1. "RE: Candyman (Nia DaCosta, 2020)" In response to Reply # 0
CANDYMAN, at the intersection of white violence and black pain, is about unwilling martyrs. The people they were, the symbols we turn them into, the monsters we are told they must have been.
6. "so I just watched the original for the first time" In response to Reply # 0
I was under the impression this movie had a kind of cult status among African-American horror fans. but after watching it, I'm wondering why.
I was completely blindsided by the protagonist——this is just another White Savior story, ultimately. I read on imdb that the director wanted to explore the idea of inner-city housing projects being a kind of scary urban legend in and of themselves, and I think that's a very interesting concept. but I couldn't shake the discomfort from watching this movie's depictions of race which that idea inherently brings up.
I guess I'm just wondering how this movie ended up gaining the following it did even with its problematic (IMO) portrayals of race. or maybe this is just the result of looking back with 2021 eyes.
7. "In 1992 no one was thinking about a horror film having " In response to Reply # 6
“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.
I totally forgot to factor in *age* — no middle/high-schoolers are gonna be thinking about that kinda thing, let alone in '92. I heard those same schoolyard dares too. (I'm only just now occasionally dipping into horror; there was no way I was going anywhere near this joint back when it released)
anyhow, I guess more than anything it just makes me curious how things are handled in the sequel.
9. "Yeah that's the thing with sequel/reboot films coming out" In response to Reply # 8
a couple generations after the original. The audience for the current sequel is mostly the people who were kids at the time the originals came out and have grown up...so the sequel/reboot has to balance staying faithful to the original, vs. realizing that that original audience is 30 years older now, while still trying to broaden that audience a bit.
12. "I didn’t say there weren’t films made around Black themes…" In response to Reply # 11
that had been happening for decades at that point. Just that the audience who feels nostalgic for the original Candyman wasn’t thinking that Candyman specifically was a problematic portrayal. It was a response to the post wondering how it became a cult classic when it was problematic.
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