Candyman

THE STORY: Ever do that old "Bloody Mary" thing when you were a kid? You know, go into the bathroom and say "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary Come and get me"?*  The exact number of "Bloody Mary's" and the phrasing probably are different from place to place, but its an urban legend. Supposedly "Bloody Mary" is some old hag and invoking her name in such a way will bring her vengeful ghost to you to well, freaking kill you!

That's the idea behind Candyman. He's a modern legend, a ghost story. The son of a former slave that got rich by designing a shoe making machine in the 1800's, he was killed for impregnating the daughter of a wealthy white guy. The killers cut off his right hand and smeared him with honey to let bees sting him to death. Then they burnt the body on a pyre. Candyman's spirit wants revenge and when summoned he appears with a hook replacing his right hand and metes out a heavy punishment for people foolish enough to invoke his name.

Helen Lyle and her friend Bernadette are grad students at the University of Illinois doing a thesis on the Candyman legend. Helen is really up for this. she wants to show to the world that she and Bernadette are good researchers and in this cause throws caution to the wind. The ghetto community at Cabrini Green, a notorious project complex, believes in Candyman. Certain murders there are said to be the Candyman's work. Helen gets a lead on one of them, the murder of a girl called Ruthie Jean. Bernadette is not that enthusiastic about going to the crime ridden projects but she accompanies Helen.

While taking photos of the abandoned apartment that Ruthie Jean died in, Bernadette and Helen meet Anne-Marie, a single mother with a baby named Anthony. Helen is intrigued to learn that Anne-Marie believes that Candyman killed her neighbor, the aforementioned Ruthie Jean. Helen's husband, Trevor, is less enthusiastic, but he says little about it. Trevor's a teacher at the University and has been screwing around with one of his students. A fact that's fairly obvious, even to Helen. She just doesn't want to believe it. Helen goes back to Cabrini Green on her own and is brutally attacked by a group of thugs. A young boy, Jake, that she met, saves her by calling the police. Jake is scared that Candyman will come and get him, but the thug who was using the Candyman story to kill people is arrested.

Helen heals and is happy that her research has exposed Candyman as a legend. But she's less happy to see the real Candyman! Candyman, the evil spirit, appears to her in a parking garage. Her research has lessened the belief in him...something he can't abide. Its the fear and stories about him that give him his existence. Candyman doesn't harm Helen outright, but she passes out and wakes up back in Anne-Marie's apartment covered in blood. Someone has beheaded Anne-Marie's dog and kidnapped baby Anthony! Anne-Marie is hysterical! Helen finds a meat cleaver by the dog's head and picks it up. Bad move, because when Anne-Marie sees her she assumes the worst and attacks. The police burst in just after Helen, defending herself had to cut Anne-Marie.

Helen is charged with the crime, but the baby is still missing. She's freed after a night in jail, but is still a suspect. All the while she wonders why Trevor didn't come to the police station when she first called at 3 AM. Well, the rest of us really know why... Trevor tries to comfort Helen, but has to go out for a few minutes. When he leaves their home, Bernadette shows up to visit Helen. Just then Candyman makes another appearance. He incapacitates Helen and murders Bernadette. When Helen awakens she's being carted away by the police for Bernadette's murder.

Helen spends a lot of time in the hospital. Everyone thinks she's nuts. She's raving about the Candyman! Candyman appears to her again. Candyman wants her to join him in his undead existence and bring their legend and fear to the people. Helen refuses, but like I said, everyone thinks she's lost her mind. A psychiatrist interviewing Helen thinks she's crazy too, but Helen says she can prove she's not. She says Candyman's name five times...which is supposed to summon him. Candyman shows up and kills the doctor. He then cuts Helen's restraints. This isn't a good thing and Helen knows it. with her restraints cut it'll look like she murdered the doctor. So she runs. She makes it out of the hospital and flees to her home. According to the doctor before he died she was in the place for a month, but drugged up so she doesn't remember much. She finds that in the month she was gone, Trevor has shacked up with the student he's been screwing. More hurt than angry, Helen leaves. Candyman's voice tells her that she is alone, she has to submit to him.

Helen goes to Cabrini Green to seek Candyman out. The residents have built a bonfire pile for an upcoming party in the grounds. Candyman has baby Anthony and tells Helen he'll let the child live if she submits to him. But Candyman lied. The baby is trapped underneath the bonfire pile. Helen gets away from Candyman and climbs into the pile to save the baby. Jake sees her do this, but from a distance...and she was carrying one of Candyman's hooks so he thinks its Candyman. He rouses the residents of the Projects and they set fire to the pile in hopes to rid themselves of Candyman. Inside the burning heap, Candyman tries to stop Helen, but she frees herself from him and carries the baby out....this doesn't come without a price. Helen is injured and burnt badly saving baby Anthony. She dies from her injuries, but Candyman, is seemingly destroyed. (Until the sequel)

The residents of Cabrini Green are saddened by Helen's death. So is Trevor. The last scene shows him mourning Helen in his bathroom. His hot, young girlfriend is kind of pissed at him for being so melancholy. Trevor says Helen's name about five times while crying in the bathroom....and she appears! Just like Candyman! And just like Candyman she cuts him wide open with a hook....

This, the first Candyman movie is scary! You know why? Because the story focuses on Helen, not a cardboard cutout character or a monster that's a better stand up comic than villain. Helen is arrogant and her action's bring death and misery. But is Helen any more arrogant than the rest of us? She didn't believe in Candyman...so what? Who would? Imagine if the boogeyman you feared as a child suddenly came knocking at your door...you didn't think he was real so he decided to prove it! Candyman himself is frightening...not because of his murders...but because he actually seems like a supernatural force, an evil spirit, not a comic book villain. Even Trevor...he's a cheater, but you get the idea that he really did care for Helen, even if it was only a little. He doesn't come off as a coldblooded jerk.

So yeah, Candyman is a good horror movie. A real horror movie, instead of a cheap slasher movie with bull[unwrite] characters. Hey, if you don't believe me go into your bathroom, turn the lights out and call for Candyman five times! Candyman was actor Tony Todd. Todd is known to Star trek fans as Kurn, a klingon warrior. In that guise he's been on both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Todd also played an alien Hirogen Warrior on Star Trek: Voyager. Helen was actress Virginia Madsen.

Best Lines: "We hear you're lookin' for Candyman, bitch...well, you found him!"-A thug says this to Helen before he and his buddies kick the snot outta her.

"What do the good know except for what the bad teach them by their excesses?!" -Candyman to Helen.

1.) Helen is one brave chick. I don't know too many white women who would go to ghetto by themselves. She got her ass kicked for it, but it did take a certain amount of guts to go. Not brains, but guts. Her lack of brains is what almost made Anne-Marie kill her. When she awakens in Anne-Marie's apartment she can hear Anne-Marie going ballistic about her missing baby in the next room. Now, I come from a predominantly black family so I'm aware of something Helen isn't...you just don't confront black women when they're going ballistic like that. Its like fighting a hurricane, they'll tear you to bits! (okay, I'm joking! Among us black guys its a running joke about the tempers of black women, but I apologize if I've offended anyone. I know I must have since everyone's so damn PC sensitive these days!)

2.) Does this kid, Jake have a home? I don't know about the original story, but I assumed he was just a kid that lived in Cabrini Green with his family. When Helen goes to rescue the baby from the bonfire Jake sees her going into the pile of junk. But Jake was sleeping on a ledge or something when the sounds awakened him. If he lived on the streets why didn't the cops take him to a shelter when he was at the police station the first time? What upsets me is this...this was probably resolved or explained in Clive Barker's novel, but not in the movie.

3.) After Helen's death Jake, Anne-Marie and about a few hundred of Cabrini green's residents show up at the burial so they can watch Jake drop a hook into thee grave. Now, I am bothered by this. Not only are poor minorities supposed to be scared witless by superstition, they show up in droves just to see a kid drop a hook? As I said before it may have been different in the novel, but its a slap in the face for the black community. I'm suprised they didn't have them with bones in their hair dancing around a pot.

NUDITY AND SEX: Helen is seen topless in two scenes, but its not explicit.

HUH?: After Jake sees Helen (and thinks its Candyman) sneak into the pyre to rescue the baby he rouses the neighborhood to set the pyre alight and destroy Candyman. Now I have two questions: How many people would believe a little kid talking about monsters he saw? C'mon! Its even more insulting when you realize that the writers expect that minorities would. That's bull[unwrite]. Also, the inhabitants of Cabrini Greens come out to set the fire carrying cans of gasoline! Get the living hell outta here! People don't generally have full gas cans available in their apartments! Sheer common sense would tell you that!

THE TALLY: This movie is one that fans of horror should see. It was well written and scary. Its a rare thing to find a horror movie that isn't cornier than a bowl of corn flakes.

*I did the bloody Mary thing once...kind of. I was around 11 or 12. Too scared to go into the bathroom by myself I waited until my grandfather went in to use the toilet. Then I ran in, turned the light out and said "Bloody Mary" seven times. I don't know if Bloody Mary showed up because my Grandfather chased me out of the bathroom screaming "Damn it boy! You ain't watching any more scary movies! You've lost your damn mind!"