One of the brightest spots in the relatively lackluster landscape of English-language 1990s horror, Candyman seemed to spring out of nowhere in 1992 as the first genuinely successful adaptation of Clive Barker not helmed by the writer himself. Barker's name still appeared here as executive producer, a credit he also bore on some of the Hellraiser sequels, but this one turned out to be something very special in the hands of writer-director Bernard Rose. A former music video director and Jim Henson protégé, Rose had already proven his genre credentials with Paperhouse, an eerie little cult favorite from 1988, and his sensibility proved to be a perfect fit here as he transposed Barker's Liverpool-set short story "The Forbidden" to the contrasting social and racial areas of Chicago.

The gist of Barker's story remains the same as we follow graduate student Helen (Madsen) and her friend Bernadette (future director Lemmons) on a research project about urban legends. A recurring one they begin to dig into revolves around Candyman, a hook-handed killer who manifests to anyone who says his name in the mirror five times. Much of the lore around Candyman seems to center around the dangerous projects of Cabrini-Green, where legend has it the real-life man behind the tale had his hand amputated and was executed (via a gruesome method involving bees) during the Civil War for his relationship with a white woman. A risky visit to Cabrini-Green puts the two women in contact with Anne-Marie (Williams) and her newborn baby, though Helen is assaulted in the process by a young man using Candyman's modus operandi. However, Helen soon comes to realize that the legend is not only very real but will have extremely bloody consequences in her life.

Loaded with potent surreal imagery and a hypnotic, unforgettable score by none other than Philip Glass, Candyman turned out to be a powerhouse of a showcase for Tony Todd, who plays the title character in the film and makes a commanding impression when he finally appears. Stepping in when producer choice Eddie Murphy(!) proved unavailable, Todd had already established his genre cred starring in the underrated 1990 version of Night of the Living Dead, not to mention solid dramatic chops in Lean on Me and Bird. As a result he became horror's first really iconic monster since the demise of the slasher era, a truly unnerving creation with a Gothic romantic streak that comes to the forefront in the final stretch of the film. He also proves to be ideally matched with Madsen, who has to go through a very turbulent string of violent plot developments far removed from the experiences of your average horror heroine. Not surprisingly, the film's success went on to spawn two sequels and frequent talk of a remake.

The video history of Candyman has been a very strange one compounded by the fact that separate studios owned it in the U.S. (Columbia Pictures, later Sony) and in Europe (Universal). It soon became obvious when the film hit video in both continents that different versions had been prepared, an R-rated one for U.S. exhibition and an unrated one at least in the U.K., both with identical running times to some substituted reaction footage of Madsen during the killing of the psychiatrist at his desk. The American VHS release was the usual R-rated version, but inexplicably, the stronger cut turned up on U.S. laserdisc as well as U.K. VHS. A special edition of the film eventually hit DVD from Sony in 2004 (in the R-rated version) featuring a real gem of an audio commentary with Rose, Barker, Todd, Madsen, Lemmons, and producer Alan Poul. A "Sweets to the Sweet: The Candyman Mythos" featurette (23m49s) sports interviews with the same five participants, while "Clive Barker: Raising Hell" (10m46s) is a more general interview about Barker's horror career and his expression via writing, painting, and directing. Bare bones DVDs and Blu-rays from Universal turned up in Europe and Australia, weirdly sporting the censored R-rated cut; a better German Blu-ray from Meteor Film turned up in 2016 featuring "Sweets to the Sweet," "Raising Hell," storyboards, the U.S. trailer, German video trailer, the original audio commentary, and DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 surround options in both English and German. The image quality on that release looks identical to the Universal except that it opens the framing up to 1.78:1 with a bit of extra information visible by comparison.

In 2018, tremendously expanded, two-disc Blu-ray editions of the film turned up in the U.S. from Scream Factory and in the U.K. from Arrow Video, both sourced from a new 2K restoration of the film (performed on a 4K scan of the original negative) supervised and approved by Rose and director of photography Anthony B. Richmond (Don't Look Now). The transfer is markedly different from the warm, bright look of past editions, pushing the blacks deeper and adding thick, blue day-for-night color timing to several nocturnal scenes. Most drastically, the "come with me and be immortal" scene between Helen and Candyman looks like it's taking place in the dead of night; check out the sixth image in the screen grab comparisons below. During daylight scenes color tends to be more rich and natural, with reds in particular popping nicely. More image info is visible in the frame, detail including film grain is accentuated nicely, and overall it makes for a beautiful, highly effective viewing experience. Both releases look the same, and in a nice touch, the first disc contains the R-rated U.S. version and the second has the unrated / U.K. theatrical cut (back in circulation for the first time in years) with the alternate shots slugged in from a good quality print. (Here's a sample of one of the offending frames.) The Scream Factory has DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 audio options for both cuts, with the Arrow opting for DTS-HD MA 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 on the U.S. and LPCM 2.0 only on the unrated; either way you can't really lose as the unnerving sound mix works great in any option (especially that parking garage scene). Optional English SDH subtitles are also provided. Both releases feature the original audio commentary as well as two new audio commentaries, starting off with a second go-round for Rose and Todd from the vantage point of two and a half decades later. The opening is really clever, and they keep things bouncing nicely as they cover more about bee wrangling, the state of the horror genre in the '90s and its attendant political leanings, the limited sound mixing options at the time, the film's relevance today in a different social environment, and plenty more. The second track with Stephen Jones and Kim Newman starts off with a heavy focus on Barker and his breakthrough approach to the genre through short stories. They touch on the source story for this film appearing before the publication of Books of Blood and explore the film's use of horror tropes as well as Rose's artistic approach to the genre.

On the video side, the new "Be My Victim" (9m46s), Todd discusses drawing influence from Lon Chaney, integrating the costume into the nature of the character, dealing with studio nervousness over the romantic interracial implications, using a personalized trick to work with the bees, and appreciating the film as one that came along at the right time with a potent amount of social commentary. Next up is a new Madsen interview, "It Was Always You, Helen" (13m10s), in which she talks about stepping into the lead role when Rose's wife became pregnant (and how she was originally cast as Bernadette), had some trepidation about her allergies to bee stings, filling out her face by request by eating pizza, and famously undergoing hypnosis for some very striking key shots. "The Writing on the Wall" (6m21s) with production designer Jane Ann Stewart covers the location research at Cabrini-Green to give the film a sense of authenticity and coming up with ideas of how Candyman's lair should look. Author Douglas E. Winter tackles Barker's short story and the transgressive significance of the Books of Blood series in "A Story to Tell" (18m38s), with Barker's youthful enthusiasm jolting horror literature in a new direction. Writers Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes offer their own takes on the film in "Urban Legend: Unwrapping Candyman" (20m40s), exploring how the film's depiction of race echoes the class sensitivities in the British source (including its depiction of Cabrini-Green here as a monster unto itself from both aspects) and the ways its depiction of an iconic black villain fit within the expanding representation found in theaters at the time. "Forbidden Flesh: The Makeup FX of Candyman" (8m1s) shifts the focus to interviews with special makeup effects artists Bob Keen, Gary J. Tunnicliffe and Mark Coulier, who chat about making poop graffiti with chocolate biscuits, a crazy story about trying to create Todd's hook hand (originally an entire replacement arm), and building the fake skeletal chest designed to house a swarm of bees. Also on both sets are the theatrical trailer, an image gallery, and a selection of Rose's storyboards (as a 5m22s video piece on the U.S. disc and an insert book in the U.K. set).

Exclusive to the Arrow release are three rare short films by Rose (all in HD and newly restored: 1978's "Looking at Alice (27m24s), 1976's "A Bomb With No Name on It" (3m40s), and 1976's "The Wreckers" (5m58s), all rather creepy and experimental with wild use of color and black-and-white footage (as well as little to no dialogue in each). "Bomb" is especially interesting for its outlandish climax depicting an act of terrorism through something more akin to a Ron Ormond scare film. Also on the second disc is "The Cinema of Clive Barker: The Divine Explicit" (28m9s), a new interview with the author and filmmaker about his "outsider" upbringing and the cinematic excursions from Hellraiser (including his casting of Doug Bradley) through the troubled Nightbreed (including a fun little aside about Jodorowsky) and this film, all united by their depictions of the relationship between the monstrous and the sexual. The Arrow box also sports new artwork by Gary Pullin, six lobby card reproductions, and an insert booklet featuring new liner notes by Michael Blyth.

On the other hand, only the Scream Factory carries over the older "Sweets to the Sweet" and "Raising Hell" featurettes, plus a trio of TV spots, the original script (via BD-Rom), and the 2014 Todd video interview, "The Heart of Candyman" (7m7s) chatting a bit more in depth about the character's background and how he approached the tragic back story and physical appearance. Lemmons turns up for the new "Reflection in the Mirror" (9m48s), covering not only this film (which she still loves) but an engaging snapshot of how her acting got off the ground (including The Silence of the Lambs, of course) while she was already interesting in pursuing a career behind the camera. A very different perspective on the film can be found in "A Kid in Candyman" (13m36s) with DeJuan Guy, who plays little Cabrini-Green tour guide Jake and got his start being cast in (and cut from) Boyz n the Hood. It's a really fun piece with stories about all of his co-stars and an explanation of how he earned the name "One-Take Jake" during filming. His reaction to seeing (part of) the film for the first time is great, too. On top of that you even get an extra new audio commentary track, this time with Rose in conversation with The Movie Crypt podcast's Adam Green and Joe Lynch as they chat about doing in-camera effects, finding locations ranging from Chicago to USC, hiring Richmond based on his work with Nicolas Roeg, doing the hypnosis thing with Madsen, and avoiding some of the common pitfalls of horror storytelling. Absolutely essential viewing.

SCREAM FACTORY (Blu-ray)

ARROW VIDEO (Blu-ray)

METEOR FILM (Blu-ray)

UNIVERSAL (Blu-ray)

Reviewed on November 19, 2018.

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