Re-watching Candyman

Candyman was based on or losely inspired by a story by Clive Barker. I have never read the story but I have heard there are some significance differences. There is a new edition on Blu-ray, so this seems a good time to re-watch it. Also Jordan Peele has announced that he is working on a sequel.

Virginia Madsen stars as a graduate student named Helen studying urban legends and she hears the tale of Candyman. He was the son of a former slave and an artist but he was killed after he fathered a child with a white woman. Now the legend is if you look in a mirror and say his name 5 times, he will appear and attack you.

He seems to haunt the Cabrini Green Housing project in Chicago. This was a real place (I think it was torn down) and it might have been among the most infamous housing projects in America. At times it appears that Candyman is a product of Helen’s imagination but some things are happening that seem to contradict that.

Tony Todd is really good as the Candyman. He was a good voice and a good screen prescence. He later had a supporting role in the Final Destination series. He played the superhero Icon in the Young Justice animated series. Virginia Madsen was also good in this movie, she is believable even as her character encounters the supernatural.

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