Starring: Yahya Abdul-Marteen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, Kyle Kaminsky, Vanessa Williams, Brian King, Miriam Moss, Rebecca Spence
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 93 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2021
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Candyman is a legendary horror character, an American horror myth centred on Chicago. A sequel to the original Candyman, 1992, with a focus on African-American themes and racism.
Candyman was a popular horror film of 1992. It was based on a story by veteran horror writer, Clive Barker. Thirty years on, we now have a sequel. The Candyman story is a particularly American horror story. It is also a particularly African-American story, the main characters being African-American, with themes of white racism.
One of the distinctive features of this story is the use of puppet outline characters to illustrate and tell a variety of stories about the Candyman legends. (They are reminiscent of the Wayang puppet outlines used so effectively long ago in Peter Weir’s The Year of Living Dangerously.) They offer opportunities for characters to tell the story of the original persecution of a black man in the 19th century, his subsequent haunting. They offer opportunities for other stories about Candyman victims, as well as giving some continuity to the original film where Virginia Madsen was a research student, Helen, but whose story now is that she was caught up in the myth, becoming its victim, transformed, consumed in a fire but saving a young child.
To illustrate the story, there is an episode from the 1980s, a young child encountering a Candyman who offers candy – and the police swooping in to attack the Candyman. Now, this child has grown up to be a janitor, William Burke (Domingo).
The setting is Chicago. An area called Cabrini Green, a black neighbourhood last century, then pulled down, rebuilt and gentrified, a white presence rather than a black presence. We are introduced to the central character, Anthony McCoy (Marteen II), an artist, living with Brianna (Parris), a gallery manager. He is running out of inspiration but ambitious for a show – and listens to a story told by Brianna’s brother, the story of Helen and the Candyman. Which leads him to go to Cabrini Green, to find inspiration, to explore the story, and has an encounter with Burke. While there, he is stung by a bee, bees associated with the Candyman story, and his hand becomes infected, the infection growing up his arm towards his face.
The mythology of Candyman spreads, chanting his name five times in front of a mirror – with dire consequences, especially for a group of schoolgirls who experience Candyman’s vengeance.
The film shows the torment of Anthony, fearful of mixing with people, the death of his art critic friend, the fear of his partner, his visit to his mother and discovering his identity (the baby saved by Helen), a visit to William Burke who wants Anthony to be the current Candyman.
As said, the appeal to it as an American audience, especially an African-American audience, but offering horror conventions to those who enjoy this kind of legendary exploration.
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