I can remember growing up as a 80s baby and back then my parents did not care, horror movies were always on and even with “Freddy Krueger” scaring the living ish out of me but I kept going back to watch it. Loved watching the Halloween Movies, “Friday the 13th” movies, “Pumpkinhead”, “Child’s Play”, “Hellraiser”. You name it we were watching at a very early age. (No I do not let my 3 year old watch horror movies and never will). My love for horror movies goes deep and I still watch them to this day. My wife not so much and that makes it alot funner to watch them with her. But “Candyman” was the one that made me scared again. Around the early 90s when Freddy was losing his fear, Jason was ready for retirement for a period of time and chucky…well chucky you can just punt him across the room and be done with him. But Candyman had me shook. I remember my dad took us to the theaters in Oakland to watch Candyman at 7 years old and by the 3rd act of the movie we were out lol.
The plot: Helen Lyle played by (Virgina Madsen) is a college student in chicago who is working on a research paper on Urban Legends and comes across the story the of Candyman. Murders happening in the Cabini Green Projects. Helen is not a believer so she drags her friend to the projects to get some information. And she hears the stories and you think that would be enough to say “okay, i got enough info” but nooooo she comes back and well lets just say she probably keep her ass home at this point but “she doesnt scare easy” until candyman actually shows up in a parking garage and then all hell breaks loose for Helen Lyle. And Candyman doesnt mind bringing the hell to her.
The history: the character Candyman is based off the short story created by the great horror writer Clive Barker called “The Forbidden”. The orginal story was set in Liverpool England but director Bernard Rose wanted the movie to be set in Chicago, Illinois.
Tony Todd’s performance
Tony Todd is a horror icon and this is the role that put him on the map. I loved his performance of “Night of the Living Dead” but this role put him up there with the titans of horror. His alone should be in the horror Hall of Fame. But his presence when you first see him makes you think “oh s**t”. The way he used the bloody hook in the movie was devastating. The way he grunted when he caught a victim was so chilling. His performance was amazing and scary at the same time. He was even good in the two other sequels even though the sequels were not very good.
Now if you like blood and guts well you will not be dissapointed but be very cautious there is some disturbing stuff that happens in this movie and parents who love this movie and has kids please do not let them watch this because this movie will freak them out and you will have to deal with consequences (I know my dad did). And believe it or not some of this movie is based on grim stories that actually happened in the Cabrini Greeb Projects but you can read up on that. Overall its a very good, very scary movie that did its job when the other horror icons were not cutting it around the early 90s. This movie goes down in the top five horror movies of all time. Overall grade I give it a A+. And yes I am very excited to watch the new Sequel that comes out in friday. I guess its time to get scared again and if you plan on seeing the new one well I hope you have a good time.
D.K.W 