Candyman is drawn to Helen because of her whiteness and resemblance to his former lover. But Rose’s film - which stars Tony Todd as the titular figure - expands on the short story, focusing on the parallels between past and present race relations in America. In Barker’s original story, Candyman’s race was never specified. Once he gets his white lover pregnant, his demise is inevitable. Unfortunately, no level of personal success has the power to overcome the brutal realities of racism. Before his death, Candyman was a skilled painter named Daniel Robitaille, whose talents afforded him a certain level of respect and affluence in white society.

When Helen hears a story about the fabled Candyman - the vengeful spirit of a Black man who was brutally murdered for falling for a white woman in the late 1800s - she begins investigating the figure, destroying her life in the process. Based on Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden,” the film follows Helen (Virginia Madsen), a white graduate student doing her thesis on urban legends. In the nearly 30 years since its release, Bernard Rose’s 1992 gothic horror film Candyman has only grown in relevance. As a result, it tries - and fails - to make a tragic gothic figure into a guardian for contemporary racial justice. Photo Credit: Universal Pictures and MGM Pictures Candyman is a film grasping for a sense of social and moral rightness that alienates itself from the original 1992 movie.

The forbidden clive barker summary