It's most likely the first time I watched this cult scary movie was whilst I was in college, I'm glad I got to watching it again a few years later, based on the book The Forbidden by Clive Barker (Hellraiser), also executive producer. Basically, in Chicago, Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) is a graduate student at the University of Illinois researching urban legends. She becomes most interested in the Candyman, a spirit who appears when a person says his name five times in the mirror and kills them with the hook attached to the bloody stump of his right arm. Helen learns about a woman named Clara (Marianna Elliott) who was murdered while babysitting presumably after calling Candyman's name. She also learns from two cleaning ladies about a woman named Ruthie Jean rumoured to be killed by the Candyman in the notorious Cabrini-Green housing project. She discovers there have been twenty-five murders in the area. Sceptical, Helen and her friend Bernadette "Bernie" Walsh (Kasi Lemmons) say Candyman's name in the bathroom mirror five times, but nothing happens. Helen and Bernadette are working together on a thesis and go to Cabrini-Green to the scene of Ruthie Jean's murder. There, Helen discovers a room where apparent offerings have been left for the Candyman. They meet Anne-Marie McCoy (Vanessa Estelle Williams), the neighbour of the deceased victim, a single mother raising a baby boy, Anthony (twins Latesha and Lanesha Martin). Anne-Marie is initially hostile but talks a little about things that have happened. That evening, Helen and her husband Trevor (Terminator 2's Xander Berkeley) have dinner with Professor Philip Purcell (Michael Culkin), a snobbish folklore expert who tells the backstory of the Candyman. The Candyman, real name Daniel Robitaille, was born in the late 1800s, the son of slave, who became a well-known artist, painting portraits for wealthy white people. However, he fell in love with the daughter of a white client, and she became pregnant and gave birth to his child. Enraged, the man hired people to attack the artist, stripping him naked, cutting off his right hand, and smearing him with honeycomb (hence his nickname), attracting a swarm of angry bees that stung him death. His corpse was burned, and his ashes scattered across the land on which Cabrini-Green now stands. When Helen returns to Cabrini-Green, she is attacked by a man who calls himself the Candyman. After surviving the assault, escaping with only a black eye, she identifies her attacker, who turns out to be a gang leader. The police assume he is responsible for the murders. After leaving the police station, Helen is walking in a parking garage, and she hears a voice calling for her. There she encounters the real Candyman (Tony Todd) who hypnotises her, he urges Helen to become his victim. He explains that the belief in him by hundreds of people is what allows him to go on living, but she has discredited his legend, so he must shed innocent blood to perpetuate it. Helen blacks out and wakes up in Anne-Marie's apartment, covered in blood, finding Anne-Marie's pet Rottweiler's decapitated head and Anthony has been taken. The distraught Anne-Marie attacks Helen, who is arrested by the police, whilst she is holding a knife defending herself. Trevor bails her out of jail. She looks at some photographs she took at Cabrini-Green and sees the Candyman in one of them. The Candyman then appears and cuts Helen neck, causing her to bleed and pass out. Bernadette arrives at Helen's apartment, and when Helen wakes, she finds Bernadette has been murdered. Helen has been framed for the crime, she is sedated, and taken to a psychiatric hospital and kept in restraints. Helen is interviewed by psychiatrist Dr. Burke (Stanley DeSantis) a month later for her upcoming trial. She wants to prove her innocence and looks in a mirror to summon the Candyman, calling his name five times. The Candyman appears and kills the doctor but allows Helen to escape. She returns to her apartment and finds Trevor now living with student Stacey (Carolyn Lowery), who he has been having an affair with. Helen confronts him, then flees to Cabrini-Green to confront the Candyman and rescue baby Anthony. In his lair, the Candyman tells her that if she surrenders to him, Anthony will be safe. Offering Helen immortality, the Candyman opens his coat, revealing his ribcage swarmed with bees. The bees pour out of his mouth as he kisses her and stream down her throat. He vanishes with the baby, and Helen awakes to discover a mural of the Candyman and his lover, who bears a striking resemblance to her. The Candyman promises to release Anthony if Helen helps him strike fear into Cabrini-Green's residents. Helen crawls into a pile of wood and junk to rescue Anthony, clutching a hook, which is spotted by a child who believes in the Candyman. Residents gather around, splash the junk pile with petrol and set the wood on fire, creating a bonfire, with Helen, Anthony and the Candyman trapped inside. Helen grabs a burning piece of wood, penetrating the Candyman's chest and trapping him to burn in the bonfire, while she crawls out from the fire. Helen's head is on fire, and she dies from the severe burns, but baby Anthony is saved, and the residents, led by Anne-Marie, go to Helen's funeral to pay their respects. At home, Trevor is wracked with guilt and grief. He looks in the mirror and says Helen's name five times, whereupon Helen's vengeful spirit appears and kills him with a hook. In the Candyman's former lair, a new mural of Helen dressed in white with her hair ablaze is seen. Also starring Gilbert Lewis as Detective Frank Valento, Ted Raimi as Billy, Bernard Rose as Archie Walsh, and Rusty Schwimmer as Policewoman. Madsen gives an interesting performance as the young woman examining and getting too close to a dark figure, and Todd with his gravelly voice is suitably sinister as the hook-handed mythical killer. I will admit, watching it again, there are a few scenes that are slow-moving and perhaps cheesy, but it is atmospheric, gory when it needs to be, and can be classed as a contemporary classic, a worthwhile supernatural horror. It was number 58 on The 100 Greatest Scary Moments. Very good!