Candyman (character)

Before the film adaptions, the character of the Candyman originated from the short story, "The Forbidden" from the anthology collection, Books of Blood by Clive Barker. According to the story, the description of the Candyman's appearance was:

He was bright to the point of gaudiness: His flesh was a waxy yellow. His thin lips are pale blue. His wild eyes are glittering as if their irises are set with rubies. His jacket was a patchwork and his trousers are the same. He looked, [Helen] thought, almost ridiculous with his bloodstained motley and the hint of rouge on his jaundiced cheeks.

The literary version's face was described as "lurid" and "jaundiced" while his scent was like candy-floss. The iconic hook and bees are introduced in the short story as well as the other characters such as Helen, but the Candyman's race, name, place of origin or backstory are never brought up and was introduced with the film series. The element of summoning him by saying 'Candyman' in front of a mirror was also absent. The mere doubt of his existence was enough to draw him forth.[2] So he was more like a thoughtform rather than an actual ghost.

The Candyman's first appearance in film was in Candyman (1992) which the female protagonist named Helen Lyle was investigating an urban legend that was revolving around an enigmatic figure that was known only as the Candyman which seemed to be connected to a series of grisly murders in the vicinity of Cabrini–Green, Chicago where at least 26 victims are ripped open "from the groin to the gullet" by an unknown perpetrator who left no trace behind, but the body. The denizens of the city block all seemed convinced that the "Candyman" was behind it which was a specter who could supposedly be summoned by repeating his name five times in front of a mirror and was reported to have a large metal hook in place of one hand. Helen was left in doubt about this after encountering a living gangster who adopted the alias of the Candyman to intimidate others. He assaulted Helen who concluded that the stories that she heard are nothing more than fairytales after this. This vocal denial of the Candyman finally brought the actual ghost of the Candyman out. He revealed himself to Helen by claiming that since she doubted his existence, he must shed the innocent blood to keep the myth of himself alive. He slaughtered the dog of and kidnapped the baby boy of a resident named Anne-Marie McCoy as well as brutally murdering Helen's friend and colleague named Bernadette by framing Helen for those acts.

The Candyman boasted about how everyone that she loved including her husband named Trevor would abandon her and surrendering herself to him and becoming part of his urban legend would be her only option now. Helen was institutionalized, but the Candyman slaughtered her psychiatrist and allowed her to leave the facility. Helen who returned to Cabrini–Green discovered that she may be the reincarnation of the former Candyman's lover by explaining why he would target her in particular. She eventually discovered the missing baby in a bonfire, but the residents who saw the Candyman in it came out in a mob to burn the murderer. Caught in the fire, Helen managed to save the baby for Anne-Marie, but at the cost of her own life. Trevor who was attempting to "summon" Helen by repeating her name five times in front of a mirror unexpectedly succeeded and was brutally butchered by her, revealing that she became part of the Candyman's deadly legend.[3]

The Candyman appeared again in the sequel, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) three years after Helen's death where he slaughtered Professor Philip Purcell who appeared in the first film and the novel and was supposedly a leading authority on the urban legend of the Candyman. He was unconvinced that the legend had any supernatural element to it and he tried to prove it wrong by saying Candyman five times in the mirror of his own glossy book. This led to his gruesome death by the Candyman shortly after. Ethan Tarrant who was a descendant of the Candyman himself was made a suspect of this crime due to carelessly having made apparent threats against the professor publicly just before his murder while also having no alibi.[4]

The backstory of the Candyman being the son of a slave and a painter who became the lover of a wealthy landowner's daughter was not present in The Forbidden or the name of Daniel Robitaille.[2] As soon as Tony Todd and his co-star, Virginia Madsen were cast as Candyman and Helen respectively, Bernard Rose, the director of Candyman (1992) gave them free hands to flesh out their character's backstories themselves as part of the creative process.[6] Rose explains that "the Candyman is not black in Clive's story. In fact, the whole back story of the interracial love affair that went wrong is not in the book. Everything that's in the book is in the film, but it's been amplified."[7] Todd came up with the character's backstory during rehearsals with Madsen. The name Todd designated for the character was "Granville T. Candyman" who had a forbidden and interracial love affair with a white woman he was painting a portrait of, leading to his fatal lynching by an angry mob.[8] The name of Granville was never used in the first film, leaving the character still nameless. The name that was ultimately designated for him in the sequel would be Daniel Robitaille. This backstory was supposedly set in Chicago. The element of New Orleans was added with the Farewell to the Flesh.

The Candyman is largely driven by a need to sustain his legacy, killing those who doubted his existence in order to ensure that the rumor of him is kept alive. He has been described as a "ghoul fueled by the “faith” of his believers." He is forced to deal with his followers to make them believe again and punish the interloper who led them astray."[9] In Draculas, Vampires and Other Undead Forms: Essays on Gender, Race and Culture, the Candyman's nature is likened to a vampire, elaborating that similar to the vampires: "[Candyman] possesses the capacity to hypnotize his prey such that they appear to desire their victimizations"[10] Tony Todd compares his ability to invoke fear, suggestion and seduction to the DC Comics villain Scarecrow. He also compares his character to the Phantom of the Opera and the Hunchback of Notre Dame in that they are all "monsters" who use both tenderness and terror to win the (Unanswered) love of the female protagonists.[8] Virginia Madsen confirmed that the Candyman was intended by to be an "African American Dracula", adding that she thought that it's "appealing to the African American community because they finally had their own Dracula".[11] He has been compared specifically to Gary Oldman's Dracula from Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), being "not only dark, but tall and handsome; a (Literally) tortured artist and a hopeless romantic, very much in the mould of Gary Oldman's Dracula". Bernard Rose also claimed that the biblical story of Samson was an inspiration for the Candyman's story, elaborating that "Samson dismayed his parents by taking a Philistine wife, pausing only to slay the young lion whose carcass bred bees and ran with honey. The Candyman outraged bigots by his love for a white woman and was murdered by being smeared with honey and staked out for the killer bees."[12]

In Day of the Dead, it is established that the lynch mob chanted his soubriquet of Candyman five times before he died, explaining why he would appear at that count. The element of summoning the specter by chanting his name repeatedly in front of a mirror can be traced back to the urban legend of Bloody Mary.[13] In the short story, the character describes his state of existence as an urban legend, saying "I am rumor. It's a blessed condition, believe me. To live in people's dreams; to be whispered at street-corners; but not have to be"[2] while the film version says "I am the writing on the wall, the whisper in the classroom. Without these things, I am nothing".[3]

McFarlane Toys released an action figure of the Candyman in the Movie Maniacs Series 4 in 2001.[19] Further action figures are set to be released in November 2019 by NECA.[20]