For a black kid growing up binging on horror movies, Blerdcon Thrilla 2025 was a breath of fresh air.
I was that kid who would play hooky from school, but instead of going to the arcade like most kids, I would sit at home while my parents were at work and watch horror movies on VHS that I rented from Blockbuster Video. I would watch all the classics, such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
So, it was a distinct honor and pleasure for me to watch on the big screen for the first time the original Candyman starring the legendary Tony Todd. Based on Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden,” Candyman is quintessential urban folklore, while simultaneously a modern version of the story chronicled in Bram Stoker’s Dracula with their shared theme of men who rise from the grave to find their lost loves.
Tragically, the actor and producer Tony Todd, who was originally scheduled to be featured at Blerdcon Thrilla 2025, passed away on November 6, 2024, at the age of 69 due to cancer. Blerdcon hosted a memorial for Todd and had a special screening of Candyman at the convention this year.
Todd as Candyman was perfect: tall, handsome, and with a deep and powerful baritone voice. He gave a haunting portrayal of Daniel Robitaille, an accomplished nineteenth century artist who was commissioned to paint Caroline Sullivan, daughter of a wealthy landowner.
The two fell into a forbidden love. Consequently, Robitaille was hunted down and tortured by having his right hand severed and with a hook shoved in its place, thrown into a pit and covered in honey where he was stung to death by thousands of bees.
The film takes place in the Cabrini-Green projects of Chicago. Helen Lyle, the female protagonist, is a university sociology student who is intrigued and pursues the Candyman legend. She does what is forbidden, saying Candyman’s name five times in front of a mirror, which typically leads to the death of anyone who violates this rule.
Instead of killing her, Candyman insists that she become eternally his. As she rebukes him, Helen falls deeper into madness as he kills those around her, with the evidence pointing to her as the killer. She is arrested but her deepening madness lands her in a mental hospital. She escapes to confront Candyman one last time. When Candyman eerily tells her, “It was always you, Helen,” she discovers that she is the reincarnation of Candyman’s lost love Caroline.
The sister of Tony Todd, scream queen and burlesque artist Monique Dupree, also known as Tha True Original GATA, presented the Candyman film to honor her brother’s career and life. Overwhelmed by grief, she spoke very briefly about the impact that he had on the horror world and in Hollywood.
Also tragic was the way in which Candyman was initially received. Although grossing four times the cost of the movie in its release in 1992, critics claimed it was racist because of the portrayal of Candyman as a black villain delivering unspeakable violence. Thus, Candyman did not achieve iconic horror villain status in the vein of Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Leatherface.
Todd, who had 249 acting credits to his name, is also well known for the Final Destination series, The Crow (1994), and the remake of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1990). He did a cameo appearance in the 2021 version of Candyman produced by filmmaker Jordan Peele.
But since the recent influx of black filmmakers into the horror genre including Peele, who wrote and directed the 2017 Academy Award nominated film Get Out, Candyman has been reclaimed as a masterpiece, a gothic tale of the supernatural imposing its will on the natural world, blurring the line between what is real and what is not, with Candyman as a brutally compelling villain.
Perhaps today there are still black kids who play hooky from school like I did to binge on horror movies. If so, then I hope they will add Candyman to their rotation of films. Or better yet, they should purchase a DVD copy for posterity.