With the much-loved horror icon set to return to screens soon, we take a closer look at the character and legacy of CANDYMAN…
“They saw off his right hand with a rusty blade. And no one came to his aid, for this was just the beginning of his ordeal. Nearby there was an apiary. Dozens of hives, filled with hungry bees. They smashed the hive and stole the honeycomb and smeared it over his prone, naked body. Candyman was stung to death by the bees. They burned his body on a giant pyre and scattered his ashes over Cabrini Green.”
– Dr Phillip Purcell, Candyman (1992)
So goes the tragic legend of Candyman, a famous, talented painter and the son of a slave, but a free man, dismembered, stung to death by bees and burned to a crisp. This treatment, at the hand of a lynch mob, for the perceived crime of falling in love with a rich white woman in 19th-century America. Reborn as a murderous urban legend, Candyman lives on in whispers and rumours, his name spoken in hushed tones – and don’t you dare say it five times. Not if there are any mirrors in the vicinity, anyway.
At least that’s how the legend goes in Bernard Rose’s 1992 horror classic. The original short story upon which Rose’s film is based – Clive Barker’s The Forbidden, included in Volume V of his Books of Blood – is skimpy on the details, even if the hook-handed killer, swarms of bees and rough plot outline remain the same.
Bernard Rose’s adaptation transplanted the story from Liverpool to Chicago, and onto the notorious estate of Cabrini Green. While most slasher films of the ‘80s and ‘90s were set on bright suburban streets and idyllic summer camps, Cabrini Green is a fascinating hive of crime, violence, breathtaking graffiti, and the most disgusting toilet this side of Trainspotting. As in Barker’s short story, Candyman follows graduate student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen, although one Sandra Bullock was also in contention for the role) investigating urban legends in the inner city. Here, she hears the story of a hook-handed ghost who can be summoned by repeating his name five times while looking in a mirror. Naturally sceptical, Helen and best friend Bernadette (Kasi Lemmons) complete the ritual and are duly underwhelmed when nothing appears to happen. At first.
After being beaten up by a local gangster appropriating his name, Helen meets the real deal – the magnetic, hook-handed, fur-coat wearing Candyman himself (the inimitable Tony Todd) – in a parking garage. Here, she blacks out, waking up in the middle of a crime scene, next to a decapitated dog and accused of kidnapping a child. Candyman’s curious modus operandi of framing naïve white women is curiously low-rent for a slasher icon but is a through-line for both this film and its sequels. In the climax, Helen battles Candyman beneath a bonfire for kidnapped baby Anthony’s life, subsequently burning to death and transformed into a vengeful spirit herself. Bad news for sleazy, cheating husband Trevor (Xander Berkeley) who discovers Helen’s transformation the hard way during the film’s stinger – stabbed to death after saying her name five times in the mirror.
With Candyman, a horror icon for the ages was born. The film was praised for its brooding, oppressive atmosphere and Tony Todd’s commanding performance. A sequel was inevitable. In 1995, Bill Condon’s Farewell to the Flesh was released. It follows New Orleans schoolteacher Annie (Kelly Rowan), who attempts to debunk the legend of Candyman, by saying his name. This results in the killer running amok in New Orleans, stalking Annie, her husband and friends. Although Condon’s follow-up to Candyman is by no means the worst of the ‘90s slasher sequels that were all the rage at the time (it’s not even the worst Candyman film), it lacks the originality and wit of its predecessor. It did, however, delve deeper into Candyman’s past and give him his real name – Daniel Robitaille.
This sequel was less liked than its predecessor but still reasonably successful at the box office. And so, for franchisedom’s sake, a third entry in the series was made. In 1999, Turi Meyer’s Day of the Dead was released. It stars Donna D’Errico as art gallery owner Caroline, a direct descendant of Candyman himself. Stalked by the hook-handed killer as he kills off her friends and family, Caroline is framed for murder (you know how it goes) and even meets a Candyman cult, via the biggest ball gag this side of Pulp Fiction. The straight-to-video Day of the Dead is a workmanlike entry in the series, re-treading too much old ground without bringing all that much to the table. In place of the previous films’ mood and atmosphere, it ups the nudity quotient, hoping that audiences will be blinded to the film’s sins by the fact that… ooh, Donna D’Errico isn’t wearing a bra! There are far worse horror sequels out there, but a resounding lack of enthusiasm for the film stalled the franchise, despite audiences’ love for the character and Bernard Rose’s original movie.
It could have been so very different, though. Originally written as a gaudy, brightly dressed Caucasian man who smelled like candyfloss (with a waxy yellow flesh and pale blue lips to boot), Barker’s description of Candyman couldn’t be any more different from Rose’s depiction – only the hook and bees made the transition to film. Even the whole ‘say his name five times’ deal was absent from The Forbidden. Who’s to say whether or not Tony Todd smells like candyfloss, but we would guess not. It was Todd himself who came up with Candyman’s backstory, creating the tragic tale of one, uh, Granville T. Candyman, a famous black painter in 1870s Chicago. Falling in love with the daughter of a wealthy white landowner, he was chased down by a jeering lynch mob, who cut off his hand, smothered him in honey and set a swarm of bees upon him, stinging him to death.
Thankfully, the film did away with the ludicrous ‘Granville T. Candyman’ moniker, but the rest of Todd’s original vision made it through intact. Seeing Candyman as his take on the Phantom of the Opera or Count Dracula, there’s a nobility to the character that’s absent in most of his peers – say, the vile Freddy Krueger, or imbecilic Jason and Leatherface. There’s a respectability to Candyman that most horror icons lack, and a dignity in his looming presence. Many slasher villains are driven by vengeance, but in the Candyman’s case, it’s a righteous one. You’ll never find Candyman chasing sexed-up teenagers around the woods, or getting into a fistfight with Busta Rhymes. You’d certainly never see him in space. Maybe if they had stuck with their original choice of Eddie Murphy (too expensive), but Tony Todd is too classy for all that. To speak his name gives him strength, and with the legend, Candyman can live on forever. A timeless reminder of the sins of the past, and America’s ugliest crimes. As he put it himself: “I am the writing on the wall, the whisper in the classroom! Without these things, I am nothing!”
Thankfully, Candyman has nothing to worry about. Even today, he remains one of horror cinema’s most memorable antagonists thanks to his iconic design, tragic story, and Tony Todd’s masterful performance. If power comes from his legacy, drawn from whispers, dreams and nightmares, then Candyman is doing just fine – especially with Nia DaCosta and Jordan Peele’s franchise reboot on the way to terrify a new generation of movie-goers.
SWEETS TO THE SWEET
In Anticipation of Candyman 2020
Feel old yet? It’s been over twenty years since Candyman: Day of the Dead. Over two decades since the last Candyman movie, and even longer since Tony Todd’s horror icon made his debut. In that time, there have been no reboots, sequels, playable Mortal Kombat DLC or even comic book tie-ins for the character. In spite of Tony Todd repeatedly expressing interest in returning to the franchise, his Candyman has remained dormant, the legend well-known but inactive. “It’s a blessed condition, believe me,” the great man said once, “To live in people’s dreams; to be whispered at street corners, but not have to be.” In that respect, he could afford the time off.
But by now, most of his genre peers have managed to crossover, reboot, and come back again. Some of them have even done it multiple times. Leatherface has had more fresh starts than he’s had headcheese suppers. Michael Myers made a bunch of sequels, a remake, and another sequel, and then re-emerged in 2018 with Blumhouse’s Halloween. But Candyman’s legacy has in no way diminished in that time, and Candyman is considered by many to be a modern masterpiece; a classic, and the best Clive Barker adaptation (one’s mileage may vary, depending on how you want to rate Hellraiser).
Thankfully, the character is set to get his dues in this year’s hotly-anticipated Candyman, directed by Nia DaCosta and written by genre favourite Jordan Peele. Audiences will have to wait until the film’s release for all the gory details, but DaCosta’s reboot-slash-sequel is set to follow Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Anthony McCoy, a young artist using Candyman as inspiration for his work. Wait… Anthony?!
Yes, it would seem that Abdul-Mateen is set to play the very same Anthony who was kidnapped as an infant in 1992’s Candyman. Vanessa Estelle Williams also appears as Anthony’s mother – back from the first film – and Cassie Kramer is credited as playing Helen Lyle. But the question on everyone’s lips is of the titular man himself (just, you know, don’t say it in front of a mirror). Just who will be donning the fur cloak and bloody hook?
In the best news possible, Tony Todd is reported to be reprising his role as Candyman. To what extent, however, remains unclear. Evil Dead 2013-style cameo? Or could we have a Freddy’s Revenge situation on our hands, with Candyman using Anthony’s body as the instrument of his revenge? We wouldn’t put it past him. Abdul-Mateen certainly has precedent in being the unwitting host of super-powered beings – playing the secret Doctor Manhattan in last year’s Watchmen.
However or whoever he turns out to be, we fancy that Candyman is in good hands with Nia DaCosta and Jordan Peele. His story has also never been timelier, well… you know what’s going on out there right now. Writer Peele has shown his genre bona fides in Get Out and Us, and the huge buzz around director DaCosta suggests she’s one to watch. Big budget horror films don’t get much more high-profile than the Candyman reboot. It’s about time the big man made his return, and the talent involved have the potential to turn this into something great. Consider us hooked.
Say his name five times and CANDYMAN will be sure to return to cinema screens soon…
[This article was originally published in STARBURST issue 474, October 2020.]
