Directed by Bernard Rose
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Virginia Madsen Tony Todd Xander Berkeley Kasi Lemmons Vanessa Williams DeJuan Guy Michael Culkin Stanley DeSantis Gilbert Lewis Marianna Elliott Ted Raimi Ria Pavia Mark Daniels Lisa Ann Poggi Adam Philipson Eric Edwards Carolyn Lowery Barbara Alston Sarina C. Grant Latesha Martin Lanesha Martin Bernard Rose Glenda Starr Kelly Kenneth A. Brown Caesar Brown Terrence Riggins Rusty Schwimmer Baxter Harris John Rensenhouse Show All…
Nigel Holland Michael Barry Ken S. Polk Charles Ewing Smith Ellen Heuer Joan Rowe Anne Pope Laura Fried Tommy Goodwin Tami Treadwell Greg Steele Sean Rowe Leonard Marcel Reinhard Stergar
Candyman : Le Spectre Maléfique, Candyman, El Dominio de la Mente, Кэндимен, Кондитер, Κάντιμαν, Clive Barker's Candyman, Candyman, el dominio de la mente, Candyman's Fluch, Candyman - Terrore dietro lo specchio, Şeker Adam'ın Laneti, O Assassino em Série, Candyman: El dominio de la mente, Kampókéz, 糖果人, קנדימן, Кэндимэн, O Mistério de Candyman, 캔디맨, El Misterio de Candyman, Кендімен, 腥風怒吼, مرد آبنباتی, キャンディマン, เคาะนรก 5 ครั้ง วิญญาณไม่เรียกกลับ, Sát Nhân Trong Gương, ქენდიმენი, Кендимен
Canada Toronto International Film Festival 
FinlandK-16 
USAR 
Germany18 
France16 
AustraliaM 
Brazil16 
UK18 
Italy 
Netherlands16 
Ireland18 
Hungary18 
Japan 
South Korea18 
Denmark15 
Sweden15 Netherlands16 Sweden15 UK15 Sweden15 Australia Brazil Canada Denmark Finland France Germany Hungary Ireland Italy Japan Netherlands South Korea Sweden UK USA 
white people love to say candyman five times and then get mad when they die like damn what’d you expect? a gummy worm? fuck off
Tony Todd's voice is the 8th Wonder of the World
Uses gentrification and academia in Chicago as an access point to the trauma of slavery being painted over in reconstruction, before jumping off into a moody urban folklore dream where historical pain is mythologized and martyred in the form of Tony Todd's Candyman whose incredible physical presence, reverberating voice and vicious acts of violence serve to draw (and heighten) his feelings of longing and rage into something tangible and fleshy. Between the excellent location work and Don't Look Now's cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond there's a lot of gorgeously grimy detail and texture to the images which amplifies Clive Barker's nasty writing (which shares a lot of Hellraiser's beautifully grotesque/perverse pain & pleasure elements) and Phillip Glass's beautifully dreamy score. Not quite…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Imagine dying for your thesis
would've left trevor in a heartbeat when candyman said come with meee
When he asks you to be his victim 💞🥺😩💦
90’s graffiti gothic Urban folklore loaded with subtext and oodles of everything that makes me love the first half of that decades horror way more than its much lauded second half. The grotesque Barker flourishes are gruesomely beautiful and startling, the Chicago setting and beautiful overhead shots works perfectly, the urban legend academia angle is equal parts interesting/disturbing, and that score is just to die for… the kind of hauntingly beautiful saccharine soundwaves that become legendary the second you hear it.
In a decade filled with some of my all time favorite genre jams, Candyman is perhaps My favorite 90’s horror film and a genre monolith if you ask me. The kind of movie that scared the hell out of me in my formative years and still manages to flex that terror clout almost 30 years later.
Special shoutout to all timer sleazeball Xander Berkeley—never trust a man who calls you sweetie pie.
Essential.
If Candyman was real I would simply just not say his name 5 times in the mirror 😌
candyman: be.... my victim....
me: yes
candyman: wait you’re not supposed to-
me: yes
I cant believe someone made a horror film about urban planning.
"You don't belong here."
Gentrified trauma.
There are big ideas in this movie. The generational legacy of racist trauma, the ways that trauma can embed itself in the ground itself, and the extent to which our world is built on the wreckage of that trauma. Unfortunately, they aren’t carried through the length of the film. By the third act, the ideas are largely jettisoned. What’s left is still a thrilling and terrifying supernatural slasher, but I think the movie could have gone to so many interesting places if the filmmakers had carried through on the premise. Still, I see why this is a horror classic. Start to finish, it’s one of the most compelling movies in its genre I’ve ever seen.
Addendum: Compelling argument here that the through line of the film is white liberal fear of the black underclass.
