Cinema: the return of Candyman

Candyman, initially, it is a short story published in the 1980s by the British novelist, screenwriter and filmmaker Clive Barker, prolific author, especially of the classic Hellraiser. It tells the story of Helen, a student who works in a poor and dangerous city of Chicago. It is about an urban legend about a serial killer, the famous Candyman, who really exists, appearing and killing when you say his name five times in front of a mirror. The tale and reality will gradually merge, and Helen sinks into her obsession with the subject …

The first film adaptation, in 1992, signed by another British director, Bernard Rose, was a real success. We could even qualify it as an “author’s horror film”, benefiting for all these years from the status of a cult work, with a reflection on the myths, the past of the United States, the relations between communities but also racism or even policies to remove the poorest from city centers.

This new version, 29 years later, is directed by Nia DaCosta, a young black filmmaker of 31, and produced by Jordan Peele, author of the noticed Get out and Us.

The plot of the film resumes more or less that of its elder, but this time features African-American protagonists, artists and rather bourgeois. There is much talk of gentrification, the poor neighborhoods of the 1992 version now being renovated and the fruit of real estate speculation. We find new societal questions, more current, such as police violence against blacks.

The horrific specifications of the film also remain respected, even if the first really scary scene does not occur until after about thirty minutes,
which leaves time for the story, the characters, and the atmosphere, to settle in properly. The remakes of classics of the genre being mostly missed or uninteresting, it is all the more important to salute the rare ones, like this new one. Candyman, to be successful.