Candyman
Tony Todd + Clive Barker + Philip Glass = A masterpiece (to me.)
Stories are the most powerful thing in our world. Stories, true or otherwise, can fearmonger, manipulate, implant ideas, tear people apart from themselves and their close ones... they can also bring hope, inspire, educate and bring us closer to our world. While there are several movies out there that show just how important stories are, Candyman (yes, the slasher from the '90s) is the most fascinating I've seen.
Candyman has things to say about a lot of different topics, especially those rooted in race (which makes sense, considering this came out around the same time as the LA Riots) like the romanticizing/desensitization of black trauma and the differing reactions to it. (There are a lot more racial themes this movie touches on that I'm not educated enough about to comment on. Maybe next review I'll talk about those more.) Everything it touches on, though, is all about stories and how dangerous they can be, how people react to them, and how important it is to keep telling stories, good and bad. The central dynamic between Helen and Candyman is a great interpretation of the volatility of storytelling. The stories of Candyman bringing pain, fear, and enabling people to bring more pain and fear, while the stories of Helen (at first) bring education, (and later) hope, and inspiration. Without stories, Candyman wouldn't exist, but neither would Helen. The end mural suggests that people will always gravitate towards stories of hope, and I'm inclined to agree.
This central dynamic is performed brilliantly by Virginia Madsen and Tony Todd (my king Why do you want to live? If you had learned just a little from me, you would not beg to live. I am rumor. It is a blessed condition, believe me. To be whispered about at street corners. To live in other people's dreams, but not to have to be. Do you understand?