History Film / Candyman

* BeeBeeGun: When the Candyman opens his coat, he's revealed to be little more than a skeleton wreathed in the many thousands of bees that killed him.

* EverythingsWorseWithBees: The torture inflicted on Candyman was that he had his hand hacked off with a saw and was stung to death with bees after being covered with honey.

* [[spoiler:TheHeroDies: Helen herself at the end of the first film.]]

* [[spoiler:InfantImmortality: Gruesomely averted with Anthony and the child in the men's room.]]
* KillItWithFire: The way they deal with Candyman at the end.

* SortingAlgorithmOfMortality: [[spoiler: As stated above, gruesomely averted. Among Candyman's many victims are a child, a baby, a dog, and the white female protagonist.]]

[[spoiler:WouldHurtAChild: Candyman does not discriminate when choosing victims.]]

''Candyman'' is based on the short story "The Forbidden" by CliveBarker, and was followed by two sequels, '''''Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh''''' (1995) and''' ''Candyman 3: Day of the Dead''''' (1999).

* OnePhoneCall: Averted. After Helen is arrested by the police and informed of her miranda rights, she asks for a phone call, but it's never stated that it's the only one she'll get.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Trevor in the end. Not only was he cheating on Helen with a student, but it is implied that he was going to let her rot in the asylum while he would set off for a new life with his lover.]]
** Along with [[spoiler: the cop doing the interrogation in the opening scenes of Farewell to the Flesh. Ties in with TemptingFate, since he forced the guy's face against the reflective interrogation mirror as he did the "Candyman" chant as a means of breaking him]].

''Candyman'' (1992) is a neo-noir / slasher film starring Virginia Madsen as Helen Lyle, a graduate student conducting research for her thesis on urban legends. While interviewing freshmen about their superstitions, she hears about a local legend known as Candyman, the son of a slave named Daniel Robitaille who was brutally tortured and murdered because of a love affair with the daughter of a local (white) plantation owner. According to the legend, anyone who looks into a mirror and chants his name five times will summon him, but at the cost of his or her own life, similarly to the Bloody Mary folkloric tale. Helen believes that Candyman cannot exist and jokingly calls his name in the mirror in her house.

''Candyman'' is based on the short story "The Forbidden" by CliveBarker, and was followed by two sequels, ''Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh'' (1995) and ''Candyman 3: Day of the Dead'' (1999).

* ArcWords: "Sweets for the sweet." Also "Be my victim."

* DaylightHorror: The first film has plenty of day scenes that are every bit as frightening as many night scenes in other horror movies. In fact, the Candyman's first full appearance is during the day and it's still very shocking.

* GodsNeedPrayerBadly: The biggest threat to Candyman's existence in the first movie is that people will stop believing in him, and the situation's quasi-religion nature is played to the hilt.

* SpookyPainting: in ''Candyman: Day of the Dead'', Candyman's good side is held within a set of paintings, notably his own, and as everybody knows evil can't exist without good, so Caroline has to destroy the paintings to kill him.

-> ''Say my name '''[[DidNotDoTheResearch three times]]''' like Candyman''\\
''And I'll roll on your ass like an avalanche''

* [[spoiler: AndThenJohnWasAZombie]]

''{{Candyman}}'' (1992) is a neo-noir / slasher film starring Virginia Madsen as Helen Lyle, a graduate student conducting research for her thesis on urban legends. While interviewing freshmen about their superstitions, she hears about a local legend known as Candyman, the son of a slave named Daniel Robitaille who was brutally tortured and murdered because of a love affair with the daughter of a local (white) plantation owner. According to the legend, anyone who looks into a mirror and chants his name five times will summon him, but at the cost of his or her own life, similarly to the Bloody Mary folkloric tale. Helen believes that Candyman cannot exist and jokingly calls his name in the mirror in her house.

''{{Candyman}}'' is based on the short story "The Forbidden" by CliveBarker, and was followed by two sequels, ''Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh'' (1995) and ''Candyman 3: Day of the Dead'' (1999).

* FanDisservice: Helen is arrested and stripped by the police. The fact that the beautiful Virginia Madsen is naked is [[YourMileageMayVary quite overshadowed]] by the fact that she is crying and covered in blood. Ten minutes after this scene, however, there's a scene of her taking a bath that is so blatantly FanService that it seems like an apology.

* FridgeLogic: Why would they give him a hook for a hand if they intended to kill him anyways?
** Because they were just torturing him for the hell of it.
** They probably didn't give him one. The urban legend itself did. It's a story of a one-handed killer. Of course he must have a hook in the other hand.

* [[{{HighOctaneNightmareFuel/Film}} High Octane Nightmare Fuel (Film)]]
** A real life example: Several of the film's scenes were shot in Chicago's notorious Cabrini-Green housing project, and though the film crew paid the local gangs protection (and cast several members as extras) to be allowed to film there, it didn't stop the gang members from putting a few bullets through one of the crew's vans on the last day of shooting for their own amusement. Reportedly, several members of the cast and crew were on the verge of nervous breakdowns by the time they were ready to move on to a new location.

[[caption-width-right:301:Dude! Bee! Eye!]]