Candyman is a movie that I saw years ago and have wanted to revisit for a while. Thanks Netflix for helping me remember why this movie was so good then, and why it still stands up today.
Helen Lyle and her friend Bernadette Walsh are graduate students compiling research on urban legends. In an interview with another student Helen stumbles across the legend of the “Candyman”. After talking to a few people she discovers where the gruesome murders attributed to Candyman took place, and decides to investigate them herself. She uncovers much more than she ever wanted to and is then haunted by the Candyman, all the while her life is turned inside out.
Helen discovers that she never should have gone seeking something she didn’t want to find. In her search for the real story behind the Candyman killings Helen begins to see the Candyman and horrible murders start occurring all around her. Each time he visits her, she blacks out and wakes up in possibly the worst situations possible. By the end Candyman says that they are meant for each other and they must be together. He will not take no for an answer and continues to rip apart her life until she finally gives in.
Candyman is just a good movie. It has all the pieces that make a horror movie fun and exciting to watch. The plot keeps twisting, the deaths are brutal but not to showy, and the direction is great. Playing off the fears of the unknown and the unexplained Candyman, for the uninitiated, will keep you on the edge of screaming in fright and empathy for the main character. Even seeing it again, I was constantly thinking about what it would be like to be in situations (even as fantastical as they are) that Helen finds herself in.
Candyman was a really good film when I first saw it back around 1994, and it’s nice to know that this flick still holds up. Clive Barker is known for making great horror movies, but they aren’t always successes. Candyman takes basically the fear of the boogeyman and gives it a gruesome back story. As much a psychological thriller as it is a slasher film Candyman is just as good a movie now as it was almost 20 years ago.
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