Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An overlooked psychological thriller, June 6, 2004
Candyman starts out pedestrian enough. Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) is a graduate student attempting to wow her instructor while dealing with her cheating professor husband. Helen chooses the local urban legend Candyman to blow her teacher away. Being the detailed and dedicated researcher, she investigates the area where most of Candyman's victims are found; the Cabrini Green housing project. Helen and her fellow student interview residents of the rundown apartment complex, explore an abandoned apartment that has been transformed into a shrine to the title character, and form an unusual bond with a young, struggling mother (Vanessa Williams). All proceeds as one would expect until a murderer using the Candyman legend as a cover is caught by the police. Helen comforts a boy by telling him that the Candyman is not the boogeyman, just a bad man trying to scare and cause harm. This is the turning point of the movie. By destroying the boy's belief in Candyman, Helen invites the entity who describes his state as "to be but not to exist". Candyman is because others believe in him. Helen has destroyed this so he must now revive his legend and resuscitate belief in him. Helen encounters him in a parking garage where he commands her to "be my victim". The next thing she knows, she is lying in the young mother's apartment next to her dead dog with a bloody knife in her hand. From this point Helen descends into madness with murders and a kidnapping surrounding her while her husband's cheating ways are revealed. Eventually Candyman asks Helen to join her in the non-existence of legend. To save a child, Helen agrees and sacrifices her life so the child might live. The worst thing about the movie is a rather cheesy ending that confirms Helen's entry into Urban Legend-hood. Candyman is a well written thriller. It's overabundance of gore overshadows the existential elements. All the actors perform their parts with aplomb. Virginia Madsen is more than believable as a woman on the edge of a breakdown, while Tony Todd was born to play the Candyman. His tall and imposing stature combined with a deep and creepy voice can be truly unnerving at times. Forgive the ending and you have a great horror film.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The one horror film of the 90's that truly deserves 5 stars, June 23, 1999
By A Customer
Clive Barker's Candyman was one of the finest horror films I have ever seen and one of my personal favorites. Writer-director Bernard Rose does an excellent job of adapting a Barker story into a masterpiece film that not only provides chills and scares, but also many issues of racism and vengeance.The movie begins with a student telling Helen Lyle, played by the beautiful and extremely talented Virginia Madsen, an urban legend about Candyman. You have to say his name five times in the mirror and he'll appear and split you from the groin up. Helen is writing a thesis on urban legends and is particularly interested in Candyman because of how so many people believe in it. She and her friend, Bernadette, decide to go investigate an apartment complex that was the site of murders that Candyman could be responsible for. That's when a series of murders begin to occur and Helen must try to figure out what's actually going on. Candyman is a rare movie in the nineties that mixes style with ideas. One of the film's most disturbing scenes is when Virginia Madsen is drenched in blood, and is forced to strip her clothes off in front of a police officer. Subtle scenes like that are harder to take than senseless bloody murders in slasher flicks. The acting in this film is also very noteworthy. Madsen's performance is one of the best I've ever seen in a horror film, easily rivaling Ellen Burstyn from The Exorcist. She begins the film as a non-believer, but is converted when she becomes the target of Candyman. By the final third of the film she must decide whether Candyman is real or if she is going insane. Madsen is convincing through all these changes, and she certainly deserves more roles in films these days. Tony Todd also delivers a fine performance as Candyman. Add to the film great writing, directing, and soundtrack and you've got an instant classic. The film provides many questions. Where did Candyman come from? Is he actually real? Candyman's ending is nothing short of unpredictable and surprising.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best horror film of the 90s., August 10, 1999
By A Customer
Scream comes close, but the comedy element of that film seems to fit in another genre, horror-comedy maybe. Candyman, on the other hand, is TRUE horror yet belongs in a category all it's own. Besides being downright scary as hell, it's an excellent FILM. Everything from the sound to story pacing is tight and extremely effective, and I have to agree with what someone else here said: Philip Glass' score is so subtle and creepy, it's PERFECT. I can't understand people who don't see the pure beauty of this movie. If you like horror like I do, you should really see this film, maybe even more than once. I saw Candyman in the theater back in '92 and I walked out shaken and completely freaked out. I couldn't look into a mirror for a few days. The only other horror films that have had that effect on me were Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Even though of course I'm not as scared when I watch it now, I can appreciate the skill in which it was crafted and still be swept up in the fantasy this movie creates. Then again, if you're into crap like I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2, The Faculty, and other trash-horror, you may not appreciate something of this caliber. As for anyone else, it's really is worth checking out.
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