Review of Candyman (1992) by Uditha D — 12 Aug 2012

I have said "Candyman" once to my bathroom window. It's owing to this classic's modern interpretation of horror that I still am afraid to say it even one more time. The timeline of events in this film, directed by the relatively not-well-heard-of Bernard Rose, was instrumental in retaining that effectiveness.

For one thing, the color of cloths worn by characters got decidedly darker towards the end - the first real confrontation between Candyman (played chillingly by Tony Todd - who never really moves his lips when talking) and Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen played the role with the level expected of her - inborn fragility hiding behind a semblance of tomboyish frankness) juxtaposes this black-white outlook well enough between the two characters' choice of clothing.

From then on, unlike the careful structure of all events until that point, everything becomes insanely out of control, and in less than 30 seconds Helen is wrongly convicted of psychopathic murder and abduction.

It was all done to evoke horror, and although I thought that Candyman's Shakespearean lines were a tad too much in the melodramatic side, it remains a classic of modern horror, which began with 1968's Rosemary's Baby, reached a nadir with Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, then went down towards the end of the century.

As a monument of that lost era we all should enjoy it very much indeed!