Candyman
Director: Bernard Rose Run Time: 99 min. Format: 35mm Rating: R Release Year: 1992
Starring: Tony Todd, Virgina Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons
Set in Chicago’s infamous public-housing project Caprini-Green, Clive Barker’s Candyman is a corporeal horror film that embodies racial and gender politics.
Skeptical graduate student Helen Lyle’s investigation of the “Candyman” urban legend – where a hooked-hand killer can be summoned by saying his name five times in a mirror – not only initiates a series of new unexplained murders but also ignites a realization that personal traumas can violently exist beyond the grave. With its inclusion of architectural connections and spiritual conversions (rooms within the projects are linked to each other and are from where Candyman emerges), Candyman destablizes and eviscerates the results produced when urban development and cultural politics collide.