Candyman

A Nineties classic

Candyman (1992) is a cool horror flick based on the short story The Forbidden by Clive Barker. It was directed by Bernard Rose and starred the delicious Virginia Madsen. (I followed much of Ms Madsen's career due to her deliciousness). Her role in this movie is a great one: she plays a young woman (well she could hardly play an old man could she?) who is writing a thesis on urban legends. A cleaner in the university mentions the legend of the Candyman to her, a killer who can be summoned by saying 'candyman' in front of the mirror five times and thus begins one of the bloodiest and most memorable films ever to come from the 1990s. Proof? I still can't bring myself to say Candyman to the mirror. It creeps me out which shows that Clive and his ghost story did their job.
Virginia isn't so lucky however. Her character is brave (and foolish) enough to call the monster from the mirror's depths and from then on she goes to the brink of insanity, from being accused of murder to even being almost seduced by the hook handed Candyman (played by Tony Todd).


He's behind you!

I like Candyman as a character. He has a certain charm and is not a mindless murdering meat machine like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. He is well spoken and I can easily imagine him reading classic poetry, flicking the pages with his rusty hook. This should come as no suprise because another of Barkers horror villains Pinhead from Hellraiser, is equally, if not more, charming. In a sadistic, cruel kinda way.
But all of the films main players have a fairly strong onscreen presence. Virginia's husband got my goat as a loathesome chap who cheats on his wife when she is at her most desperate, locked up and looking at a lengthy stay in chateux de jail. Not exactly the devoted hubby then.
Another big plus which makes the film even creepier (if a demented Captain Hook doesn't do it for you) is the way the run down buildings are daubed with statements like Sweets For The Sweet and giant portraits of Candyman (see above). Its very sinister, especially when you see the sweets left out for Santa the bogeyman.
The movie ends in a rather horrortastic way when the fiend is burned to death in a bonfire as the residents of the building he has held fear over look on. But its not all good news as Madsen's character also dies from the burns she suffers after attempting to save a baby. No typical heroine-saves-the-day ending here.
Mind you she does get to kill her slimy husband in the final scene by copying Candyman and appearing before him in a mirror before slicing him open. I was happy with that because he was a creep.
All in all this is a great movie and any self respecting horror fan should see it at least five times in tribute to the hooked terror.

Gutterbox rating