Bernard Rose’s 1992 horror basic “Candyman,” an American reimagining of Clive Barker’s brief story “The Forbidden,” was about an formidable graduate scholar named Helen (Virginia Madsen) who trekked into Chicago’s notorious constructing venture at Cabrini Inexperienced to analyze an city legend that had continued there. Plainly the denizens believed in a ghostly killer referred to as Candyman who would seem behind you if you happen to mentioned his identify 5 occasions right into a mirror. Helen finds, fairly shockingly, that the Candyman (Tony Todd) may be very actual. He’s the vengeful spirit of a murdered Black man, a son of a slave, killed by a white mob after the top of the Civil Warfare. His physique was burned on the location of the Cabrini Inexperienced tasks, and he now haunts those that summon him.
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“Candyman” is totally terrifying, and the late Tony Todd is great within the function. He’s menacing and sympathetic in turns. Philip Glass’ haunting rating is among the extra tragic of the horror movies of the period, and there’s a whole semester of Black research beneath the movie’s floor. “Candyman” was a minor hit, making over $25 million on its $9 million price range, which meant a sequel must be made finally. In 1995, Invoice Condon directed “Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh,” a redux of the parable that transposed its motion to New Orleans. “Farewell” is slick and scary, however feels barely extra like a standard slasher than an eerie ghost story. This was adopted in 1999 by the totally horrible “Candyman 3: Day of the Useless,” a movie set in 2020 (!) in Los Angeles.
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In 2004, Todd started speaking (as recorded by Bloody Disgusting) about how he meant to re-rev the collection with a “Candyman IV” that might value $25 million, and be based mostly on Todd’s personal script therapy. Sadly, the fascinating venture by no means got here to be.
The fourth Candyman could be set at a small girls’s school in New England
It was in an interview with Fangoria (transcribed by MovieWeb) Todd revealed the meant price range of his model of a fourth “Candyman.” His movie was meant to be the most important and the classiest “Candyman” movie but. The setting, in line with Todd, was going to be up to date once more, and he described it thus:
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“It may be set in New England, and the preliminary picture might be of Candyman in a blizzard. The story is a couple of double id. I can inform you that it is set at an all-girls school the place there’s a descendant of Candyman, a professor who does not truly know who or what Candyman is.”
He additionally mentioned that his meant movie wouldn’t have a Roman numeral connected, as to distance itself from the somewhat disappointing “Day of the Useless.” Todd mentioned that Clive Barker could be serving as an government producer and a narrative producer, though he would not have something to do with the screenplay. It sounds intriguing, particularly if the female-only school in query was an Traditionally Black Faculty or College. It must be a fictional school, although, as the one real-life all-women HBCUs are Spelman Faculty in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bennett Faculty in Greensboro, North Carolina. A brand new one must be invented to set “Candyman” #4 in New England.
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Todd, in line with the Bloody Disgusting article, additionally spoke with Milenko 500 in a (now deleted) 2004 interview. He confirmed in that interview that his movie could be set at a girls’s school in New England, but in addition put the kibosh on rumors of one other “Candyman” movie. It appears after the success of the slasher crossover “Freddy vs. Jason” in 2003, Clive Barker was approached about overseeing a “Hellraiser vs. Candyman” film. Fairly intentionally, no motion was made on mentioned venture.
Sadly, the venture wasn’t ever taken up
Todd mentioned:
“I feel Clive correctly opted towards that. He did not need both of these two characters to promote out for a industrial achieve. He’s very strongly eager about Candyman IV. That drawback that is happening very similar to many backstage workings, is figuring out who owns the Candyman franchise.”
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The actor famous that the venture was prepared to maneuver ahead. They simply wanted “the go-ahead” from the studio. Clearly, the go-ahead was by no means given. In a Dread Central interview from 2009, Todd famous that Deon Taylor (“Traffik,” “Fatale,” “Worry”) was eager about directing, however evidently was little greater than a dialog between director and actor.
It wasn’t till Todd spoke with Bloody Disgusting instantly a few years after the truth that extra particulars could be revealed. Plainly Candyman could be a professor on the above-mentioned school. He wasn’t a ghostly spirit of revenge, however a grounded real-world serial killer who had bother suppressing his urges to homicide, form of “possessed” by the Candyman. He was even going to cut off his personal hand to maintain the murdering at bay. In Todd’s imaginative and prescient:
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“‘Candyman’ wasn’t a curse. Or he was a curse, however … He wasn’t burned, he is not scarred, aside from what’s inside. He’s the epitome and illustration of people who have all the time been displaced. Or cherished the mistaken particular person on the mistaken time. He was going to finish up being a one-armed Candyman. He is attempting to show with out turning into personally concerned. It was form of just like the Hulk. If he will get too shut, the curse would proceed. As a result of it isn’t like he selected to be a villain.”
Nevertheless it by no means received very far. “Snowstorm, women’ school, loads of victims” was all Todd knew was concrete. After a number of years, individuals ignored it. “Candyman” did not return till Nia DaCosta’s sequel-reboot in 2021. Todd appeared solely briefly there.
