Plot
The plot of Candy Man is based upon a short story by Clive Barker about a local urban legend serial killer terrorizing the city of Chicago. The killer kills his victims by gutting them when they mention his name five times in front of a mirror. This urban legend premise is relatable to modern audiences since local legends are all over the world and are usually centered around a dare which drives most of the suspense since you know when he is coming but your not sure how he is coming. It also combines the slasher genre by having a variety of gory and creative kills executed by the Candy Man. This actually parallels another well-known urban legend 'Bloody Mary' which uses a similar concept, which makes it feel even more familiar to the mainstream audience.
Our main character, Annie Tarrant, is great example of horror movie protagonist. First off, she is blonde, white women which plays a homage to the classic horror movie, Psycho since the character in that film was also a blonde white women. She is confident, intelligent and unshaken but too curious for her own good and because she is a woman she appears more vunerable since she is quite appealing in appearance and he have this innate instinct to want to protect her. The Candy man is a quite intimidating villian since he never shows himself in bright light and when he does hes breifly tere or in the dark making him more mysterious and scary for the viewer.
Mise en Scene
The costume of the Candy Man is designed in a specific way to look both intimidating and grotesque. The coat is designed to be long and flowing and covers his entire body giving him a tall and slender appearance. This makes him look very powerful and big but also makes him look strangely fragile which is creepy and strangely appropriate. His hook hand is hastily nailed on and incredibly grotesque, in contrast to his almost normal looking appearance is quite freaky for the viewer and also simultaeously gives him his signature weapon.
Camera
In a movie about a killer that appears by chanting in a mirror we are obviuosly going to get a lot of mirror shots. Because of the reflection, the camera is always positioned at the side of the mirror rather then directly in front of it. This fact can actually provide some suspenseful scenes where viewpoints are slightly obscured and even provides an early jumpscare in the beginning of the movie where the lights turn of and he suddenly appears behind the woman in the story. There is also a scene where we reverse track from a mirror which generates a feeling of suspence since we hold on the image for a long time.
Sound
With the concept of the urban legend and slasher guiding its style, there must be certain situation which summons or generates the killer, in this case uttering his name five times summons him. Having a repeated phrase in your moivie drives the viewers suspense because if you can scare your audience with the just the mere chanting of a word, your already got your hands on a winning horror gimmick that will stick with viewers for a long time.
Mise en Scene
The costume of the Candy Man is designed in a specific way to look both intimidating and grotesque. The coat is designed to be long and flowing and covers his entire body giving him a tall and slender appearance. This makes him look very powerful and big but also makes him look strangely fragile which is creepy and strangely appropriate. His hook hand is hastily nailed on and incredibly grotesque, in contrast to his almost normal looking appearance is quite freaky for the viewer and also simultaeously gives him his signature weapon.
Camera
In a movie about a killer that appears by chanting in a mirror we are obviuosly going to get a lot of mirror shots. Because of the reflection, the camera is always positioned at the side of the mirror rather then directly in front of it. This fact can actually provide some suspenseful scenes where viewpoints are slightly obscured and even provides an early jumpscare in the beginning of the movie where the lights turn of and he suddenly appears behind the woman in the story. There is also a scene where we reverse track from a mirror which generates a feeling of suspence since we hold on the image for a long time.
Sound
With the concept of the urban legend and slasher guiding its style, there must be certain situation which summons or generates the killer, in this case uttering his name five times summons him. Having a repeated phrase in your moivie drives the viewers suspense because if you can scare your audience with the just the mere chanting of a word, your already got your hands on a winning horror gimmick that will stick with viewers for a long time.
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