Dare you say his name five times? From the chilling imagination of horror master Clive Barker (Hellraiser, Nightbreed), comes Candyman – arguably one of the greatest horror movies of the 1990s, now newly restored on Blu-ray.

When grad student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) begins working on a thesis looking at urban legends, she encounters the tale of the Candyman – the vengeful spirit of a hook-handed slave, who, it is said, can be summoned by saying his name five times in the mirror. As her research leads her into the bowels of Chicago’s deprived housing projects and deeper into the Candyman’s world, Helen learns that some legends are best left alone…

Expertly directed by British filmmaker Bernard Rose and boasting an astounding score by composer Philip Glass, Candyman ingeniously reworks Clive Barker’s original short story “The Forbidden” (originally published as part of his Books of Blood collection) into a modern horror parable that remains as timely today as ever.

Also, see the Shout Factory blu-ray edition of Candyman.

Shipping starts on October 29, 2018

SPECS

Director: Bernard Rose

Starring: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd

Country: USA, UK

Production Year: 1992

Discs: 1 Blu-ray Disc

Region: B

Run Time: 99 minutes

Formats: Color; 1.85:1

Audio: English

Subtitle: English

AKA: Clive Barker’s Candyman

Studio: Arrow Video (UK)

SPECIAL FEATURES

BRAND NEW 2K RESTORATION from a new 4K scan of the original negative, supervised and approved by writer-director Bernard Rose and director of photography Anthony B. Richmond

5.1 DTS-HD MA and Original Uncompressed Stereo 2.0 Audio

Optional English subtitles

Exclusive packaging featuring newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin

6 Lobby Card reproductions

Reversible fold-out poster featuring two artworks

Fully illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by festival programmer Michael Blyth

Limited Edition perfect-bound booklet reproducing the original hand-painted storyboards by Bernard Rose

Brand new audio commentary with writer-director Bernard Rose and actor Tony Todd

Brand new audio commentary with Stephen Jones and Kim Newman

Be My Victim – a brand new interview with Tony Todd

It Was Always You, Helen – a brand new interview with Virginia Madsen

The Writing on the Wall: The Production Design of Candyman – a brand new interview with production designer Jane Ann Stewart

Forbidden Flesh: The Makeup FX of Candyman – brand new interviews with special makeup effects artists Bob Keen, Gary J. Tunnicliffe and Mark Coulier

A Story to Tell: Clive Barker’s “The Forbidden” – writer Douglas E. Winter on Clive Barker’s seminal Books of Blood and Candyman’s source story, “The Forbidden”

Urban Legend: Unwrapping Candyman – a critical analysis of the film with writers Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes

Theatrical Trailer

Three rarely-seen Bernard Rose short films, newly restored in HD: Looking at Alice (30 mins, 1978), A Bomb With No Name on It (3 mins, 1976), The Wreckers (5 mins)

Notice: The picture quality of this video does not reflect the picture quality of the blu-ray or DVD in this package.

Candyman Fun Facts

1. The bees were bred specifically for this movie. They needed to make sure that the bees were only twelve hours old, so that they looked like mature bees, but their stinger wouldn’t be powerful enough to do any real damage.

2.Tony Todd was stung by bees 23 times during the space of the Candyman trilogy.

3. Exterior, hallway, and stairway scenes were actually filmed for a few days in the infamous Cabrini-Green housing projects, though the producers had to make a deal with the ruling gang members to put them in the movie as extras to ensure the cast and crew’s safety during filming. Even with this arrangement, a sniper put a bullet through the production van on the last day of filming, though no one was injured.

4. The architecture flaw of the medicine chests and people being able to sneak in, is something that Bernard Rose discovered in his research for the film and there was actually a series of murders that were committed this way.

5. There was in fact, a Candyman killer in real life who is different to the fictional Candyman. Dean Corill was a serial killer in the Houston, Texas area, who raped and murdered numerous boys from 1970 to 1973. He would lure children into his home using candy from his family’s factory. So the media dubbed him the “Candyman”. Dean Corll had two teenage accomplices who actually helped lure the young boys, but when Dean plotted to rape and kill one of them, they shot and killed him.

6. On the DVD commentary, Alan Poul said that had Virginia Madsen been unavailable, the part of Helen would have most likely gone to the then unknown Sandra Bullock.

7. The character of Candyman came in at number 8 on Bloody-Disgusting’s “The Top 13 Slashers in Horror Movie History” and ranked the same on Ugo’s “Top Eleven Slashers”, Tony Todd made #53 on RetroCrush’s “The 100 Greatest Horror Movie Performances” for his role.

