Candyman

Borne of urban legend is the Candyman, part myth, part ghost of a wronged man, part sweet guy. With a bloody hook for a hand he cuts his way through folks he don’t like, looking for his sweetheart. All you gotta do is say his name into the mirror five times…

"Candyman"

That’s once…

Enter Helen, grad student at the local University researching urban legends for her big thesis. When she discovers a bunch of local murders attributed to this mythological man, she investigates, unleashing a wave of blood and horror upon everyone she knows. Mmm, sweeeet!

"Candyman"

Based on the Clive Barker short story The Forbidden and produced by the man himself, comes this derailed excursion into madness and mayhem. Whilst being removed from the original story (Helen studies graffiti in the book and discovers Candyman by chance) it still maintains a solid base in the original tale. With some creative ideas and a couple of extra subplots, this 37 page short is turned into a 95 minute blood spattered nailbiter. I was genuinely startled in some parts by this creepy thriller, and whilst not usually being a fan of the horror genre, I found this film a lot better than most of its ilk.

"Candyman"

Virginia Madsen puts in a convincing performance as the confused heroine, portraying strength and weakness all at once. This contributes to the overall feeling of mental decay as her character is pushed further and further beyond reason. There is a small cameo from everyone’s favourite Raimi brother Ted, and fine performances from Kasi Lemmons (Silence of the Lambs) as Helen’s best pal and Tony Todd as the sweetest guy of all. The special effects get a little Hammer-ish at times, with gouts of bright scarlet claret flying all over, but this adds to the fun. Nothing says fun like rivers of flying blood! The makeup is also fairly good, liberally hosing the dead people with yet more blood in the post-murder scenes.

"Candyman"

Okay, that’s four times. I’m too nervous to say it again.

It's a nice little transfer on this DVD. The 16:9 enhancement is sweet, giving full voice to the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Colours come across well, including the aforementioned gouts of blood, and all flesh tones are fairly nice. There are plenty of different skin colours in this film, and Tony Todd’s is about the only one who suffers in the photography. Whilst he is the baddie of the piece and this shadowing of his features may have been intentional, it gets a little disconcerting if he’s talking and we can’t tell if he’s speaking aloud or as a voice in Helen’s head. On the subject of shadows, some of these get a little grainy in parts, which isn’t great when a picture contains so many night/interior dark scenes. To most ends though, this film comes across well in the transfer, marred only occasionally by film artefacts. That’s fairly normal in a non-restored transfer, but there aren’t too many and they don’t impede vision at all. In fact, for a non-restored transfer this film looks pretty darn good.

Sound is only in Dolby Digital 2.0, but seems more than adequate for the film as a whole. The dialogue comes through clean and is mostly clear, but for the occasional mumble or gurgling scream. The sound effects are also okay – they only fail in one aspect, and that is my old nemesis of “stock footage.� I use this term to describe any part of a film they pinch from any other or a studio archive. In this case, there are a few familiar baby cries, stabbing sounds, blood splashes and fire cracklings. You can’t have everything, I suppose.

Music supports the action well, including that old horror film adage of coming in startlingly loud after tense silence, making you tear a chunk outta the seat with yer arse. This makes the music perfectly placed, because we watch horror films for a bloody good scare, don’t we? I remember going to watch the remastered version of The Exorcist when it was out in cinemas recently and the scariest part was a phone ringing after a tense silence. Worked a treat. (The rest of the film didn’t really do it for me. I did think the spider crawl was awesome though.)

It's not usual to get many extras on a horror DVD, but on this one we get the Theatrical Trailer plus director and main cast two page Biographies. Pretty informative, but filler really. There are also Umbrella Propaganda Trailers for two movies that don’t look anywhere near as good as our sweet, sweet Candy.

I’m impressed regarding the quality of acting in this horror film. The special effects are also fairly good, and whilst obviously low budget, the cast and director have made the most of what they had, making a film that will creep you out. Timing is so important in horror and this has been edited well to incorporate that into the finished product. As a Clive Barker fan from way back, and knowing how horrifically (geddit?) books make transitions to film in this genre, I am well pleased with how respectfully the original story has been dealt with.

Also, according to the credits, Steve Irwin was responsible for 'video playback'. Whilst this may or (most likely) may not be ‘our Steve’, it caught my eye and made me chuckle. Perhaps it was relief after this pretty good splatterfest.

"Candyman"

Oh, Crikey!