Films: 1990s
(1992) Candyman
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Candyman
Director: Bernard Rose
Release: 1992
Clive Barker, the begetter of "dark fantasy" lends his imagination to yet another cinematic nugget, around which he and co-author Bernard Rose spin the story of "Candyman."
In "Candyman," protagonist Helen Lyle, played by Virginia Madsen, is also co-narrating her thesis, examining urban legends with on- screen partner, Bernadette (Kasi Lemmons), who reluctantly caves under Helen's appetence for discovery and becomes hooked on perusing a tenacious legend.
When the duo interview students about common urban legends, one specific legend seems to have more tangible credibility due to its local prevalence.
Candyman's legend lurks in Chicago's Cabrini Green, where the image of an African-American man has been known to appear in the bathroom mirror, "breathing down your neck" as he gashes the victim's body with a swift wielding of his hook arm.
Helen's investigation into Cabrini Green Condominiums reveals that the project lost its momentum during construction, earning it one of the city's most notorious reputations and offering substandard living conditions. One of these conditions is the units' unsecured connection to each other through the back of their bathroom medicine cabinets. Such are the portals through which Candyman (Tony Todd) approaches his victims.
Against the ominous notes of Phillip Glass's score and unwrapping the mystery of Candyman's myth, Helen finds that Candyman's life was also abrupt.
After achieving the American dream of opening a shoe factory, Candyman, the son of a slave, peruses an intimate relationship with a white woman whom he impregnates. When the family and friends of Candyman's lover find out about her predicament, they find the culprit, cut off his right arm and smear his body with honey as an offering to bees. After this excruciating lesson, the antagonist becomes a wondering soul; forever in pursuit of what was robbed from him in his youth.
In her ensuing visits to Candyman's dilapidated ruins, Helen forms a bond with the tormented villain. He attempts to mesmerize her with his deep voice. Helen, helpless against Candyman's sweet spell, loses consciousness and consequently cannot account for her actions or location when the police discover her at a murder scene. Eventually, she is taken to a psychiatric hospital where she is observed by the medical staff. She physically struggles against an invisible force; strapped to a bed in an isolated room.
Candyman pleads with Helen to believe in him, as her admission to his existence is what propels his legend. Candyman appears to Helen as if there are no structural boundaries except for that of Helen's imagination. When she escapes from the psychiatric hospital and inspects Candyman's elaborate artwork, Helen realizes that she is, in fact, the other missing piece of the murderer's puzzle. She is the child held hostage in Candyman's decrepit den. She is meant to complete their once interrupted union.
While there is a certain campfire-story cllichés to Candyman's hook arm or the utterance of his name as a prelude to his appearance, other elements of urban fantasy in the film are less regurgitated. Barker and Rose incorporate subtle references to myths surrounding the plight of African-American slaves as they began to assimilate within the mainstream culture. Real racial disparity shoots through "Candyman."
The dilapidated Cabrini Green, for example, which in the movie is occupied by an impoverished group of African-Americans, who are themselves vulnerable to the threat of gang culture and violence.
Candyman's character is the embodiment of an undercurrent of racially charged sentiment and resentment. Certain racial issues, "Candyman" posits, remain unresolved in Western society. Metaphorically, they merely linger behind the very walls that flimsily conceal our society's true political infrastructure. In fact, during an early segment of the movie, when the articulate and brave Helen coxes Bernadette to revisit the perilous Cabrini Green, she comforts her cohort by insisting that Candyman does not exist and that he is a figment of people's imagination "attributing their daily horrors to a mythical figure." Nevertheless, behind the mirror, Candyman is real and waiting.
Interestingly, the physical reality of Candyman is left ambiguous. Perhaps Helen is indeed suffering from psychosis and capable of murder. The film's portrayal of the characters' point of view enhances this effect by constantly teasing the audience into doubting the existence of Candyman and the assumption that our ostensibly educated and landed neighbors, people such as Helen, could very well be devious. This dabbling in subversive thought, this toying with the idea that ordinary and intelligent people could be harboring fantastic monsters within, is what makes the film interesting and elusive to any definitive interpretation. What lurks beyond the mirror may be, in fact, what we see there in the first place.
Panteha Sanati
Cinescare Correspondent
Candyman, 1992
This dabbling in subversive thought, this toying with the idea that ordinary and intelligent people could be harboring fantastic monsters within, is what makes the film interesting and elusive to any definitive interpretation. What lurks beyond the mirror may be, in fact, what we see there in the first place.
