Grimossfer
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Ginger
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Phillipa
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
Eric Stevenson
This slasher flick introduces us to a character that didn't quite get popular but still has some relevance. The Candyman is a villain who can be summoned by saying his name five times in a mirror. Oddly enough, he actually isn't summoned quite that much that way. I really do like this actor and especially love his deep voice. This is a film that knows how to create atmosphere. We get some really great music and a very unique approach to the genre. I admit that I'm confused as to why he's called the Candyman. He has nothing to do with candy at all.He attacks with a hook hand and uses bees. Nothing candy related there. At first, it seems like he's just an ordinary person but this was apparently just someone taking on his persona or something. The setup is very nice too. There's a lot of little things to notice in this movie, especially at the very end. I really love the early parts where they're talking about urban legends. It just sets up the film's mythology well. ***
capone666
CandymanBefore 1992, the only black male that would appear when you said Candyman was Sammy Davis Jr.But thanks to this horror movie, this hook-handed fella started showing up as well.A student studying urban legends, Helen (Virginia Madsen), stumbles across a character from inner-city folklore that emerges from mirrors and guts you with his hook if you say his name five times.Helen later learns that Candyman (Tony Todd) was a cultured African-American lynched in 1890 for loving a white woman - who looks like her. His ashes were scattered over the housing project he now haunts. Horror novelist Clive Barker's urban take on the Bloody Mary myth, this seminal slasher movie has a solid backstory of social importance. And while the scares are dated and the script stale, the villain is still iconic.However, the worst part of living inside of mirror is getting covered in puss.Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca
Predrag
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. 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! The plot of Candyman centers around a woman who is as much of an agnostic when it comes to the intangible world as one could imagine; she boldly pursues strides into the haunts of a malevolent spiritual force (the Cabrini Green Housing Projects in Chicago, which are dangerous enough without factoring evil spirits into the equation) in search of discovering the source of the legend of the Candyman, a man with a hook for an arm who can be summoned by repeating his name into a mirror five times. She is convinced, as any liberal pseudo-sociologist might be, that the Candyman is but a projection of the fears the urban poor have of gang/drug-related violence. The fact that there is a gang leader who has taken to calling himself the Candyman reinforces this conviction... However, midway through the film, there is a decisive rupture, and everything in Madsen's life begins to unravel at an alarming rate. The chain of events that follow a particularly frightening scene in a parking lot take on the logic of a nightmare that one is unable to escape from. Soon, everything we have come to know about the young woman we've been following, all of the connections she has to her friends, to her husband, to humanity in general seem to be undone. It would be unfair to describe exactly what happens, but let it be said that the final fifty minutes of Candyman are as frightening as anything I've seen on film.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. In a word, if you're a horror fan don't hesitate in getting this cult classic. Candyman really is prime-quality stuff! Overall rating: 8 out of 10.
sorinapha
First, let me just say I'm going to try very hard not to make a bunch of unnecessary hook puns. No promises, though.Anyway, I had two reasons for wanting to watch this film. Those were: a) the fact that it's reputed to be a superior horror film, and b) I'm a sucker for anything scored by Philip Glass. This film didn't disappoint on either front-- in fact, I would say it excelled. The score composed by Glass heightened every already suspenseful moment and Tony Todd shone as the Candyman, charismatic enough to enjoy, but still terrifying enough to satisfy the duties of an urban legend ghost-killer.Off to watch Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh now!
