Candyman, Candyman, Candyman, Candy… No. Wait.

… Candyman surely needs little to no introduction, it is without doubt what most of the general public probably think of when they hear the name Virginia Madsen.

And if, for some inexplicable reason, they don’t know her name you can probably go with “she was the one in Candyman” and most people would get a sudden expression of realisation on their face, and hopefully remember the name Virginia Madsen forever more.

Candyman is a film from 1992, it was written and directed by Bernard Rose and taken from a short story by Clive Barker, “The Forbidden”. The Candyman himself is played by Tony Todd, the film follows the story of Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) as she investigates the mythos of various Urban Legends for her college thesis. As part of her research she comes across the Candyman story and the folklore around it.
The Candyman is given credit for a series of killings in the modern day, which seems preposterous to Helen.

The more she learns about the origin of the Candyman, the deeper she gets invested in the lore until she eventually meets the literal man, the myth and the legend.

At its core, it’s a slasher flick as was all the rage at the time. But it’s an intelligent one, it’s not simply a gorefest as many as its contemporaries were at the time. It’s got an underlying meaning behind it all which goes deeper than most.
Candyman, or should we call him Daniel Robitaille, isn’t a traditional monster in the true sense of the word, he was wronged and while he does seek his vengeance it isn’t without justification. I think many of the other “Slasher” flicks more or less all feature a protagonist who was “evil” before they became the monster.

Or at least the ones that instantly spring to my mind at least, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers – I’m not sure if that’s just my age showing there though – The newer wave of ‘Slasher’ movies don’t seem to follow the same tropes.

As Virginia Madsen herself told The Moving Picture;

“I think it would be different if Tony Todd’s character were a monster. But he’s not a monster — he’s a phantom. He is like Dracula, a romantic phantom. He’s beautiful, he’s seductive, he wants you to join him in immortality.”

Not going to lie – I don’t know how much I can add to the whole ‘Candyman’ thing here, and I don’t know if I even want to after going deeper into search results than I normally would while researching this. I mean, wow… There are some interesting takes on it out there.
Hell, after reading some of the stuff about the film and its implications I’m not even sure I’m qualified to write about the film on a site about collecting other films from one of the actresses in it.

And, that’s all this site is – So, I’ll leave those conversations and observations for another site on another day.

As for Virginia Madsen as Helen Lyle? Spot on. While there is no doubt that the film would have seen the same levels of success without her, I do genuinely think Candyman does benefit from having someone of her caliber play this lead role. It’s pretty well known at this point that the way Bernard Rose directed some of the scenes in Candyman was unconventional to say the least. In the scenes which have Candyman and Helen together, Virginia would be hypnotised beforehand which kind of gives it / her an ethereal quality for want of a better way of putting it.

Is it worth a watch if you’ve never seen it? – Well, yeah – Candyman has its detractors and was originally released to mixed reviews but I think over time more and more people have come to appreciate the film more than ever. It’s often referred to as one of the best adaptations of Clive Barkers work on film.
The Candyman legend would continue in two direct sequels, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) and Candyman: Day of The Dead (1999) and more recently a fourth entry into the franchise reverting back to the original title Candyman (2021) which could be considered both a reboot and a sequel.

It’s almost a shame that the Helen Lyle character wasn’t followed up on, properly at least. I used to harbour some hope we’d get to see Virginia Madsen reprise the role at some point, but I think even I have to admit that it’s very unlikely at this point.

Availability:

Yeah, I think if you walked far enough you could literally trip over a copy of this film in one form or another. Freely available on DVD and Blu-Ray at the time of writing, with a special 4K release from Arrow Video also kicking around quite freely still.

Gallery:

Trailer:

Press Kit:

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