Candyman (1992)

Directed by Bernard Rose

Viewed on DVD

I’d been dragging my feet on seeing Candyman, and I couldn’t really say why. I know it is  well known in horror circles, and of how well regarded Tony Todd was in the role of Candyman, but there was just something holding me back from going and seeing it. Luckily, Horror Noire, a great documentary on the history of black representation in horror finally got me to see this film and I’m glad I finally did.

The Story Of Candyman!

Candyman is pretty well known, so I’ll just give a basic plot summary before I get into the meatier aspects of it. The movie is about two researchers, Helen Lyle and Bernadette Walsh, who are working together on a thesis about urban legends surrounding the mythic figure known as Candyman. Candyman is the spirit of a black man, who was attacked and murdered by a gang of racists after he was found to be in a romance with a wealthy, young white woman.  After venturing into the housing projects of Cabrini-Green, Helen and Bernadette become more involved in the mythos than they had planned on becoming, when the Candyman, himself, appears to them and takes an interest in Helen. This causes a barrage of problems in her personal and professional life as the vengeful spirit begins toying with her.

Stylin’ and Profilin’

I always want to start a discussion of a film with its positives, so I’m going to start off by extolling the amazing sense of style that Candyman possesses. Candyman, both the film and the spirit, at its core is an amazing series of contradictions, combinations of things both sophisticated and very crude, which creates a great sense of unease.  This unease isn’t easily attributable to any one thing specifically, but it creates an incredibly unique atmosphere that makes Candyman an unforgettable cinematic experience.

Atmosphere For Days!

The atmosphere has such a wonderful feeling of dread, which can be attributed to  two parts of Candyman’s filmmaking that really excel: the cinematography and the score. Both the gorgeous cinematography and the haunting, operatic score, composed by Philip Glass, are sheer perfection. These elements  are masterfully combined to create an atmosphere of foreboding, helping every scene drip with gravitas and highlighting the film’s emotional conflicts. I don’t talk about things like cinematography and score enough, so this seems like a good time to correct that and say that Candyman is in a lot of ways made by these two aspects working together perfectly.

Stellar Performances With a Dash of Mansplaining

Along with the cinematography and score, the performances and characters are a high water mark of the film. Virginia Madsen plays the lead, Helen Lyle, and is quite excellent in the role, bringing a complex mixture of intelligence, naivete, and class. Helen’s husband is a wonderfully weasely college professor who tries to keep his misdeeds and disrespect for his wife under wraps. One amusing scene is when  Purcell, a jackass academic and minor character, mansplains the backstory of the Candyman to Helen. This might be one of the greatest scenes of cinematic exposition.s Helen looks on as Purcell rambles. She seems ambiguously aware of Candyman’s backstory but but since this is the work of her thesis probably already knows everything that Purcell is saying, . Most everyone else in the cast is fine as well, but  Tony Todd, as Candyman, really steals the show.

All About That Candyman.

Candyman is a truly bizarre figure and Todd manages to capture that expertly, bringing an essential air of sophistication and charisma to the role. For me, everything about Candyman’s look and presence works and that’s largely due to Todd’s performance. Todd’s regal body language, his cadence when speaking, and the excellent costuming exemplify everything about the contradictions of the character: this sophistication mixed with the gruesome sight of his hook hand and bee infested body. Everything about Candyman is wonderful! Everything except for one thing, and unfortunately that one thing is the story.

Some Missteps With The Story

It’s not that the story is nonsensical or even completely bad. For me, it just didn’t live up to the quality of the rest of the film. While I do like the spirit Candyman visually and performance-wise, the character doesn’t make much sense to me in terms of motivation and goals. If Candyman is a spirit whose origin was that he was lynched by a gang of racist white people who were against interracial romance, then why is Candyman primarily seen haunting black communities? Wouldn’t he want to go after racists, or maybe the descendants of the people responsible for killing him? I get that there’s the interplay between what Candyman wants and what the urban legends say about him, but I never got a clear motivation for Candyman.  Characters like Freddy Krueger, who goes after the children of the people who killed him, have a more clear and immediately understandable motive.

Spoilery Questions About Candyman’s Logic.

I don’t really understand Candyman’s plan in the second half of the movie. If you don’t want spoilers then proceed past the SPOILER tags!

SPOILER: During the movie, Helen learns that a local crime organization has been using Candyman’s aesthetic to scare others and reveals this to the police. Afterward, the Candyman appears to Helen and then uses his ill-defined powers to frame her for several murders, and threatens to kill a baby, unless she decides to join him in Candyman related ghost-ness. I don’t really know why Candyman was doing this, but it was implied to be a consequence of people now thinking that the Candyman is a hoax, thanks to Helen revealing the gang’s activity. Candyman largely implies that he is fueled by the fear of his “congregation” and that he needs others to believe in him.

Candyman’s Motives

Additionally, Candyman has another motive to try and trick Helen into being with him forever by framing her for a series, which is that Helen looks very similar to the woman he loved in life so he wants to recreate the family he could have had if he wasn’t murdered. This is more understandable than the other plot but it still doesn’t make much sense and feels a bit backwards. Much of the movie is dedicated to discussing the harsh realities and disadvantages faced by black communities, and that seems sincere but it’s undermined by making the only main black male character’s “love” defined as a possessive and abusive ‘courtship’. When he was alive did Candyman only care about the woman he loved because he thought she was pretty? Did he do the same kinds of unacceptable things to his lady love?

Missed Opportunities

This was such a missed opportunity to push back on stereotypes of black men, especially the stereotypes concerning black men’s supposed animalistic lust for white women, as mentioned in the documentary Horror Noir with a comparison to “The Birth of a Nation” . This would have worked not only to avoid engaging with stereotypical attitudes, but also could have made Candyman a more sympathetic and complex character had he been written as more of a sultry seducer rather than a dominator. Sure, it may have been the point to say that Candyman has been twisted by time and the crimes done to him, but why go this route after trying to set up a more progressive story?  There’s a lot to unpack, but my point is that these stories are too different and too muddled to match the precision shown in other aspects of the film.

END OF SPOILER

Even With A Wonky Story, Candyman Is A Great Experience

This is a rare instance where I watched a movie, didn’t much care for the story, but still greatly enjoyed the movie as a whole, and that alone should tell you how good Candyman is as a movie. The atmosphere, the music, the cinematography, the performances, all these things are wonderful but they’re let down by a story that isn’t quite sure what it wants to be. It’s a bit frustrating to see a movie do so much to approach greatness but then pivot away at the last second. Still, Candyman is a haunting and operatic film and I would still recommend it, but not as strongly as I would like to.

Tags: Horror movieMovie Review