Using ideas and gore, Candyman rips onto the screen to scare viewers


onestar.gifonestar.gifonestar.gifhalfstar.gif Candyman

Once in a while, a writer will get an idea to write a horror movie. Actually, it's probably every day. However, when one is written so well, it usually doesn't do very well in theaters. There have been some exceptions to this rule: Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street (Part 1 and maybe New Nightmare), and Psycho, just to name a few. Candyman is written very well and I hope that it does well at the box office because instead of being just another gory, horror film, it is a movie with an idea and that is what scares us.

My guess is that it will do well at the box office. This movie is scary enough to draw viewers back to see it again. Candyman is about an urban legend that supposedly comes to life because so many believe in it. But is that what it really is about? The real idea behind the movie is much more scary than that. Could it be a man using the Candyman myth as a front? Or maybe Candyman is really a supernatural force, out to draw revenge on unsuspecting, innocent bystanders.

Candyman opens with a telling of a ghost story where Candyman appears behind a girl and kills her. People think it is a real story, but Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen, who plays the part wondefully) is skeptical and thinks it is another Candyman myth. She and her friend, Bernadette Walsh (Kasi Lemmons), study about Candyman for a lesson on myths for a college class. After they hear of Cabrini Green, where Candyman is supposed to be located, they travel there to look around the building.

While there, they talk to a Anne-Marie McCoy (Vanessa Williams) who tells them about a murder that occured in an apartment just down the hall. They go into the apartment and straight into the bathroom. The sets are spooky and dark which add a great deal of suspense to the movie. They find a passage way through a cabinet behind a mirror. Helen believes that the Candyman is a real person using the myth as a front, so she goes back to investigate the home of Candyman.

What she finds out is much more scary than what she first thought. Candyman is a real myth, but somehow, it is real. To prove that it is really false, she and Bernadette say Candyman's name five times into a mirror at her apartment. Nothing happens and they know the truth, or do they? Candyman is smart and knows how to play it safe. Halfway through the movie, we catch our first glimpse at Candyman (played by Tony Todd). He frames Helen for the murder of a dog and the kidnapping of a baby.

The gore is poured on here which is pretty graphic. However, it is not the gore that bothers us, it is the idea that Candyman is really a supernatural being trapped in mirrors that whenever you say his name five times into one, he appears and rips you "from your gut to your gullet." (I have tried this, and it doesn't work) The music is an eerie organ music. It has some vocal parts in it and brings even more suspense to the film. It provides some of the best music I have heard in a horror movie ever.

The performances are good, especially Virginia Madsen's, who turns a pessimistic look at a myth into an "I-know-everything-but-no-one-will-believe-me-now" performance. Tony Todd, as Candyman, scares the crap out of us. He stands tall and has this evil look around him, and with that hook for a hand, he brings Candyman to life. The only problem with this movie is the amount of gore that shows up in the last half of the movie. But the movie was scaring us with the ideas, not the gore.

Candyman is rated R. There is plenty of gore and violence (perfect for the die-hard horror fans) and some nudity. There actually isn't that much language but the movie is more of a visual experience. Because of the extreme gore, don't take kids to see this movie, unless you want them having nightmares about it. What I believe though is that kids will have more nightmares over the idea instead of the gore. And so will you.


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