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Fresh (28)
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DVD (23)
Candyman is an uppper-register horror item that delivers the requisite shocks and gore but doesn't cheat or cop out.
Like so many post-Val Lewton horror films, this 1992 feature starts out promisingly while the plot is mainly a matter of suggestion, but gradually turns gross and obvious as the meanings become literal and unambiguous.
The film's spooky atmosphere is accentuated by Anthony B. Richmond's cinematography and Philip Glass's score.
Madsen is a much better actress than is usually found in such a role. However, if you don't like splashes of blood or bees swarming out of bodies, you may want to think twice about this one.
What I liked was a horror movie that was scaring me with ideas and gore, instead of simply with gore.
Candyman is atmospheric and visually stimulating enough to satisfy gore-hounds as well as being an intelligent social commentary.
Serious, straightforward cinematic terror is always hard to come by, but this literate shocker ranks among the best horror movies of the '90s.
One of the best sustained horror movies for some years.
Reheats old material and serves it as if it were bold and original.
The enduring resonance of Candyman, adapted and directed by Bernard Rose, has to do with its respect for and investment in specific and real events.
One of the best of the end-of-the-eighties/start-of-the-nineties body mortification films.
"Sweets to the sweet." And societal disgrace and hot, interracial, interspatial romancing to the smug.
The Candyman is a svelte, sexual monument, far removed from the silent brutality of your average serial slasher.
Very clever, well-made and unpredictable.
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