Candyman

Also a song: Candyman
The Grateful Dead
Words by Robert Hunter

     Come all you pretty women
     with your hair hanging down
     Open up your windows 'cause
     the Candyman's in town
     Come on boys and gamble
     Roll those laughing bones
     Seven come eleven boys
     I'll take your money home

     Look out
     Look out
     The Candyman
     Here he come
     and he's gone again
     Pretty lady ain't
     got no friend
     till the Candyman
     come round again

     I come in from Memphis
     where I learned to talk the jive
     When I get back to Memphis
     be one less man alive
     Good Mornin Mr. Benson
     I see you're doin well
     If I had me a shotgun
     I'd blow you straight to Hell

     Look out
     Look out
     The Candyman
     Here he come
     and he's gone again
     Pretty lady ain't
     got no friend
     till the Candyman
     come round again

     Come on boys and wager
     if you have got the mind
     If you got a dollar boys
     lay it on the line
     Hand me my old guitar
     Pass the whiskey round
     Want you to tell everybody you meet
     the Candyman's in town

     Look out
     Look out
     The Candyman
     Here he come
     and he's gone again
     Pretty lady ain't
     got no friend
     till the Candyman
     come round again

Reprinted with permissions: copyright Ice Nine Publishing - see Grateful Dead Lyrics

Beware, there be spoilers here.

The name of a movie and its sequels dating from 1992, 1995 and 1999 with just as many directors, and the main villain therein.

The story of Candyman, which was written to be a local myth, was about a black slave who fell in love with one of his master's daughters and got her pregnant. Quite pissed off with this conduct, his master forms a bloodthirsty mob who saw off Candyman's (Tony Todd) right hand, smear him with honey and watch as a swarm of bees sting him to death. A spectating boy catches a taste of the honey and says 'Candyman!' The name sticks. After the bees have gone and as he is dying, his master shows Candyman what a state he looks in his daughter's hand mirror. With his dying breath Candyman's soul escapes into the mirror which thereafter becomes the source of his power. (or so we think)

From that point on anyone who looks into a mirror and says 'Candyman' five times will immediately see Candyman appear behind him, his missing hand replaced with a barbed hook that he uses for stabbing from behind with, and his skin crawling with bees that he sometimes uses to swarm his victims with. All love that Candyman had in him when he was alive has dissipated, replaced with pure hatred for everyone.

With such a good background story you might think it would make for a blockbuster but quite sadly I think that the inverse is true. Even though Tony Todd does a good job of portraying Candyman I feel that the plotlines for the actual films are really bad. The first one essentially shows of a student 'unbottling the genie' (she just happens to be his great great great great grand daughter) and setting Candyman off on his killing spree. The other two are really about Candyman getting his descendants (his former master's daughter's descendants) to join him. The last installment even goes as far to commit that most cardinal of the horror genre and brings back the monster even though it was most certainly and absolutely slain in the previous film.

The first film was never anything on par with the likes of A Nightmare On Elm Street but staying on just the one film would have stemmed the crappiness just a little. Candyman does just as good a job as its 1980s cousin at going from bad to worse rapidly, however.