Candyman-- My take on the movie with spoilers!

 

PLOT SUMMARY: Anthony, who is an artist, becomes interested in the Candyman legend only to find himself in danger. 

Let's face it, we've at some point or another faced some form of discrimination.  It must have seemed innocent enough at first. Maybe you thought you were bring punished or ignored because you were being naughty. 

And then you realize you are being ignored or picked on repeatedly. It's not so innocuous anymore.

The older you get, the more unjust this begins to feel. And then comes the realization that there is a thing called prejudice and discrimination in this world and for some reason, some people will always be at the short end of the stick because they are not of the same race or gender or personality or looks...or whatever.

Candyman is more about the racial injustice against blacks than the urban legend it was promoted as.

Say his name five times and he will come out to kill you. Especially if you are not of a particular race and happen to tease a person of another race. Candyman will not endure anyone harassing a particular race of people.

CANDYMAN Movie Plot

Candyman begins with a boy going to the laundromat in Cabrini-Greens and passing by cops in a car. He suddenly hears humming and sees a man enter through the hole. He screams. The police hear his cries and come running over to him.

Years pass and we meet Anthony who is an artist. He's looking for the next inspiration for his artwork and finds it in the legend of Candyman and Helen Lyle as told by his girlfriend's brother Troy.

Anthony decides to look into the urban legend and goes to Cabrini-Greens. There he meets Burke, the grown-up boy from the first scene. He tells him about how the man he had seen and who was then hurt by the police. Apparently, the man used to give children candy until one day a white girl found a razor in her candy, and of course the man was accused and punished for it. However, when the incident with the razor candy continued, everyone realized that an innocent man had paid the price of someone else's crime with his life.

And now the man belongs to the Candyman legend and that if his name is said five times in front of the mirror, he would come out and kill the summoner. There should ideally be no danger of Candyman ever killing anyone then. But of course, in horror movies especially, people want to summon supernatural entities specifically to kill them.

Anthony goes out with this information, snaps a couple of pictures of Caprini-Greens, and then gets stung by a bee.

He finally manages to get his paintings ready for the exhibition at the gallery where his girlfriend Brianna works. Among the paintings is also a mirror where people could stand in front and say Candyman's name five times.

Anthony feels like he's created a masterpiece only for the critics and Brianna's coworkers to make fun of his viewpoints. Anthony comes with a comeback line and then walks away.

Later that night, two of Brianna's coworkers decide to get intimate in front of Anthony's artwork and go as far as to call Candyman in the mirror. The couple is promptly killed in a grisly manner.

The next morning Brianna enters the gallery and finds her dead coworkers. The incident makes news and Anthony's name comes up as well as his artwork and the legend he based it on.

When he visits an art critic, she tries calling Candyman five times in front of the mirror after she doesn't seem too impressed with Anthony. Candyman gets pissed he's not being appreciated and kills the art critic.

Next it is the high school girls who are bored of playing Bloody Mary because it is an ancient game now. They all position themselves in front of the bathroom mirror and call out to Candyman.

And then when an African American girl enters the bathroom,  they kick the door of the stall she's in to let the viewers know that they bully her. Now they could just be bullies, but the agenda seems that they pick on her because of her race.

Candyman immediately makes his presence known by pulling on a girl's hair before slaughtering all those who summoned him. The girl in the stall stays hidden while watching the murders in a compact mirror.

Anthony starts to go crazy with his obsession and his bee sting starts to start spread all over his arm.

He believes he is seeing Candyman everywhere. When he's in the elevator,  a candy drops down and when he picks it up, is instantly cut by the razor inside.

And then when his girlfriend calls him out for being too obsessed, and starts to call Candyman's name to show him its only a superstition and nothing else, Anthony breaks the mirror. The couple get into a fight and Brianna leaves to stay with her brother.

Anthony goes to meet Burke again who has a different story to tell another Candyman.

Turns out that in the 1890's Daniel Robitaille, a black artist, had an affair with a white woman. The interracial affair was looked down upon and he was chased down and had honey thrown on him which caused all the bees to sting him to death.

Burke believes Candyman is a symbol of racial injustice rather than a soul coming back for revenge. All the blacks who had faced injustice over the years have been entering the Candyman's "hive" after that.

After the injury from the bee sting spreads further, Anthony finally visits the hospital and learns that he wasn't born where he was told he was.

He visits his mother and finds out that he was the baby Helen Lyle had kidnapped and is then told that she was trying to save him as Candyman had picked him for a nefarious reason.

CANDYMAN Ending Explained with Spoilers!

Brianna decides to go and see Burke herself but is attacked by him who then takes her to an old church. He calls the police and pretends to be in trouble.

Meanwhile he has brought Anthony there too who is hardly aware of what is going on as the bee sting scab has spread. Burke is obsessed with creating Candyman and proceeds to cut off Anthony's hand and insert a hook.

Brianna tries to make an escape, has Burke chase her and then she stabs him. Anthony comes over to fall on her lap. The police arrive and the first thing they do is shoot Anthony in the head. They probably believe he's the prime suspect in the murders all around town considering it is based on his artwork.

Brianna too is taken into custody. The police officer wants to make a deal with her or have her imprisoned for being an accomplice. Brianna promises to do whatever he says, and have all the murders pinned on Anthony, if she can look at herself in the rear view mirror. The cop allows that and she summons Candyman.

Anthony, as Candyman, emerges and kills off all the cops. He then transforms into Robitaille who then urges Brianna to "tell everyone".

Tell everyone that Candyman is real? Tell everyone that the cops are corrupt and picking on innocent people because of their skin color?

Tell everyone so that the legend can spread and he can be exalted?

Candyman seems less of a horror movie and more of an agenda. Yes, there is racial injustice but not all of Candyman's victims were racists.

Candyman is a villain for killing innocents. The origin stories make Candyman a soul looking out for revenge. It was wrong to kill someone for having an affair with someone from a different racial background, or to suspect someone of hurting children without proof.

But in this movie, it seemed like Candyman was targeting all those who didn't like Anthony's artwork. If Brianna would have called Candyman before, would he have killed her? Because he sure didn't in the end when she did call him.

The legend of Candyman could have been about racism but this movie portrayed Candyman as an attention seeker who only wanted his name to spread but not the purpose of his being.

If they wanted to press on racial injustice, perhaps the focus should have been more on that and the killings too, centered around that. The only glimpse we see of this is in the last scene when the police unfairly kill Anthony.

Maybe it wasn't even about racism then. Anthony was the prime suspect, a call had been made to frame him. The police acted impulsively wanted to hide the truth.

So then what is Candyman all about?

Well, the movie is hardly a horror film and tries to hard to push social messages rather than focus on good storytelling which incorporates these messages well.

Candyman is unfortunately a very forgettable movie which is low on scares and pacing.

Scare scale: 2/5