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- For the notorious Halloween child poisoner from Pasadena, Texas, see Ronald Clark O'Bryan.
Candyman is a 1992 movie starring Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd and Xander Berkeley. It was directed by Bernard Rose and is based on the short story The Forbidden by Clive Barker, though the film's scenario is switched from England to the United States (specifically, Chicago).
The film
Helen Lyle is a graduate student conducting research on modern folklore. While interviewing freshmen about their superstitions, she hears about a local legend known as Candyman, a slave who was brutally tortured and murdered. If you look into a mirror and chant his name five times you will summon him, but at the cost of your own life. Thinking this is just the new spin she has been looking for, she enters the notorious gang-ridden territory known as the Cabrini-Green housing projects (the site of a brutal murder). Helen believes that Candyman cannot exist, but when she calls him into our world a string of murders begin and the police look to her as the primary suspect. Now, only one person can set her free..... the Candyman.
Candyman was widely regarded as a bold new take on modern horror. The combination of urban settings and modern folklore struck a cord with moviegoers and critics alike. Much like another of Clive Barker's creations, the Cenobites of the Hellraiser films, the Candyman must be called into existence, so often the deciding factor in a character's safety is his/her belief. If you believe, you are more likely not to summon him, but if you do not, you would do it just to prove the lunacy of it and, as such, end up dead.
Sequels
Two sequels were produced, each of which expanded on the backstory of the Candyman himself. Both starred Tony Todd as the Candyman, but generally retained little direct continuity from one film to the next. Although both retained some of the original film's urban legend motif, the Candyman is a much more typical slasher film villain in each successive sequel. Both sequels' subtitles (Farewell to the Flesh and Day of the Dead) are references to real-world festivals (Carnival and the Day of the Dead, respectively).
1995's Farewell to the Flesh starred Tony Todd, Kelly Rowan, William O'Leary and Bill Nunn. The father of New Orleans schoolteacher Annie Tarrant (Rowan) was murdered in a Candyman-like fashion some years prior. When other similar killings begin to occur, her brother is accused and one of her students starts to see the Candyman. In order to disprove to herself that the Candyman exists, she says his name five times in front of a mirror, summoning him to New Orleans, where the killing begins in earnest. The film's climax reveals more details of the Candyman's genesis, and it is revealed here that his name in life was Daniel Robitaille.
Day of the Dead followed in 1999, and starred Donna D'Errico as an artist who learned that her great-grandparents were the Candyman and the white woman who he had been murdered for loving. The Candyman hoped to kill her so that she could be with him forever as a spirit like himself.
External links
1992 films | 1995 films | 1999 films | Fictional ghosts | Horror films | Chicago films | Films based on urban legends
"Candyman (film)"