Candyman
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DVD Cover Information
Brand: SonyDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-09-09
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of Candyman
Movie Review: Sweets to the sweet
Summary: 5 Stars
The urban legend motif has been around for a long time now, but Clive Barker took this time-honored theme and ran with it in the form of Candyman, one of the most original, atmospheric horror films of the 1990s. This well-made film satisfyingly captures the unique vision of Barker, blending in myth, folklore, socioeconomic stratification, fear (definitely), terror (of course), gore (buckets full), and truth to create a complex story quite unlike too many run-of-the-mill slasher films that titillate yet rarely intellectually satisfy the horror aficionado. Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) is a grad student working with fellow student and friend Bernadette on a thesis built around urban legends, and once she hears the story of Candyman, she is compelled to make this particular legend the focus of the work. According to the legend, Candyman will appear if you look into a mirror and repeat his name five times-if you believe, that is. The residents of Cabrini-Green, a tenement house not far from Helen's home, believe; in fact, Candyman is being blamed for a very recent, particularly gruesome murder there. Helen braves the dangers of the rough neighborhood to explore the murder scene; having discovered that her own apartment house was originally built as a tenement house just like Cabrini-Green, she knows a secret means of accessing connecting rooms, and her look around the adjacent apartment of the murder victim reveals a plethora of Candyman references and clues. Helen's obsessive investigation of events leads her deep into Candyman's world, but when she is attacked and identifies her real-life attacker to police, the people begin to doubt the reality of Candyman. For that reason, Candyman is compelled to appear to Helen, and he sets in motion a dramatic series of events that will assure the continued, fervent devotion of his followers. The police blame Helen for the ensuing murders, and her options wind down to only one possible course of action at the end. One cannot really blame Candyman for being so angry. A talented black artist in the late 19th century, he was tortured and killed after the white woman he fell in love with became pregnant. His hand was sawed off, and then he was covered with honey and left to die at the stingers of innumerable angry bees. He has a hook for a hand now, and that is the weapon he uses to gut his victims. There is plenty of blood and guts in this movie; evisceration by an old rusty hook is an unavoidably messy way of dying. I appreciated the definition and characterization of Candyman; he is both real and not real, and he philosophizes poetically on the virtue of his immortal type of being. He lives in the fear of others, his name frightfully whispered among the members of his de facto congregation; both children and adults are terrified of him, but they believe, and that is what makes him strong. Helen's character tended to get on my nerves at times; there is just something about her that I find annoying. Toward the end, she comes to doubt her own sanity while struggling to accept the truth of the Candyman's unique existence in this world, but Candyman leaves no doubts as to his own existence. The movie seems to drag a bit here and there, but the gloomy fog of unreal apprehension that rides the wave of possibility and myth into the slums never turns loose its grip on the audience. Tony Todd is superb in the role of Candyman, filling the screen with his presence whenever he appears and seemingly floating just outside the boundaries of observation when he is absent. If you want to watch a gore-blessed horror film that somehow manages to appeal to your intellect as well as your prurient appetites, Candyman may just be your movie. The ending, I should note, is quite good and reflects the careful touch with which an artist performs his final brush stroke on a work of art.
Summary of Candyman
Based on a story by Clive Barker and skillfully written and directed by Bernard Rose, Candyman rises above most horror films by eerily suggesting that some urban legends--in this case a particularly frightening one--have a spooky basis in reality. The legend of the Candyman is a potent one around the high-rise tenements of Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing complex, where the residents speak of a dark, ominous figure who appears when his victims say his name five times in front of a mirror, then mercilessly slashes them to death. Upon learning that the Candyman is rumored to live in one of the vacant tenements, a University of Illinois researcher (Virginia Madsen) investigates a recent murder at Cabrini-Green. She learns that the Candyman (played by Tony Todd) is both unreal and chillingly real--a supernatural force of evil empowered by those who believe in his legend. He is a killer made flesh by the belief of others, and the young researcher's investigation is a threat to his existence. What happens next? We wouldn't dare spoil the chills, but rest assured that writer-director Rose has tapped into a wellspring of urban angst and fear, and Candyman serves up its gruesome frights with a refreshing dose of intelligence. --Jeff Shannon
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