Director: Bernard Rose
Rating: 6 out of 10
This was probably the pinnacle of early 90's horror, which isn't a good thing. Don't get me wrong, it's a good movie, it's just not great. It's basically a boogeyman tale with an antagonist in the same bloodline as Freddy Krueger: not alive, sharp object on one hand, can only appear in certain circumstances, was killed in a horrible way.
The movie follows an Illinois grad student who pokes around the inner city projects researching the urban legend of Candyman in order to write her thesis paper. Her premise is about urban legends and I suppose her idea is to debunk them and get to the root of why people believe in these myths. In taking such a stance, she assumes the role of cynic every time she hears someone recant a tale of Candyman. Well, we all know what happens to cynics in horror films. The Doubting Thomas' always come around, especially after a certain amount of blood and carnage. But, this film goes a little too long with her disbelief. See, the audience knows that Candyman exists within the film, it's not a mystery. So watching our lead constantly doubting each scenario gets tiresome, and frankly makes me dislike her. At what point do you actually yearn for Candyman to stick his hook in her stomach just so you get the satisfaction of watching her realize the dude's real? Maybe you shouldn't be so quick to dismiss.
There's some pretty cool imagery in the film, the most famous being both our protagonist and antagonist covered in live bees. No thanks. All in all, I didn't find the film to be very frightening. The main problem is Candyman's dialogue, uttered in a monotone voice-over kind of way that just sounds ridiculous given the words he's saying. The opening narration is probably the worst. I know this film scared me when I saw it many many years ago when i twas released, but in fairness I was 11 years-old at that time. It's a little disappointing that it didn't live up to my memory.
My other main problem is the useless sub-plot of her cheating husband. Completely unnecessary and distracting. The woman just got her best friend murdered, got locked up, watched Candyman rip open the shrink she saw in the penitentiary, escapes the place, and goes home to find her husband with another woman. The first 4 things in that sequence would have sufficed. The husband dating one of his college students: cutting room floor material!
That's all. I guess the scary thing was the Bloody Mary myth of saying his name 5 times in the mirror and you're dead. Don't say it and you're safe. Not too scary to me.
Next: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
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