Gather ‘round the bonfire, kiddies, because the moon is out and the bees are buzzin’. This tale of blood and honey ain’t got nothing to do with Winnie the Pooh. Oh no. This story happened thirty long years ago in the 1990s when horror was dying in camp and circumstance.
Horror goes through these cycles, ebbing and flowing but constantly growing. There have always been horror films, but the ones that stick to your ribs and can’t be cut out with anything but a bone saw come in waves. But sometimes, a horror film is so groundbreaking that it breaks the chains of its release date and becomes a seminal classic. Kind of like an alligator flushed down the toilet, it grows in the underground and becomes a film of legend.
And that’s where we find Candyman.
In the depths of Clive Barker’s Books of Blood Volume 5, the short story ‘The Forbidden’ was published in 1985. The story of a young graduate student studying graffiti at Spectre Street Estate, public housing stricken with daily crime and secretive residents, struck a chord with British Director Bernard Rose. Having mainly directed movies for the BBC and some music videos, he had developed a distinct style and reputation. He had even collaborated with Jim Henson on The Dark Crystal. He was a director on the rise, and that’s when he was approached for a Clive Barker adaptation.
But, initially, it wasn’t about ‘The Forbidden.” He was approached to adapt “In the Flesh,” another story from the same volume. Barker’s reputation as a master of horror had been firmly cemented a few years prior with Hellraiser (1987). And while “In the Flesh” is the iconic story of that volume, Rose concluded it was “impossible to make” due to how much of the story happens in relative darkness unsuitable for the screen. Rose, who had manifested a relationship with Barker, approached him about “The Forbidden,” and the adaptation began.
For Rose’s script, he moved the story from Liverpool to the North-end of Chicago. Struck by the societal contrast and prejudice in the city, he soon found Cabrini-Green — a very real housing project that garnered an infamous reputation for its crime and gangland culture. He desperately wanted to go against the tropes, keeping the story rooted in those real people dealing with unforgiving circumstances.
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Playing with the ideas of collective belief, how the very act of word-of-mouth storytelling can compel a being into existence, Rose took Barker’s graffiti student and developed Helen Lyle, an empowered, sharp woman writing a thesis on urban myth. With her friend Bernadette, she comes across the legend of The Candyman, who will gut you from head to groin if you say his name in the mirror five times.
After learning of a recent murder at Cabrini-Green and the residents’ belief in the Candyman legend, the two investigate. Determined to separate fantasy from reality, Helen embarks on an investigation of how cultural segregation precludes these urban legends, only to discover The Candyman is terrifyingly real, and he’s set his sights on Helen.
The script, penned by Rose, garnered much attention at casting studios. Despite being considered a “low-budget horror film” with a production budget of $6 million, names like Sandra Bullock and Eddie Murphy made the shortlist. Ultimately, Rose kept Helen in the family and cast his wife, Alexandra Pigg, with Virginia Madsen in the role of Bernadette. But Madsen was booted in favor of Kasi Lemmons. A struggling actress, Madsen was still looking for new work when Pigg became pregnant and got the call to come in to play Helen Lyle. And with that twist of fate, Madsen defined her career in a role she is still most recognized for to this day.
Rewatching the film now, it would be hard to imagine anyone else playing the brilliantly fearless Helen. More Ellen Ripley than Sally Hardesty, Helen is the evolution of a final girl. She carried entirely her own agency over the events of the story with captivating grace and compelling spirit. You never want to scream, “don’t go in there!” because you believe in her actions and the reason for them. Virginia Madsen elevated the character through to the climax without screaming once.
Equally as important was finding the titular Candyman, and the rumor that has circulated for many years is that all eyes were set on Eddie Murphy, but his star-level asking price was too high. In 2021, Bernard Rose told Den of Geek, “If Eddie Murphy had wanted to do it in 1991, it wouldn’t have even been a discussion, it would have just happened. Yeah, that’s not even a tiny bit true.”
Rose goes on to share that only one man was ever in consideration, the man who would ultimately become Candyman and certified horror legend: Tony Todd. Mainly relegated as a TV actor at the time (genre fans recognize him as Worf’s brother Kurn on Star Trek: TNG and later Deep Space Nine), Todd stood over six feet tall with an athletic build perfect to create the striking visage of legend made flesh with a deep, hypnotizing voice not to be forgotten. Rose tasked Todd with creating Candyman’s backstory, the kind of collaborative, experiential storytelling he would incorporate throughout the development process.
And though the meat and bones of the story were Clive Barker’s, Rose did an exceptional amount of research to complete the script. From visiting and befriending residents at Cabrini-Green (one of whom was adapted into the character of Anne-Marie) to digging up news articles about a bathroom mirror killer, Rose grounded himself in the truth of his location, knowing it was the only way to pull off the fantastic. And because of this attention to the truth of the locale, a story about social and cultural differences became a racial one, as well. More of a happy accident that Rose handles deftly, giving the actors agency over their characters and letting the location tell much of the truth rather than fabricating some grand moral idea.
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And it is because of these decisions that Candyman works on so many levels, both as a horror film and an exercise in social commentary. Because of this, producers were also concerned about the film’s depiction of race and racial stereotypes. Rose obliged by meeting with the NAACP. After reading the script, they told Rose, “Why are we even having this meeting? You know, this is just good fun. Why shouldn’t a Black actor be a ghost? If you’re saying that they can’t be, it’s really perverse. This is a horror movie.” And with their blessing, the film was released on October 16th, 1992.
Candyman took in a weekend gross of $5.4 million, just missing its budget. Ultimately, it would earn $25 million, revving its reputation as perhaps the best horror film of the early ‘90s. It was a film that’s horror was both in ideas and grue, building a psychological scare as much as a physical one. It burst through the bathroom wall and created an urban legend that would go onto three more sequels and eventually a kind of re-quel in 2021.
Candyman is synonymous with myth, full of vengeance and mystery, whose contribution to the genre hooked the cultural zeitgeist like a piece of warm meat. This urban legend graffitied with sign-o-the-times classist commentary is a legend in its own right and is arguably the best Clive Barker adaptation ever put to screen.
Alright, kiddies, now put out the bonfire and head to your beds. We’ll be back in ten years to talk about this again… because that’s how our favorite stories stay alive. And if you’re feeling really brave, go look into the abyss in your bathroom mirror and say his name five times.
No, not Candyman, you weirdos. I’m hoping for a visit from Tony Todd!
