CANDYMAN (Rose, 1992)

CANDYMAN draws a line from slavery to modern segregation-via-public housing, and it's fucking great. Jan Harold Brunvald, believed to be the father of the term "urban legend", claims that these largely-orally communicated stories that we whisper around campfires have no basis in fact, but rather speak to our deep-seeded, collective fears about the Other. Writer-director Bernard Rose re-works a Clive Barker short story into a sort of dark American history, dealing with a murdered young black man (a former slave) who lives on in infamy, stalking those who dare to gaze into a mirror and say his name five times. Candyman is a story told to keep children from wandering into public bathrooms alone, to keep the babysitter from having her boyfriend over when the kids go to bed. In content and imagery, it seems to be a synthesis of "the Hook" and the "Bloody Mary" urban legends, which I'm sure we're all familiar with by this point. But the Candyman legend is original and written just for the film. In this sense, the filmmakers have attempted to create an entirely new urban legend.

And, best of all, it worked. Clive Barker has a commentary on the DVD and he talks about how people have approached him about the roots of the Candyman legend and how they heard a similar story ages ago. Barker created the legend just for the story.

Back to Grunvald (who Barker claims was the inspiration for the initial short story, "The Hidden"). CANDYMAN follows his logic; urban legends are really a literary manifestation of our unconscious fears and prejudices, a public purging of our darkest thoughts and biases. Rose, with this film, takes this to its extreme end, re-writing the history of the United States (based around the slave trade) and painting the entire country as completely and utterly racist and hateful. It's powerful stuff.

But there's plenty beyond subtext. There is some truly great gore to behold, and the image of bees swarming out of Tony Todd's mouth is going to stick with me for a long time, not to mention the sound of them crushing when his lips meet Helen's. Philip fucking Glass did the soundtrack, and it's great. I realize that this was pretty much disjointed and rambling, but I'll make it up to you in the future. Promise. CANDYMAN is a keeper, though.