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.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?:
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!"