Candyman is a 1992 American
horror film directed by Bernard Rose. Its focused around Helen Lyle who is a graduate student
conducting research for her thesis on urban legends. The legend claims that
Candyman can be summoned by looking into a mirror and saying his name five
times where he will appear and brutally murder them using the hook that is
jammed in his bloody stump, similar to the old Bloody Mary myth, this film was
just waiting to happen. The film had a budget of $8,000,000 and was a box
office success grossing $25,792,310 globally. The film opens with an ariel shot looking down an average city road tracking
the cities cars as people commute as though it’s a normal day. This sets the
scene of the film and suggests that the events that occur in ‘Candyman’ can happen
to normal people in normal places. It’s a typical horror opening convention
where the introduction usually shows the
day-to-day life of normal people.
This shot is accompanied with the typically horror soundtrack of orchestral music, mostly organs. The use of organs links in with the church, we commonly hear organs during a funeral which implies that death is going to be a common element to the film which fits in with the horror genre, it makes us feel uncomfortable.
We see a slow zoom in shot of a swarm of bees accompanied by the deep and dark voice of Candyman himself explaining how he kills his victims with his hook ‘with my hook for a hand I will split you from your groin to your gut’. This suggests that there is a link between candyman and the bees and leaves us intrigued to know what the link is.
This shot then cuts to an establishing shot of the cityscape which fades into a close up of the main character Helen Lyle smoking a cigarette as candyman says ‘I came for you ‘implying that Helen may be one of candymans victims.
We are introduced to one of the other victims of the film, an attractive blonde woman babysitting for a friend, when ‘Billy’ turns up at her house, she’s attracted to Billy because of his ‘bad boy’ reputation which is shown through his costume including a leather jacket, he’s a bad influence on the young girl as she is about to cheat on her boyfriend with him. She tells Billy about the urban legend of Candyman, they fail to say his name five times in the mirror but when he leaves she says his name for a fifth time shown with an over the shoulder shot.
At this point she is holding her cross necklace, again this links back to the church like the organs in the sound track implying that the characters are religious but does not protect her from her from her brutal death.
She turns the lights off and a strange figure appears behind her. We hear a high pitched sound and see a fast cut away from the scene. We then hear the diegetic sound of her horrified screams as she is murdered, the camera follows Billy’s actions as he looks up to see the blood coming through the ceiling from a low angle shot. Fast cuts are very common in horror films and the high pitched sound is commonly used to imply danger and death.
We learn through the voice over that the baby was also murdered by Candyman which makes the murders even more sickening. We often see young attractive women being the victims in such horror films because of their vulnerability.
The last part of the opening scene of Candyman introduced Helens friend when there both discussing the urban legend that Helen is researching. Helen removed a mirror from the wall to reveal a hole leading into an empty room shown by the slow motion zoom in. They go to say his name 5 times in the mirror and then there is a zoom out down the corridor away from the bathroom without the sight of Helen and her friend so that we are focused on the mirror and what it holds behind it and the death caused by saying Candymans name into it.
The film portrays many conventions of a horror film such as the victim is a young vulnerable female, dark lighting and supernatural characters that are unrealistic but create a sense of escapism to a world where they do exist. The soundtrack was effective in opening the film because we instantly knew that this was a horror film by the sound of the organs.
This shot is accompanied with the typically horror soundtrack of orchestral music, mostly organs. The use of organs links in with the church, we commonly hear organs during a funeral which implies that death is going to be a common element to the film which fits in with the horror genre, it makes us feel uncomfortable.
We see a slow zoom in shot of a swarm of bees accompanied by the deep and dark voice of Candyman himself explaining how he kills his victims with his hook ‘with my hook for a hand I will split you from your groin to your gut’. This suggests that there is a link between candyman and the bees and leaves us intrigued to know what the link is.
This shot then cuts to an establishing shot of the cityscape which fades into a close up of the main character Helen Lyle smoking a cigarette as candyman says ‘I came for you ‘implying that Helen may be one of candymans victims.
We are introduced to one of the other victims of the film, an attractive blonde woman babysitting for a friend, when ‘Billy’ turns up at her house, she’s attracted to Billy because of his ‘bad boy’ reputation which is shown through his costume including a leather jacket, he’s a bad influence on the young girl as she is about to cheat on her boyfriend with him. She tells Billy about the urban legend of Candyman, they fail to say his name five times in the mirror but when he leaves she says his name for a fifth time shown with an over the shoulder shot.
At this point she is holding her cross necklace, again this links back to the church like the organs in the sound track implying that the characters are religious but does not protect her from her from her brutal death.
She turns the lights off and a strange figure appears behind her. We hear a high pitched sound and see a fast cut away from the scene. We then hear the diegetic sound of her horrified screams as she is murdered, the camera follows Billy’s actions as he looks up to see the blood coming through the ceiling from a low angle shot. Fast cuts are very common in horror films and the high pitched sound is commonly used to imply danger and death.
We learn through the voice over that the baby was also murdered by Candyman which makes the murders even more sickening. We often see young attractive women being the victims in such horror films because of their vulnerability.
The last part of the opening scene of Candyman introduced Helens friend when there both discussing the urban legend that Helen is researching. Helen removed a mirror from the wall to reveal a hole leading into an empty room shown by the slow motion zoom in. They go to say his name 5 times in the mirror and then there is a zoom out down the corridor away from the bathroom without the sight of Helen and her friend so that we are focused on the mirror and what it holds behind it and the death caused by saying Candymans name into it.
The film portrays many conventions of a horror film such as the victim is a young vulnerable female, dark lighting and supernatural characters that are unrealistic but create a sense of escapism to a world where they do exist. The soundtrack was effective in opening the film because we instantly knew that this was a horror film by the sound of the organs.
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