsen is our scream queen Helen Lyle. She comes off as a curious person who is just fascinated with her discoveries, but her curiosity and doubtfulness becomes her achilles' heel as this would lead to her downfall. Since she never intends for the bloodshed to happen, you respect her act of doing the right thing when sacrificing herself for Anthony. We don't know if the spirit of her took other lives after Trevor but if she did, they likely deserved it. Speaking of Trevor, Xander Berkeley was on point on presenting his character to be plainly despicable for not appreciating the one person who loved him deeply. Every time he spoke to Helen, you just knew he wasn't on the same page with her. So it wasn't a big surprise when his secret came out. Although he felt guilty after her death, it was all too late for him to be redeemed. One actress that isn't talked about in this film is Vanessa Williams. As Anne-Marie McCoy, she is great as portraying her as someone who is only living off of the feeling of fear based on the neighborhood she lives in and the monster who is looming around. When she talks to Helen, you just feel the edge she is on. Speaking of the monster, someone had to embody the titular character and lucky for us, Tony Todd was the one who nails it out of the park. He is terrifying throughout due to being well spoken and narcissistic. He doesn't even show up until over 40 minutes into the movie and that's fine because you feel his presence beforehand anyway whenever his name is said. You get chills when he says 'Be my victim' because it's said in such a hypnotic manner. Because he gives his all here, he is the driving force that the hit or miss sequels have. If you're in the perspective of this character, you can mistake it to be a romantic story because he's just a man who got killed for falling in love. This movie may be the most unique of the genre, but even I can admit that it had a few issues. First off, why would Helen ask about Stacey when she hasn't even left the room yet? This does set up the foreshadow that her husband is gonna dump her, but it'd be less obvious had she asked by the time she was completely out of the room. I also don't think Bernadette should've allowed Helen photograph the empty room. Yeah no one was in there, but it's too dark to tell so it became such a risk that she could've gotten hurt than if not worse. I have a hard time buying that Helen never read Purcell's paper on Candyman because of how she just did research of Cabrini-Green, the one place that is afraid of him the most. If she did research on that, she should've read his paper by now. It makes sense for Candyman to go after Helen for not believing in him, yet he doesn't go after her attacker that was a poser. If he wanted to prove his existence, that guy should've been a target as well. The most valid question I have to ask is why he waits two weeks to confront Helen in the first place? Even if he was gonna shed innocent blood first, he should've gotten Bernadette first and her right after. Andy why was Trevor sitting on the couch with the detective? Seeing Bernadette's body does make it a slam dunk case, but he should have been waiting outside the main door to contain the crime scene. Another thing I can't get over is how Helen's hair never turns white after all the hell she went through before her death. That aspect is approached as a commonality in the opening and it's weird how she doesn't go through with it. I get that it sounded funny that the scrub told her she's going to Disneyland, but it sounded so wrong because it felt uncomfortable for a mental patient to be lied to. Whether or not you think Helen is crazy, that joke was off putting. I also don't believe she was institutionalized for a month when she had the exact same haircut. If we're supposed to believe this, she should've had her hair grow out. The last thing that definitely confused me was how the people of Cabrini Green start the bonfire, but don't hear the baby's cries. If Helen was able to hear the baby from a distance, as in from a higher floor in the apartment building, those people should've heard the baby. Other than that, this movie will always be fascinating. In conclusion, Candyman is a memorable film for creating the claustrophobic feeling that urban legends could be real, along with a clever message in between. As a fan of horror, this film must be seen.
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