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| A mysterious and curiosity-sparking poster for Bernard Rose's Candyman |
As part of her thesis project on urban legends, Helen and a student friend visit Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing project, where the feared Candyman is said to have killed...
Candyman is a hugely suspenseful, heavily loaded horror favorite that treads new ground in a thought-provoking way. Virginia Madsen (Joy (2015)) is outstanding and a trooper for the genre here, and the same goes for Tony Todd (Agoraphobia (2015)), SPOILER who among other things endures having bees in his mouth for his performance in Candyman. Madsen and Kasi Lemmons (The Silence of the Lambs (1991)), who plays her friend in the film, both have the added quality here of irresistible, glamorous hairdos, and Xander Berkeley (Nikita (2010-12)) is perfect as Madsen's disloyal partner.
Candyman also has a cute boy performance (by DeJuan Guy (Make It Rain (2008))), a strong score by Philip Glass (No Reservations (2007)) and a gruesome core to it that is interpretable in several ways: There are undeniable sexual overtones in the relation between misty-eyed Madsen and Todd with his huge hook (yes, the mandingo fantasy kind), but the film could also possibly stand as a conservative warning against 'slumming' on 'the wrong side of the tracks.' SPOILER The ending also made me speculate whether the black populace of Cabrini-Green want to burn Candyman for his bloodlust or for crossing racial barriers with his ancient romance? The film taps right down into the still boiling, rich stew that is the fraught race relations in modern America and in this could be seen as a precursor of recent huge hit Get Out (2017).
Candyman a a film scoffs at the supercilious academic world in favor of the superstition and religion that is held high by the under-privileged black community. It is over-lit more than once, - perhaps so we won't miss the great production design (by Jane Ann Stewart (About Schmidt (2002))) and strong use of colors.
Candyman is written and directed by great English filmmaker Bernard Rose (Paperhouse (1988)), adapting Clive Barker's (Sacrament (1996)) short story The Forbidden from his Books of Blood: Volume 5. It is a major horror favorite in my book.
Watch the title sequence for the film here
Cost: 8 mil. $
Box office: 25.7 mil. $ - North America only
= Some uncertainty; at least a box office success and likely a big hit
[Candyman premiered 11 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 99 minutes. Although Barker's story was set in his native Liverpool, Rose changed the setting to Chicago and found shooting in the US easier than in England. Eddie Murphy was sought for the Candyman part but was too costly. For the lead, Rose cast his then wife Alexandra Pigg, but when she found out she was pregnant, the role was offered to Madsen. Sandra Bullock, who had not broken through yet as an actress, was also in contention for the part. Rose held meetings with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) before shooting to avert racial controversy, but relates that when they read the script they felt it was all "just good fun." Madsen was also worried about the race aspect and related fear that Spike Lee would not like the film. Shooting took place in Chicago, Illinois, including in the real Cabrini-Green project, and in California, including Los Angeles, from November - December 1991. The film opened #4, behind Under Siege, The Last of the Mohicans and The Mighty Ducks, to a 5.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent the next two weeks at #3 before leaving the top 5, grossing 25.7 mil. $. The foreign grosses are not reported, but if the world gross is set at a conservative 35 mil. $, the film rates as a big hit. Roger Ebert gave film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this review. The film inspired two lesser performing sequels; Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) and Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999, video), both without Madsen and Rose but with Todd. Candyman is fresh at 70 % with a 6.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Candyman?
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