candyman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It is no secret that horror maestro Clive Barker has not had good luck lately with feature films. But to his credit, it hasn't made him bitter about seeing his work translated for the big screen. In an interview with MTV, Barker got the chance to weigh in on the upcoming remake of Hellraiser for Dimension Films -- and judging from his comments, he seems to be in a good place with the project. Barker told MTV, "I never get tired of revisiting [characters] if there is a good story to be told." He seemed genuinely excited about what he has planned for the story of a puzzle box from another dimension and the 'human pin-cushion'.

Back in February, Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton were hired to work on the re-write of the Barker-approved script. But the project had another setback when the French directing duo of Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (À l'intérieur) left the project due to "creative differences." So for now it looks like Pin-Head and the Gang are without a director. Hopefully, Dimension can get the ball rolling on the remake, because I don't think Barker could take another disappointment at the box office.

After the jump...find out what Barker really thinks about PG-13 horror.

Of all the freakin' horror remake outrages, this one might take the cake. Candyman, the freakishly original 'Chicago projects urban legend' flick based on a Clive Barker story, might be remade by Sony with a Caucasian in the title role, according to Shock Til You Drop. The site says that Sony and the unidentified rights holder are in "early talks," with one idea being to change Candyman's skin color from black to white.

I know this is not confirmed, and many stupid ideas are undoubtedly floated in early conversations, but this is wrong on so many levels I'm left speechless. At the most basic level, it begs the question: has anyone contemplating the remake actually watched Bernard Rose's frightening original? In the movie, Candyman (the great Tony Todd) was the son of a slave who "suffered a hideous and unjust death," as Ryan Stewart described in his Retro Cinema appreciation. An urban legend developed around him in the notorious crime-infested Cabrini-Green housing project: say his name multiple times in front of a mirror and he appears. Virginia Madsen, as a sociology grad student, investigates, calls him back to life, and wishes she had stayed in the classroom.

Two sequels, which I haven't seen, followed Candyman to New Orleans and Los Angeles, but Chicago is where he belongs. The Cabrini-Green high-rise projects have been torn down and redevelopment is taking place -- that's your story, the horror of modern redevelopment. If you want to add a political edge, tie in the outcome of the Presidential election. But please, Sony, don't make Candyman a Caucasian.

The squandered genius of writer-director Bernard Rose is a subject worthy of a documentary. After some steady work as a hired helmer in British cinema, Rose made his writing-directing debut with 1992's Candyman, a movie that, by all rights, should have been a forgettable B-grade chiller about a ghost who haunts a ghetto, but which I vividly remember seeing in theaters on a double-bill with Steven Seagal's Under Siege. Since I was only 14 at the time, I was very appreciative of Under Siege -- specifically Erika Eleniak's nude scene -- but I was absolutely terrified of Candyman, and remain so to this day. By the time Rose's second film, Immortal Beloved, rolled around, I was already a fan and fell for the lush, full-throated and historically absurd sophomore effort as much as I had for Candyman. Then came 1997's expansive, shot-on-location-in-Russia film adaption of Anna Karenina, starring Sophie Marceau, which took in less than a million dollars at the box-office, effectively ending Rose's Hollywood career just as it was beginning.

Should Rose ever be given entrance into the brass ring again, we can only hope his skills are still sharp enough to make movies like Candyman, which does so many things right I can hardly list them all. This is a horror movie that gets depressing right -- how many movies can hit that note? After you've seen it, you don't feel like you've had a "thrill ride" or a "good scare"-- you feel like the world is a grim, depressing and inescapably hopeless place. The plot: two sociology grad students at the University of Illinois, played by Virginia Madsen and Kasi Lemmons, decide to investigate a locally born urban legend figure known as Candyman (Tony Todd) -- say his name a few times in the mirror and he'll appear and gut you with his hook. Their research leads them to Chicago's Cabrini Green, a notoriously gang-infested housing complex that's sort of like a North Shore Compton, only scarier because it's comprised of dilapidated high-rise buildings with rotting walls and empty staircases that just scream out 'very bad things have happened here.'

At the risk of sounding -- I don't know -- cynical, I have to say I'm a little surprised to read this article in The Hollywood Reporter. Apparently, horror master Clive Barker is partnering with Walden Media, who are primarily known for kid-friendly fare like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the upcoming Charlotte's Web, to develop an original thriller for kids centered around Edgar Allen Poe. Although, I guess I shouldn't really be surprised considering Barker has actually done some other projects for kids before, such as the books The Thief of Always and his recent fantasy series The Books of Abarat -- both of which are also currently being developed as films.

Still, most of my experiences with Barker come from watching his films, not from reading his books. Perhaps I'm in the minority but I don't exactly consider Candyman, Nightbreed or Hellraiser suitable for kids -- although I'm sure Pinhead would make an excellent babysitter. Well, I guess everyone deserves a chance to change and try different things, so I can't really fault Barker for wanting to stretch with this new project. That said, what's his reason for wanting to tell this kind of story? "I think we might have a chance with this project to bring the character of Poe alive for a new audience and weave his shadowy existence into the dark enchantments of his stories so that for our protagonist, and for our audience, it will be difficult to be sure where one finishes and the other takes flight," Barker said.

And what about my concerns regarding the blood, violence and other explicit scenes that are usually a large part of the Clive Barker "experience"? "This project is an opportunity for us to reimagine a genre that is generally associated with an older audience," Alex Schwartz, exec vp of production at Walden media said. "By focusing on mood and atmosphere rather than blood and guts, Clive Barker brings a smart, literate take on the horror genre that will expose young audiences to its great literary underpinnings." Ok, I'll buy that.

The as-yet untitled film will revolve around a group of teenagers who attempt to uncover what happened during the last weeks of Edgar Allen Poe's life. Unfortunately, their investigation inadvertently triggers a curse that unlocks Poe's nightmares from which the teenagers must escape. Barker will also produce the film through his Seraphim Films' with Anthony DiBlasi and Joseph Daley exec producing. No word yet on casting or a potential start date. What do you guys think? Can Barker make the transition from horror to kid's films, or should he stick to what he does best?