5 Times an Urban Legend
Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) and her friend Bernadette (Kasi Lemmons) are researching the power of urban legends amongst students, a subject which Helen's husband teaches at college. And as such they find themselves dealing with the legend of the Candyman who has a hook for a hand and it is said that if you say his name 5 times in a mirror will appear. As someone who doesn't believe in the legend Helen is intrigued when she learns that he is supposedly based in the near by infamous Cabrini-Green housing projects. But despite everyone warning her not to go there or investigate the Candyman she puts herself and her friends in danger to do so.
On the day "Candyman" was released I turned 20, very much the ideal age to watch the movie and remember being impressed when I first watched it back then. But like so many movies from my past my memory of "Candyman" ends up being better than it was when I recently got to re-watch it. It isn't that over the past 25 years "Candyman" has become a bad movie, trust me there are parts of it which are still shocking, but it is a case that it doesn't deliver the same intensity that I remember it once having. In truth as I watched various scenes of Helen getting herself deeper and deeper into uncovering the truth of the Candyman it seems to be going around the houses with some scenes which just feel slow and out of place which in turn makes the whole movie feel a little drawn out and slow going.
But as I said "Candyman" still has some powerful scenes and of course many of those are the horror ones be it scenes of Helen getting attacked or scenes involving the sinister Candyman with a bloody hook for the hand. But much of what makes "Candyman" still entertaining is the main casting rather than the storyline with both Virginia Madsen and Tony Todd making the movie. As such you have Virginia Madsen delivering this mix of being beautiful but also plucky with an almost thrill seeking side to her character as she isn't so much fearless but brave. But then you have Tony Todd who stands in that long leather jacket ominously looking like a man about discipline you and with that deep voice he makes for a terrifying, almost sadistic figure as he slowly moves that bloody hook up to his face.
What this all boils down to is that "Candyman" is still an entertaining horror with some scenes which still pack a punch. But this is again one of those movies from the past which isn't as good as memory serves and I hate to say this but is the sort of movie which would now be ideal for being remade for a younger audience.
