Horror(ific) Post

With the Horror Film Festival coming up shortly I thought I’d write a little about one of my favourite horror films and the first horror film I recall watching when I was younger and explain what it was that I found most interesting and good both generally and technically.


Candyman
Director: Bernard Rose
Writers: Clive Barker (story), Bernard Rose
Release Date:19 March 1993 (UK)



Helen Lyle is a student who decides to write a thesis about local legends and myths. She visits a part of the town, where she learns about the legend of the Candyman, a one-armed man who appears when you say his name five times, in front of a mirror. Of course, Helen doesn't believe all this stuff, but the people of the area are really afraid...





I feel that generally, horror films get a bad rap and are often seen as the bottom of the barrel when it comes to cinema and as a genre generally. Given the good to bad ratio with scary films however, I do see why so many people turn their noses up at the idea of watching another cheesy, poorly made depthless film about someone being chased in a house by a mad being wielding an axe and making peculiar noises. There have been so many disasterpieces in this genre that many won’t give a seconds thought to a horror film however I am convinced that this is one of the most interesting and entertaining types of film to watch or help make... if done well!




Anyway, back to Candyman. Critically, not the greatest horror film ever by any means however it did receive fairly positive reviews all in all which isn’t too common as mentioned with horror films, I enjoyed most the way that psychological themes were blended with bloody and violent dark ones. Most horror films deal with psychology in some form or another, some such as The Grudge for instance, are so hyped up in messing with one’s mind that the ‘hardcore bloodfest action’ takes a back seat and I think the scary child in the film must have under a minutes worth of screen time throughout the whole film. Candyman gets the balance right I thought and the characters were given the depth they deserved but it was done in a way that kept my interest and also made me care about what happened to people in the film, especially the protagonist.