Nearly 30 years after "Candyman" first haunted moviegoers in theaters,
the hook-handed menace is back in what is being described as a "spiritual sequel"
from Oscar-winning "Get Out" writer Jordan Peele and director Nia DaCosta.
Here are the biggest unanswered questions the new “Candyman” may leave you with.
First, some backstory: In the 1992 film — directed by Bernard Rose and written
by Rose and horror maestro Clive Barker — Chicago grad student Helen Lyle summons the
vengeful spirit Candyman back to existence while researching a thesis on urban legends.
The spirit is Daniel Robitaille, the 19th century son of a slave who became
a successful artist commissioned by wealthy white families to paint their portraits.
However, when Daniel fathered a child with the daughter of one of those families,
he was gravely injured by a lynch mob who smeared him with
honeycomb — attracting a swarm of bees that stung him to death.
The 2021 version of "Candyman" examines the same tale, but with some new twists.
It begins in the early 1970s in the Cabrini-Green housing projects,
the same area where the terror in the original tale took place.
Now, however, the neighborhood is all but non-existent because Cabrini-Green has been
gentrified. Candyman is no longer Daniel, but Sherman Fields, a hook-handed man who hands
out candy to children in the neighborhood. Sherman is murdered in an altercation with
police during an encounter with a young boy named Billy Burke in an apartment building laundry room.
The adult Billy, who now goes by William, recounts the legend to artist Anthony McCoy,
who uses it as his inspiration for an exhibition at the art gallery where his
girlfriend Brianna Cartwright is the director. The exhibition tells the tragic tale of Candyman,
and how he can be summoned by people who look in the mirror and say his name five times.
While fans of the original film know the deadly outcome of such actions,
the new "Candyman" might leave you with a fresh set of unanswered
questions … some that actually have clear answers; others, not so much.
Since Helen died in the original "Candyman" movie, it's completely
sensible that her character might be brought back in flashback scenes in the new version,
which is technically a sequel, so where is she? Instead of using footage from the original film
or digitally de-aging Virginia Madsen to retell Helen's story, Nia DaCosta and Jordan Peele
creatively bring her back in different forms instead of conventional flashback scenes.
Helen's tale is first told through shadow puppetry, which DaCosta said at a press event
for "Candyman" presented her a creative option not to rely on flashback scenes.
For the most part, the director said, she wanted this movie to stand on its
own and not to rely too explicitly on the original movie. From there, she said,
"It just sort of became really less about flashbacks and more
about how we depict people telling these stories, how we depict these legends,
and also we depict these moments of violence throughout history."
Madsen does eventually appear in the film, very briefly, when Anthony sees an old image
of her in a newspaper report detailing how she was implicated in murders in the Cabrini-Green
neighborhood. Madsen's voice is also heard in tapes that Anthony gains access to in a library.
In a curious casting move, there's a tough, highbrow art critic assessing Anthony's exhibit,
Finley Stephens, who resembles a young Madsen. DaCosta said at the "Candyman" press event that
Spence's resemblance to the original film's star was by mere happenstance and not design.
"Surrender to me now."
"Candyman" wouldn't be the same without Tony Todd's involvement in the film in some capacity,
and yes, he does turn up in the film in a very meaningful cameo appearance,
but what role does he play? Since "Candyman" 2021 is a creation combining old and new ideas,
Peele and DaCosta went a different direction when it came to working in a major theme
of the film that was clearly inspired by the current climate and social justice movements.
Instead of Todd's Daniel Robitaille being featured throughout the film,
he is referred to by the adult Bobby as one of several to have suffered the same
sort of racial injustice that befell Sherman Fields, the iteration of the
Candyman featured most prominently in this new version. That's not to say, however,
that Fields is the only version of Candyman who appears in the new iteration of the tale.
Anthony develops burn-like lesions on his right hand after the ghost of Candyman materializes and
kills his first two victims. News outlets, naturally, detail the horrific incident,
and a reporter on the scene divulges to her audience the title of the exhibit,
"Say My Name." The reporter also refers to the painter as "rising star Anthony McCoy,"
much to the surprise of the artist, who is watching the coverage on television.
At that point in the film, it appears Anthony is consumed by the newfound fame the tragedy
has brought him, even though the murders are responsible for it. After the report,
he says, almost giddily, "say my name" as a way to embrace his notoriety.
So why does Anthony obsess over his Candyman exhibit?
Longing for more fame, his morbid curiosity in the Candyman legend deepens, and he begins
to do more research. And while Anthony suffers horrific hallucinations as a result, his obsession
continues to inspire more images as he parlays his initial creation into a larger exhibit.
"I feel really connected to this story."
What Anthony doesn't realize is that he has fallen under the spell of the Candyman curse
and is somehow tied to a tragic event involving the spirit decades prior,
which is fully revealed later in the film. By that point, though,
Anthony has entered the point of no return. His fate is sealed.
No, there isn't anything wrong with the projection, so what’s with the reversed logos?
The backward logos for Universal Pictures MGM, Bron, and Monkeypaw Productions at the beginning
of the film were done on purpose, presumably in an homage to Candyman lore. After all,
the spirit of the Candyman doesn't materialize in physical form, only in a reflection in the mirror.
The studio and Peele are clearly making a visual reference to the
legend by showing their logos backward, much like a reflection in a mirror.
Not surprisingly, mirrors appear everywhere in "Candyman." They are at Anthony's exhibit,
which is the location where Candyman kills his first two victims, and an elevator Anthony
takes in the library is made up entirely of mirrors. Brianna tempts fate by standing in
front of a mirror yet doesn't give in to her impulses — but a group of high school girls
laugh off the legend and say Candyman's name five times, and pay dearly for it.
As fans well know by now, saying Candyman's name five times in a mirror is what's needed
to summon the violent spirit. However, in the age of the social justice movement in
the U.S. over the past few years following the high-profile deaths of Black people across the
country during altercations with police, certain phrases now have greater meaning.
So what’s the significance of “say my name”? Calling on people to say the
names of the dead has become a prominent part of the public conversation in recent years.
"Throughout the making of the film, the thing that I always came back to was
the truth of the pain that was at the center of the story of 'Candyman.'"
In this way, "Say My Name" serves a dual purpose: it's the title of Anthony's exhibit — daring
patrons of his work to say Candyman five times to find out if the legend is indeed real — and
an artful play on the real-life phrases used to call attention to and memorialize the dead.
With a bloody third act that leads to the transformation
of a key character into the new Candyman,
Peele and DaCosta have left the door wide open for more "Candyman" films, but will we get them?
Naturally, the production of a sequel for any film is dependent on the box office success
of its predecessor, so the new "Candyman" will have to be a big enough hit with moviegoers at
the box office and on home video to justify Universal and MGM's investment in a sequel.
The good news for Peele and DaCosta is that "Candyman" was made for around $25 million,
a relatively small amount by modern standards. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic still wreaking
havoc on box office returns, the new "Candyman" shouldn't have much trouble making its money back.
As the 1992 version of "Candyman" demonstrated, there is more room for additional tales about the
character should Peele and DaCosta wish to move in that direction. The original film spawned two
sequels: "Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh" in 1995, and "Candyman: Day of the Dead" in
1999. Will this new imagining return for further stories? We'll just have to say the name and see.
"Shh. Don't. Don't say that."
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