“problematic portrayals of race.” Also, cult classics by definition are typically “had to be there” types of movies that didn’t do well in the box office and/or got poor reviews. Candyman’s legacy is of being a legitimately scary horror film that delivered plenty of gore and thrills, on top of there not really being anything like that in horror with a black villain at the time.

On top of that, the story note of summoning him by saying his name in a mirror was genius because it was one of those things that easily could cross over into real life imaginations - I didn’t even see it until it was out on home video, but when I was in middle school in 92 all the kids were talking about it and daring each other to say Candyman in the mirror.