Candyman is a 1992 American gothic supernatural black horror film, written and directed by Bernard Rose and starring Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons, and Vanessa E. Williams.

Based on Clive Barker's short story "The Forbidden", the film follows a Chicago graduate student completing a thesis on urban legends and folklore, which leads her to the legend of the "Candyman", the ghost of an African-American artist and son of a slave who was murdered in the late 19th century for his relationship with the daughter of a wealthy white man.

It received generally positive reviews and grossed over $25 million in the US, where it was also regarded in some critical circles as a contemporary classic of horror cinema.

While researching urban legends, she familiarizes herself with Candyman, a spirit who kills anyone that speaks his name five times before a mirror.

Afterwards, they interview the victim's neighbor, Anne-Marie McCoy, a single mother raising her infant son Anthony.

Helen and her husband Trevor, alongside Bernadette, later have dinner with Professor Phillip Purcell, an expert on the Candyman myth.

He discloses that "Candyman" was Daniel Robitaille, an African-American man born in the late 1800s as the son of a slave who grew up to become a renowned painter.

The mob sawed off his right hand and smeared him with honeycomb stolen from an apiary, attracting bees that stung him to death.

While being interviewed in preparation for her trial a month later, Helen attempts to prove her innocence by summoning Candyman, who appears and murders her psychiatrist.

[5] Assisted by members of the Illinois Film Commission, Rose scouted locations in Chicago and found Cabrini-Green,[6] a housing project notorious for its poor construction, violence and high robbery rates.

[7] The project was also located in between high-class neighborhoods, meaning that the character of Helen could feel Cabrini-Green's chaos from a safe apartment not too far away.

[7] With this change, Rose wanted to showcase those that are living in the poor neighborhoods as regular human beings that are trying to get by which is why he avoided tropes that are common in most American ghetto stories such as gangs and drugs.

[10][11] Rose's screenplay garnered a huge amount of attention in the casting agencies and Virginia Madsen and Tony Todd instantly tried to get parts to have a chance to work with the filmmaker.

[4] With plainclothes law enforcement by their side, Todd and Madsen went into the buildings of Cabrini-Green as part of researching their roles which was a useful, but distressing experience for both actors.

[16] The same team who worked on Backdraft also designed the set for the bonfire scene of Candyman which involved using 1,500 gallons of propane and its largest section having a 70-foot width and 30-foot height.

[18] According to Todd, this process would occur prior to filming the scenes where he and Madsen interacted and would take roughly ten minutes to prepare.

[17] This was accomplished through the use of a professional hypnotist who established a key word that Rose would use to put Madsen under a trancelike state.

[13] Candyman had its world premiere at the 1992 Toronto International Film Festival, playing as part of its Midnight Madness line-up.

[citation needed] Several standard Blu-ray editions eventually became available in France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Denmark, Finland and Sweden throughout 2011 and 2012.

On July 20, 2018, it was announced that Candyman would be released on Blu-ray in a "Collector's Edition" on November 20, 2018, in the United States via Scream Factory, a subsidiary of Shout!

The set contains a newly remastered 2K restoration from a new 4K scan as well as a number of new special features including an unrated cut, commentaries and featurettes.

"[31] Janet Maslin of The New York Times compared it to "an elaborate campfire story" with an "unusually high interest in social issues", and also highlighted Madsen's performance and Glass's musical score.

[33] In a review for Channel 4 Candyman has been called "atmospheric and visually stimulating enough to satisfy gore-hounds", as well as an "intelligent social commentary".

[34] Slant Magazine's Eric Henderson positively reviewed both the eponymous character and the leading actor: "Played by Tony Todd (and his velvety basso profundo voice), the Candyman is a svelte, sexual monument, far removed from the silent brutality of your average serial slasher.

[47] The actor who played Candyman, Tony Todd, made #53 on Retrocrush's "The 100 Greatest Horror Movie Performances" for his role.

Originally, Bernard Rose wanted to make a prequel film about Candyman and Helen's love but the studio turned it down.

[14] In September 2018, it was announced that Jordan Peele was in talks to produce a direct sequel to the 1992 film using his company, Monkeypaw Productions.

[52] Todd stated in a 2018 interview with Nightmare on Film Street, "I'd rather have [Peele] do it, someone with intelligence who's going to be thoughtful and dig into the whole racial makeup of who Candyman is and why he existed in the first place.

[54] The film serves as a sequel, taking place back in the new gentrified Cabrini-Green where the old housing projects development once stood in Chicago.

[58] However, it was ultimately announced that Todd would reprise his role, while Adbul-Mateen would portray the adult version of Anthony McCoy.