Candyman (1992) – What Happened to This Horror Movie?

The What Happened to This Horror Movie series looks at the 1992 Clive Barker adaptation Candyman, starring Tony Todd

It always hurts when one of our legends passes away. Wes Craven, George Romero, and Tobe Hooper were 3 of the big 4 that horror enthusiasts grew up watching. While the movies that came out close to the time of their passing never matched up with their all-time classics, but it was always a shot to the gut when they were suddenly gone. Actors are no different and while Tony Todd has over 240 credits to his name, Daniel Robitaille, The Candyman will always be his most recognizable and terrifying character. The movie was a success and set off a small franchise and larger than life character but who was almost cast as the titular hook wearer and how did Todd feel when he had to pass the torch? Get in front of a mirror and say his name 5 times as we find out what happened to Candyman.

Clive Barker is no stranger to working on projects both original and adaptations but when he released his seminal Books of Blood in 1984 and 1985 it was just an outlet for his creative freedoms. His first movie would be Underworld in 1985 but his first adaptation, and one that he hated, would be Rawhead Rex in 1986. While he would direct a few of his own works like Hellraiser, Nightbreed, and Lord of Illusions, one of his most famous adaptations would be written and directed by someone else. The Forbidden, one of the short stories included in volume 5 of The Books of Blood would eventually lead to Candyman in 1992. The film follows Helen Lyle who is a student of semiotics, or the study of the meaning of signs, who finds herself obsessed in the Cabrini Green housing area of Chicago when she comes across the legend of Candyman. Candyman is a figure who terrorizes the area and used to be a beloved painter in the 1800s. unfortunately for Daniel Robitaille, he was also black, the son of a slave, and in love with a white woman who he would later impregnate. The local lynch mob would capture him, cut his hand off, and have him killed by bee stings.

Helen investigates further, which leads to a series of murders that connect to her. Candyman attacks her but kills her friend, psychiatrist, and even a dog in the projects she was investigating. Helen bargains with the spirit and eventually dies while saving a young boy named Anthony. While she didn’t actually commit any crimes, her legend is placed right along that of Candyman’s, and she even comes back as a vengeful spirit herself to take the life of her former husband. The movie greatly expands on the short story which is fewer than 40 pages. This is because a writer by the name of Bernard Rose read the story that discusses the poorer sections of Liverpool and transposed it to the racially charged streets of Chicago. He found Cabrini Green with its high crime and violence rates and was fascinated that it was also surrounded by higher end areas so he could have his main character feel safe while still investigating. From this premise, Rose was able to not only make the character of Candyman black, but also give him a backstory that Barker willfully left out. Rose was able to deftly mix the racial tensions of the new area and add in a biracial love story to the proceedings that give the film a timelessness.

Bernard Rose was born in London so the change from Liverpool to Chicago may seem strange at first but while the original story does deal with segregation, Rose fell in love with Cabrini Green and the fact that it was an area that had people just trying to live their lives. The characters in his film would end up being much more afraid of the legend of Candyman more so than the fear of crime or anything else inside their homes. Rose had been a steady director for years before getting the chance to do this film, but he doesn’t have a ton else on his resume that jumps out. He will always have Candyman though. He even battled some of the controversy the movie created head on. He was asked to appear before the NAACP who after reading the script joked that they were unclear as to why they were even having this meeting. They thought it was all in good fun and openly asked why a black man couldn’t be a ghost, Jason Voorhees, or Freddy Krueger. It would have been more offensive for someone to say a person of color COULDN’T do that.

The script generated a ton of excitement and came out of a chance meeting between Barker and Rose after Barker had finished adapting his own work into the movie Nightbreed. Both Virginia Madsen and Tony Todd both lobbied hard to get roles and while both would end up as integral parts of the film, it was almost very different. Madsen was originally going to play the part of Bernadette but when the story and production moved to Chicago, it was decided to swap and have Bernadette be played by a black actress. That actress was Kasi Lemmons and Madsen thought she was out of a role. The original actress for Helen that was chosen was Alexandra Pig who happened to be married to Bernard Rose. When she found out she was pregnant however, she dropped out which allowed Madsen, who was good friends with Pig and the writer/director to step back into the movie and into the main role. Had Madsen not wanted to or been unable to perform, the role would have been offered to a relatively unknown actress named Sandra Bullock. Candyman himself was almost VERY different with Eddie Murphy being the first choice. He was seen as too small, and the 6-foot 5-inch Tony Todd was able to step in and take the part. It was Todd who came up with much of the character’s backstory as well.

Part of the movie, 3 days to be exact, was actually filmed in Cabrini Green with plain clothes police officers accompanying the cast and crew. While it was difficult emotionally, both Madsen and Todd found a lot of value in it. According to some sources, local gang members were also used as extras to broker peace on the filming location. The same team that supplied the effects for Backdraft were tasked with creating the massive bonfire at the end of the movie which also happened to take place in Cabrini Green. For the portrayal of Candyman, Todd wanted to play the character like a quote “Primeval Boogeyman” and originally wanted an eyepatch to go along with his hook. This is also why his footsteps make no sounds on film so that he has an air of the supernatural firmly around him. Todd worked with effects man Bob Keen in crafting the look of Candyman. While the eyepatch was a no go, another change to the character was the right arm. At first, Keen wanted it to be a machine-controlled effect, but it was too clunky and also difficult for Todd to work with. That was changed into a hook that Keen crafted over the course of 3 hours and overall, it was decided traditional, practical effects were to be used rather than early computer or optical ones.

Speaking of practical effects, the bees that have become so famous and tied to the character were very real. The production hired Norman Gary as the bee handler and Gary was no stranger to being trusted. He was the man behind the scenes on such famous movies as The Deadly Bees, Fried Green Tomatoes, and My Girl. Over 200,000 honeybees were used in Candyman, and they kept them calm with a simulated Queen Bee pheromone. Most of the rest of the cast and crew also wore protective gear around them. I saw most because Tony Todd went all in. He was able to secure in his contract that he would be paid $1000 for every bee sting he got. He used a dental dam to stop the bees from going down his throat but that is, in fact, all Tony Todd in the famous scene of the bees in his mouth. Virginia Madsen on the other hand, needed special bees that would not sting as she had a deadly allergy to them but still wanted to do the scene where the bees go from Candyman to Helen.

Further effort went into the relationship between Helen and Candyman and that included the relationship between actors Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen. With Rose seeing this as very much a love story, he had the two actors take ballroom dance classes together so they could become more intimate with each other in the hopes that it would show up on screen. For the interactions between the characters, Rose wanted to avoid the typical final girl screaming hysterically when in the presence of the killer, so a hypnotist was brought in. This process took about 10 minutes to prepare prior to filming the scenes and Madsen would be placed into a trance like state via a word that Rose, and the hypnotist would come up with. One final character that gets lost in the shuffle of Candyman is the iconic score. Academy Award nominee Philip Glass provided the score and even though he didn’t care for it at first, it has grown on him. It was instantly so frightening that young actor Dejuan Guy ran out of the screening during the credits after he saw his name.

Candyman would be released first in early September 1992 at the Toronto International Film Festival followed by a wide release on October 16^th. The movie was hated by its main producer, at least until it was a success. It made nearly 26 million on its 8.5-million-dollar budget and had mostly good audience and critical scores. It has a 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 61% audience score. The team of Siskel and Ebert were split with Siskel likening Candyman’s outfit to a Blaxploitation Pimps get up while Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 stars and appreciated not only the acting, but that it presented “Scares and gore instead of just gore.” This would lead to sequels that followed the laws of diminishing returns with Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh being more expensive and only bringing back 13.9 million and Candyman 3: Day of the Dead being made for only 3 million and going straight to video.

Todd was able to play the titular character in those first two sequels but when the long dormant series was set to come back with the involvement of Jordan Peele. Nearly 20 years after the release of the first movie Todd would say of Peele: “I know he’s a fan. I’m hoping I will appear in the film in some form of fashion. Wouldn’t that make sense? But, it’s Hollywood so I won’t take it personally if for some reason it doesn’t work out.” “If this new one is successful, it will shed light back on the original. I think the subject matter is more important than any individuals and I mean that.” When it was announced that another actor would play the villain, ever the class act Todd would say: “Cheers to Candyman, a wonderful character that I’ve lived with for 25 years. He’s brought grace and glory and a beautiful boatload of friends & family. I’m honored that the spirit of Daniel Robitaille & Cabrini-Green rises again. Truth to power! Blessings to the cast & crew”. Thankfully Todd would indeed come back to that project and play his most famous character just one last time. Thank you, Tony, for everything.

A couple of the previous episodes of What Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!