Tear Jerker / Candyman (2021)

• Anthony's manipulation at the hands of Burke, ending in his mutilation, death, and ultimate assimilation into the Candyman legend.
  • Sherman Fields's death at the beginning of the film, and the unwitting role that Burke plays in it.
• The fact that Helen Lyle, a good, well-intentioned woman who saved Anthony's life at the cost of her own, has been villainized by time and myth, to the point that Troy believes that she was a multiple murderess and kidnapper.
  • This Tear Jerker also applies to the original film, given that Helen becomes a murderous spirit at the end.
  • Even Anne-Marie's realization of her innocence wasn't big enough of an impact to redeem Helen's image despite being the one who first Wrongly Accused her for Anthony's kidnapping that started all to begin with.
  • Similarly, Helen's actions were All for Nothing. Her Heroic Sacrifice becomes a Senseless Sacrifice with Anthony becoming a Candyman in the end.
  • Even worse, all the older residents of Cabrini Greene know that Helen was innocent and showed up to her funeral in the original film, but have to keep quiet and let her be demonized by the younger generation since they all made a pact to never speak of the Candyman again so that Anthony can grow up happy and not have the legacy of the Candyman haunting him. Anthony is crushed when his mother tells him the truth about Helen and how she saved Anthony from the Candyman at the cost of her life.
• The various acts of racial violence that have fueled the Candyman legend, including Daniel Robitaille, whose death is described in disgusting detail. Even Burke tears up when he's describing it to Anthony.
  • One Candyman, according to the deleted scenes, is William Bell, a man falsely accused of attacking a white girl when in reality he only surprised her at a picnic. He was dragged away by a mob and beaten to death with bats.
  • Another Candyman is Samuel Evans, a fictional victim of the very real Chicago Housing Riots from the 1950s.
  • The deleted scenes show that Gil Cartwright, Troy and Brianna's father, has become part of the Candyman Hive as well.
• The end credits are very somber, portraying real cases of hate crimes and racial violence with shadow puppets as it shows the origins of each "Candyman" and their assimilation into the hive and myth:
  • The first puppet portrays the murder of Anthony Crawford. A wealthy South Carolina farmer in post-Civil War America, who got into an argument with a store owner over the price of seed he was trying to sell. While leaving the store, Anthony was attacked, but managed to escape. However, a lynch mob soon gathered (many people hated him for his race, wealth, prideful attitude or a combination of the three) and attacked him at his cotton mill, killing him with a knife and taking his corpse to a fairground where his body was destroyed by the mob who used it for target practice.
  • The second depicts the wrongful conviction and execution of George Stinney Jr., a 14-year-old boy who was arrested in 1944 for the murders of two white girls aged 11 and 7. He was given an unfair trial and executed in the electric chair. Stinney is the youngest American to be sentenced to death in the 20th century. In 2014, he was declared innocent due to the unfair trial he received.
  • The third shows the 1998 lynching of James Byrd Jr., a vacuum cleaner salesman who was beaten and murdered when three white supremacists tied him up, hooked him to the back of a truck and dragged him for over three miles. Two of the supremacists were later executed for the crime, while the third received a life sentence.
  • The fourth puppet shows Sherman Fields, the man from the beginning of the movie. He was a mentally disabled man accused of placing razor blades in children's candy in 1977 but despite being innocent, he was chased down and beaten to death by the police for it. The reason he was caught was because Burke got scared of Sherman when the latter offered him some candy and called for help. Burke's sister and her friend would later summon Sherman when attempting the Candyman ritual, which Burke witnessed.