Starring Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Vanessa Estelle Williams, Kasi Lemmons, Michael Culkin

(6-Good Film)

Grisly. Bizarre. Absurd.

 Candyman: They will say that I have shed innocent blood. What’s blood for if not for shedding?

A graduate student, Helen Lyle (Madsen), is researching urban legends in Chicago, eventually stumbling onto the story of Candyman, a vengeful hooked-hand spirit that kills anyone foolish enough to say his name five times. Her research leads her to the Cabrini-Green housing project as her own life becomes tangled up in the legend. Candyman gets pretty abstract as it goes along but its basis is relatable enough: a white woman’s fear of walking through the ghetto; our childhood fears of ghost stories. The film is pretty silly if you sit and dissect it logically. For that reason, I find the horror rather shallow. However, the imagery is memorable and, though I don’t believe in ghosts, I’m not willing to say Candyman five times into a mirror.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(911)