A near perfect combination of the unsettling and disturbing work of Clive Barker, married up to the fantastical, otherworldly and surreally vivid imagery of Bernard Rose has here yielded a deeply unpleasent, but highly compelling work.
‘Candyman’ follows two university students Helen and Brianna, they’re studying folk legends as part of their final dissertation, when the pair stumble on one unique not just to their city, but unique to their immediate area. The tale of ‘The Candyman’ a folklore spread largely amongst the local black community about the son of a slave who grew up to become a famous painter who was brutally murdered by malicious slave owners who dissapproved of his relationship with a white woman with whome he fathered a child. The Candyman was tortured, had his right hand hacked off with a rusty saw, and was smothered in honeycomb and left to be stung to death, nude, in the boiling summer sun.
He swore his revenge and its claimed that anyone who says his name 5 times in a mirror and then turns out the lights will find themselves on the reciving end of Candymans hook. Helen and Brianna are sceptical, but…for fun, they try it anyway…And what can only be described as chaos unfolds for them, as a string of awful events begin to befall Helen culminating in her being accused of murder and kidnap of a young baby. Helens world spirals out of control and as the Candyman gets closer and closer to her. Helen begins to realise that there may be even more than she realised to the legend.
I remember catching this one years ago and kind of being a bit nonplussed by it. At the time i was on a Clive Barker kick, fresh off some of the Hellraiser films and ‘Candyman’ seemed like an extension of that kind of gory unpleasentness. So I put it in, and 97 minutes later, I ejected it fairly non plussed and quite dissapointed…I was a fool.
Because ‘Candyman’ is a wonderful examination of how legends and rumours can run rampent, how fear effects the psyche and how the boundaries of reality and something altogether more supernatural can be manipulated very effectively.
The script is a zippy 97(ish) minutes long, has a clean 3 act structure with which it transitions effortless between those acts. the pacing is excellent with new information thats almost always relevent being thrown at the audience constantly. The tone is wonderfully bleak, not just for its vivid imagery of impovrished black communities, but in a similar vein to ‘The Devils’ this is a film that revels on almost every level in showing just how awful things CAN get.
I was constantly in a state of being kept on my toes with this one, and even up to the closing minutes, I was hooked in finding out exactly what was going to happen next. The characters are all wonderfully written with deep rooted complexities that slowly reveal themselves as the film progresses. its got a exemplary ‘slow boil’ quality to it that gently works up the suspence and thrills to a fevered pitch, before leaving the audience to decide exactly what they’ve just witnessed and how much of it was real, and how much of it was Helens own manifestation.
The direction and cine? Pfft, this is the near perfect dovetail of Bernard Rose and Clive Barker’s creative zennith. Rose having just come from ‘Paperhouse’, one of the most visually stunning films of the late 80s, and Barker having just capped off ‘Hellraiser 2’ and ‘Nightbreed’. The pair were in their prime, and ‘Candyman’ is one of the most visually striking works I think either of the pair have ever produced.
Its a rich, grotty, dirty, sumptuous take on decaying suburbia, rich in set design, rock solid in style and tonal direction. GORGEOUS compositional choices throughout that do NOT shy away from showing the beauty in true uglyness. While I will say it would have been nice to have a bit more colour present here (a lot of this film is browns, blacks, moulding/festering greens and blues) I can absolutely appreciate this work for what it is, and Rose has used contrasting colours VERY sparingly here, I feel to great effect.
The edit keeps tremendous pace, utilises B-roll effectively and allows this thing to breath comfortably, without making it overstay its welcome. This is a film that I feel hits the EXACT sweet spot it needed to. Not too long that I feel it could have been trimmed, not too short that it leaves me really wanting more. It tells an effective story for EXACTLY as long as it needs to and then it gets out.
The performances are genre defining quite frankly, with Tony Todd absolutely OWNING the role of the ‘Candyman’ bringing a tremendous sense of power, sadness and vengence to the role that I dont feel any other actor could have quite mustered. he’s seen sparingly here, but that just means when he is on screen front and center, he’s an absolute powerhouse.
Vanessa Madsen as Helen is also astounding, getting a full range of emotions to work through across the runtime as shes REALLY put through the ringer. She nails almost every scene she’s in, is animate and Rose seems to have really given the cast the precise information they needed because every scene is astounding, its animate, lively, set space and props get used very effectively, its just a really sold work from the cast here, I honestly cant grumble.
And the soundtracks delightful too, It’s Phillip Glass, and barring one or two synth tracks (the opening titles in particular) where I feel the synth versions would have worked so much better with ACTUAL orchestral instruments. It helps set the tone of this picture perfectly and really acts as the bow on top of the present here, tying everything together beautifully.
‘Candyman’ is a rock solid production from start to finish, and barring a couple of scenes that felt a bit laboured to me personally, a ‘twist’ ending that hasnt aged too well (it reads more goofy now than terrifying) and a couple of dodgey synth tracks on the OST, it’s more or less faultless to me. HIGHLY recommended if you havent seen it before. My gut tells me to just stop at this one as its a great self contained story. But your milage may vary.
TYTD Reviews 