Candyman

Set in 1992 starring Tony Todd, the movie follows a grad student uncovering the urban legend of the Candyman. During this time period, horror movies began to focus on the fear on the unknown; allowing the audience to doubt their instincts or minds. With the use of the protagonist Helen Lyle following the tale and being doubted as well as framed throughout the movie for the Candyman's doing, Bernard Rose (director) uses madness and the psychology of the audience's mind to interest and frighten them further. Additionally, throughout the 1990s, horror movies began to link themes to the real world. With the tale of the Candyman being centred around a slave owner's son being murdered due to being the love interest of a white woman. The movie strongly links with the idea of racism and uses the sensitive topic to make the events of the movie appear much more real and intimate to the audience in order to create more fear.

Based off an urban legend thought to have begun during the late nineteenth century, the Candyman was once a the son of a slave who had struck a fortune after producing a machine to aid the American Civil War. With their newfound wealth the Candyman, who's named is Daniel Robatille, was sent to the best schools and educated. He later found interest in being a painter where, doing a commission for a father's daughter to present her beauty and status, fell in love with his muse. After the daughter's father found out, he found a mob to chase down Robatille, saw his hand off and replace it with a hook as well as covering him in honey and letting him be stung to death by bees. His tragic past allows audience members to sympathise with his character although he is a vengeful and violent antagonist.

Throughout the plot, the Candyman is an urban legend revolving Cabrini-Green, where his ashes were scattered. However, Helen Lyle denounces the existence of the Candyman therefore provoking his spirit to harass her and therefore prove to others of his haunting. Seen as a vain and somewhat arrogant character, the Candyman relies on others to continue on believing his existence as it makes him continue haunting. He sees himself as holding immense power over the other characters within the movie.

Candyman holds the appearance of a lean and tall African-American, dressed in a large brown-fur trench coat in order to hide his mutilations resulted from his murder. Underneath his coat, the Candyman has a hollowed-out torso showcasing his organs and ribcage. Teamed with a white cravat around his neck, grey pants and shoes, he appears wealthy and intelligent to the unsuspecting eye. With a hook for his right hand, the Candyman legends follows that however chants his name five times in front of a mirror, he will appear to slash his victim violently with his hook. As the antagonist, the actions and gore that takes place throughout this movie through the deaths and injuries present it as a slasher film to many.