Candyman

Toronto International Film Festival Program Book
1992

Candyman
Bernard Rose
USA, 1992, 101 minutes
Colour/35mm
Production Company: Propaganda Films
Executive Producer: Clive Barker
Executive in charge of production: Tim Clawson
Producer Sigurjon “Joni” Sighvatsson, Steve Golin, Alan Poul
Screenplay. Bernard Rose, based on the short story “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker
Cinematography: Anthony B. Richmond
Editor: Dan Rae
Production Designer: Jane Stewart
Sound Design: Nigel Holland
Costume Designer: Leonard Pollack
Music. Philip Glass
Principal Cast: Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, DeJuan Guy, Xander Berkley, Kasi Lemmons, Vanessa Williams

The world of horror has long relied on myth and superstition to provide its greatest tales. Candyman, based on a short story by Clive Barker (Hellraiser) and directed by Festival veteran Bernard Rose (Paperhouse) is no exception. It is an urban nightmare of epic proportions which subverts our preconceptions of oral folklore and delves deep within our darkest primal fears.

Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) is an anthropology PhD student After a gruesome murder takes places in Cabrini Green—a particularly squalid Chicago housing project—her freshman class claims that the killer is the “urban myth,” Candyman. Legend has it that in 1890 a talented black artist fell in love with a young woman, whose portrait he was commissioned to paint. Her father incites a gang of hoodlums to tie down the artist and to maim him. A swarm of bees finishes the gang’s work, viciously stinging him to death. The murder site was Cabrini Green. The victim becomes the mythic Candyman.

Helen goes to the projects to seek this legend and has a near-fatal encounter with a man who claims to be Candyman. But this lead is discovered to be a ruse once the mere mortal is captured and jailed. Just as she regains her composure, Helen is transported into a dream-like world where the real Candyman appears before her. Bearing his legendary scars, Candyman urges her to become his willing victim, his lover for eternity.

Using a haunting score by Philip Glass as backdrop, Rose again delivers the atmospheric nuances that made Paperhouse a chilling, visionary Festival hit. As for Barker, he proves that he is the master of modern horror, blessed with the ability to awaken the inner fears of urban society and to evoke our overwhelming terror of being imprisoned between consciousness and our worst nightmares.
—Noah Cowan