#55 - Candyman

Candyman (1992)
Extremely Trashy
Written and Directed by: Bernard Rose based on the story The Forbidden by Clive Barker.

Plot: A woman writing her thesis on urban legends (Virginia Madsen) stumbles across the myth of the Candyman (Tony Todd) - he was horribly murdered back in the day (I can’t remember when exactly, but we’ll say a hundred years ago) and now, whenever you say ‘Candyman’ five times into the mirror, he comes back and kills the living shit out of you with a hook. Sort of like Bloody Mary only sexier. Anyway, she summons the Candyman and causes all sorts of problems for herself and others.

Review: I think possibly part of the reason I so enjoyed this movie was that I was expecting it to be really stupid and juvenile. Weird sadomasochistic guy dismembers attractive women with a hook in the ‘80s (okay, it was 1992, but that year was even more like the ‘80s than the actual ‘80s - I know because I was there).

But it’s actually a very interesting and scary movie. Scary in that special way that you don’t really notice when you’re watching it, but that freaks the hell out of you when you think about it later. After watching this movie, I thought very often about how much it would hurt to get disembowelled with a hook (I know, earlier I said dismembered, but disembowelled is probably more accurate anyway).

Seriously though. That would really suck, on so many levels. There is no way I am ever ever going to say ‘Candyman’ in the mirror five times. I’m okay with saying ‘Beetlejuice’ thrice, but not ‘Candyman’. Never ‘Candyman’.

However, Tony Todd is pretty majorly hot, and if you’re gonna get disembowelled by somebody it might as well be somebody good looking, right? (That statement is further proof that I may in fact be weird.)

Moving on. The movie is fairly restrained on the gore too which is a little hard to believe, considering the whole hook-disembowelment thing which I’m apparently a little hung up on right now. Please excuse me. At the time of this writing (approximately six thirty on May 31st) I was (or am?) very tired and a little dazed. Weirdness is me.

Moving on again. Um. The dialogue occasionally wanders into the territory of extremely creepy and weird (and not in a good way), my favourite example being the line, “The pain I will show you is exquisite” or some damn thing which sounds like the kind of retarded stuff they're constantly talkin about in Hellraiser, but that’s all good.

But yeah, the acting is good, the production values are fairly high, and it’s generally pretty mature. I mean, at the beginning it sort of does the teens-having-premarital-sex-and-getting-hacked-up thing, but it’s in a self conscious, referential sort of way so it’s funny. It’s also nice and disturbing so, yay.

This is probably one of my more favourite slasher movies.

Favourite Part: I dunno, it was all vaguely awful. I kinda liked all the cool graffiti that was around. It looked nice.

Other versions: None.

Sequels: Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (interesting title…) and Candyman: Day of the Dead.

Click here to read my original review (January 3rd, 2009)

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