How does the film Candyman meet the genre of horror?

 

      The film Candyman is a 1992 American horror staring 'Virginia Madsen' and 'Tony Todd'. The opening sequence entails the credits which are bold and white this shows the importance of the actors to the story. This film is a cult film; it strands upon the supernatural side of the horror genre, but also touches on the psychotic killer’s side. It is based around urban legends of cult groups. This film is a chilling horror based around a student 'Helen' who writes a thesis on an urban legend based around 'Candyman', she dives herself into more danger when she visits places such as “Cabrini Green” which are haunted by the phantom 'Candyman'. This film is very realistic as it shows how the extent of racism can create a fearful legend as we later learn that 'Candyman' was a son of a slave, he was hunted by villagers and killed by them due to his race. The reviews of the film entail positive feedback about the American chilling 90’s horror. “Despite its sugary title this film leaves a very dark in the mouth.” (Source-empireonline.com)

  The credits are on a background of a shot of forward tracking of the city, this helps set the establishment shot as it shows us the setting of the city and also reinforces that this story is going to happen to regular people in this area.  The establishing shots of the city of Chicago are accompanied by the non-diegetic sound of organs playing and a choir singing. This ominous music creates a sense of mystery and fear and also implies that this film could have a religious background as the music is from church. However, an alternative suggestion could be the religious contexts of heaven and hell as we know this film contains the element of death. These factors helps portray the convention of horror as the forward tracking is an infamous camera angle used in horrors. The use of the spine tingling non-diegetic music creates and air of mystery and fear, it also helps bring in themes to the film like religion by using the music at the start as a contextual reference to church which contrasts with death of civilians and whether they go to heaven or hell.

   After the credit it cuts to a wide shot and then zooms in on a large number of bees, the masses of these creatures suggest the significance they have to the film. The non-diegetic sound of a man talking over laps this shot. The dialect used it quite scary and frightening as he is talking about killing people by splitting open their guts with his hook for an arm. This phrase is used to scare the audience and show the reoccurring theme of death and gives us an indication of what the film is about and what murder weapon is used, a hook suggests the murder has dominance and power of their victims. The voice is very dark and mysterious this air all adds to the suspense as we don’t know who that person is and what he looks like we can only hear him. It then dissolves to a wide shot of the city and uses CGI to show the millions of bees flying over the city and taking over, this represents that the killer is going to take over the city with his crimes as he is a danger and threat to them. This use of dialogue reinforces the horror genre as the voice is cold and dark which makes him un-relatable to the audience which creates a sense of fear as the audience don’t know who the person talking is he doesn’t sound friendly or happy which also adds to the ominous feel of the film.

   After the shot of the bees taking over the city it cuts to a shot of a house it then forward tracks towards the house suggesting this is the scene where an event is about to take place. There is a non-diegetic voice over that accompanies this scene. The girl speaking acts as though she is the narrator as she introduces the people in the scene. Her voice is calm and soft which helps the audience feel like they can trust her view on what she is about to say. She describes the scene suggesting she is maybe telling the event too someone in the present but there are flashbacks to the time of the event. In addition there is dialogue from the characters involved suggesting the film is flicking back to the event to make it more realistic and show the audience what actually happened as they can see the visual images of what happened. However, it was the past and now it is in the present when the narrator is telling it. The scene mainly takes place in the bathroom with two teenager’s one male and one female. The female isn’t wearing much clothing just trousers and a bra this foreshadows to us that she may be in danger as she is quite venerable as she has no layers to protect her so is the main victim and in addition the gender stereotype that women are the "damsels in distress".  The male character is in informal clothing and portrays the stereotype of the typical American high school bad boy. The female pressures him into doing a chant in the mirror this reinforces further that he is trying to portray a brave fearless character. He however only gets to four suggesting he wasn’t brave enough and maybe he isn’t going to protect the girl which the audience could once have assumed as he was portraying a bad boy and protector stereotype. Once the girl is alone in the bath room there is a wide shot of her face and she chants the name 'Candyman' one last time then reaches to turn off the lights. The dark quick blackout instantly suggests death and then this is accompanied with a piercing scream which reinforces the horror theme and we know that the girl is dead. The next shot is of the lights being turned back on and blood is splattered onto the wall, we know this the victims’ blood. The prop blood is a common thing used in horrors as most horrors are based around death and cold blooded murders.

  This is followed by a dissolve close up of a women’s face who is smoking. The women has blonde hair and wears make up this mise-en-scene is used to promote the lady as pretty as it can make her relatable and appealing to the audience. This implies that the characters are everyday ordinary people which helps the audience relate. The lady is smoking which indicates that she maybe breaking the stereotypical stereotype of women being “angles” and never doing anything wrong as smoking can be seen as an unsavoury habit. We later learn that she is called 'Helen' and is investigating the legend that surrounds 'Candyman'. This also implies she is breeching a stereotype barrier as she is doing a manly job which isn’t seen as a job necessary for women as there is a certain amount of danger involved.

   The cuts used in the film is continuity editing the cuts are fluid to show the film is fast moving, this adds to the drama because in most of the scene there is a new issue raised. There are many close up shots used in the film this is too bring the audience closer to the characters and almost get attached because they want them to reel the connection so they feel an emotion when they are killed.

   
  The clothing the character wear in the film is very casual and informal which helps enforce to the audience that this can happen to anyone, they are trying to portray and girl next door stereotype as the characters are ordinary. This aspect adds to the film being the convention of horror. The props used such as body modification adds fear for the audience as also suggests which character has dominance as the hook shows that 'Candyman' has dominance over his killers as he has a weapon to kill. The weapon is welded to his arm suggesting even more violence in the film as he must have gone through pain and suffering to have had his arm amputated and maybe opposing far and sheer violence onto his victims to inflict the pain he went through. This helps create the film to be a horror as it shows the violence that can lead to disfigurements.