CANDYMAN - When I was a young kid getting into horror I would dismiss anything like this as anaemic drivel, so fixated was I on the 'Forbidden' glow of banned video nasties. I thought films needed to be pulled from deep underground on semi-watchable tape to be valid. Seeing this now through the eyes of a fourteen year old would be pointless if not impossible, and my mid-thirties self is happy to report that 'Candyman' is a well executed and thoughtful exercise in urban horror. In fact, I really enjoyed viewing 'Candyman' this evening. Adaptions are always awkward and tricky - there's enough inherent friction between film and literature to make me disregard the idea of translation as an end in itself. I must say this, because Clive Barker's original short story exudes a menace which isn't captured here - I love the essential dankness of Brit horror lit from this period, if only as exemplified by the likes of Barker and Campbell - and it would've been great to have seen a twisted avant gardist Ken Loach do a Liverpool council estate based horror back in the eighties, but really, as a film and an imagined realm unto itself, 'Candyman' delivers. That nineties feel is there - slick and linear, but not without style. Performances, direction are all great, and the Phillip Glass score amplifies the mood markedly. I liked it.
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