Candyman
It was beautiful to watch the call and response between the original Candyman (1992) and the new remake of Candyman (2021). Though original Candyman will forever be imprinted in the minds of Black America, had a problematic essence to it, when re-watched after 20 years. Tony Todd would also forever be known as candyman. I hadn’t seen the film since I was probably five years old but Tony Todd’s face stuck and his voice would reverberate off the walls of my memory. I would never dare say Candyman more than twice. His name would become a superstition. Even after years of forgetting the original plot of the movie, Candyman was a name you didn’t dare to say. Not even a name you thought of. Though I never thought of him as scary, I just remembered him to be forbidden from my tongue and alienated from reality.
This new Candyman; this story is different. This story began as a story about black terror to Black people being terrorized and there is a concise picture as to where the terror began. The different themes in both Candyman include slavery and racist violence, urban crime, fear of blackness, myth, and reality, and magical ritual.
Magical ritual is what turned this tragic story into an everlasting myth. Say His Name five times in the mirror. Say his name while you look at yourself. At first, this call can be seen as a ploy for Candyman himself to take your life but it’s more than just that.
There are different aspects to calling someone’s name. To say somebody’s name aloud is powerful. Names within themselves are remembrance and a way to keep a person alive — a way to honor them. A twist from African culture.
Nea De Costa and Jordan Peele re-imagined this horror film by re-focusing the story on black trauma and away from the story of Helen. The film focuses on the artist and the society, Black martyrs, and gentrification. Many powerful scenes reflected original scenes in 1992, but my favorite re-examining was weaponizing Candyman for black lives; killing the people who created violence amongst the Black Community. Candyman is “how we deal with the fact that this is still happening”, that people are still dying at the hands of police occupation, and Anthony represents a continuation of an inherited fate. The film sinks into you as you learn what true horror is. Is it candyman?
Candyman
Candyman
Candyman
Candyman…
