Summer 2020 Archive
Film Review
Candyman (1992)
Written and Directed by Bernard Rose
Candyman is a 90’s cult-classic horror movie with a twist. Although most moviegoers expect to experience another generic slasher film, writer and director Bernard Rose subverts those expectations by crafting a film that tackles social and racial issues with an urban legend at its core.
The film follows the ambitious University of Chicago graduate student, Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen), and her friend and colleague Bernadette Walsh (Kasi Lemmons) as they conduct research for their thesis on local urban legends and modern, oral folklore. While interviewing freshmen and trying to keep her marriage together with her husband, Trevor Lyle (Xander Berkeley), Helen discovers the legend of Candyman (Tony Todd), a vengeful specter with a hook for a hand that cuts his victims from “gut to gullet.”
Candyman is a film adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story, “The Forbidden.” Unlike Barker’s story, which focuses on the lives of an impoverished Liverpool community, Rose centers on an African American housing project in Chicago known as Cabrini-Green—a real-life housing project. Cabrini-Green plays an essential part in Rose’s social commentary on housing project families and where the story of the Candyman originates.
The success of Mr. Rose’s film is in part to its leading actor Tony Todd as Candyman, the supernatural African American antagonist with a tragic past. Mr. Todd’s performance as the vindictive ghost with a hook for a hand is terrifying yet superlative. Todd delivers his lines with a husky, seductive voice that evokes respect and sheer terror all at the same time. Todd also excels in the physical demands of his role as Candyman that includes working with a hook, levitation, and kissing his co-star, Virginia Madsen, with a mouth full of bees!
Along with Todd, Ms. Madsen’s performance as Helen Lyle is memorable. Helen at the beginning of the film positions herself as the doe-eyed academic that minimizes the legend of Candyman as a figurative representation of inner-city violence than a fearsome boogie man. As the film progresses, so does Helen’s character. Although some might label Helen as falling victim to the “white savior” trope, it is through Helen that the unfair living conditions of the residences of Cabrini-Green become revealed. In addition, Helen never once in the film positions herself as superior to anyone. Instead, she sympathizes and attempts to understand the lives of the people in inner-city Chicago, unlike her African American friend, Bernadette, who fears the housing project for its association with gang violence and crime.
Bernard Rose’s commentary on urban legends is especially fascinating. Throughout the film, Rose plays with the idea if the Candyman exists or not. According to Helen’s husband Trevor Lyle, a professor at the University of Chicago, urban legends represent the “true unselfconscious reflection of the fears of urban society.” The audience, therefore, assumes that the Candyman is a mere fabrication. However, when Helen herself starts to doubt the existence of Candyman, he finally appears to her. Candyman explains to Helen that he needs followers to believe in him or he perishes. Rose suggests in the film that the legends of our lives depend on believers and the continuation of the legend to keep it alive.
Candyman is a tension-filled thrill ride from start to finish that is not afraid to tackle social and racial issues head-on. The film owes much of its suspense to Philip Glass’s spine-chilling score and Anthony B. Richmond’s cinematography that both capture the violence and horror depicted in the film. The movie does contain moments of explicit violence, malicious horror, and nudity. Although Bernard Rose’s Candyman borders on the absurd, it is nonetheless a horror movie that lives up to its cult-classic status.
—Morgan Lincoln
CSU Stanislaus
Written and Directed by Bernard Rose
Candyman is a 90’s cult-classic horror movie with a twist. Although most moviegoers expect to experience another generic slasher film, writer and director Bernard Rose subverts those expectations by crafting a film that tackles social and racial issues with an urban legend at its core.
The film follows the ambitious University of Chicago graduate student, Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen), and her friend and colleague Bernadette Walsh (Kasi Lemmons) as they conduct research for their thesis on local urban legends and modern, oral folklore. While interviewing freshmen and trying to keep her marriage together with her husband, Trevor Lyle (Xander Berkeley), Helen discovers the legend of Candyman (Tony Todd), a vengeful specter with a hook for a hand that cuts his victims from “gut to gullet.”
Candyman is a film adaptation of Clive Barker’s short story, “The Forbidden.” Unlike Barker’s story, which focuses on the lives of an impoverished Liverpool community, Rose centers on an African American housing project in Chicago known as Cabrini-Green—a real-life housing project. Cabrini-Green plays an essential part in Rose’s social commentary on housing project families and where the story of the Candyman originates.
The success of Mr. Rose’s film is in part to its leading actor Tony Todd as Candyman, the supernatural African American antagonist with a tragic past. Mr. Todd’s performance as the vindictive ghost with a hook for a hand is terrifying yet superlative. Todd delivers his lines with a husky, seductive voice that evokes respect and sheer terror all at the same time. Todd also excels in the physical demands of his role as Candyman that includes working with a hook, levitation, and kissing his co-star, Virginia Madsen, with a mouth full of bees!
Along with Todd, Ms. Madsen’s performance as Helen Lyle is memorable. Helen at the beginning of the film positions herself as the doe-eyed academic that minimizes the legend of Candyman as a figurative representation of inner-city violence than a fearsome boogie man. As the film progresses, so does Helen’s character. Although some might label Helen as falling victim to the “white savior” trope, it is through Helen that the unfair living conditions of the residences of Cabrini-Green become revealed. In addition, Helen never once in the film positions herself as superior to anyone. Instead, she sympathizes and attempts to understand the lives of the people in inner-city Chicago, unlike her African American friend, Bernadette, who fears the housing project for its association with gang violence and crime.
Bernard Rose’s commentary on urban legends is especially fascinating. Throughout the film, Rose plays with the idea if the Candyman exists or not. According to Helen’s husband Trevor Lyle, a professor at the University of Chicago, urban legends represent the “true unselfconscious reflection of the fears of urban society.” The audience, therefore, assumes that the Candyman is a mere fabrication. However, when Helen herself starts to doubt the existence of Candyman, he finally appears to her. Candyman explains to Helen that he needs followers to believe in him or he perishes. Rose suggests in the film that the legends of our lives depend on believers and the continuation of the legend to keep it alive.
Candyman is a tension-filled thrill ride from start to finish that is not afraid to tackle social and racial issues head-on. The film owes much of its suspense to Philip Glass’s spine-chilling score and Anthony B. Richmond’s cinematography that both capture the violence and horror depicted in the film. The movie does contain moments of explicit violence, malicious horror, and nudity. Although Bernard Rose’s Candyman borders on the absurd, it is nonetheless a horror movie that lives up to its cult-classic status.
—Morgan Lincoln
CSU Stanislaus
