Look in the mirror and say his name 5 times. We dare you.
The urban legend of Cabrini-Green’s hook-handed killer, Candyman has haunted movie viewers for three decades (Oct 16, 1992).
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As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the nightmarish classic, check out these five Candyman facts you didn’t know about the film.
Candyman Fact 1
Tony Todd negotiated a bonus of $1,000 for each of the 23 bee stings that he received during filming.
Candyman Fact 2
This has since been debunked by the film’s director.
Eddie Murphy and Sandra Bullock were considered for the lead roles of Candyman and Helen. It’s is unclear as to why Murphy wasn’t cast with varying reports saying it was due to his 5’9″ height not nearly as intimidating as Tony Todd’s 6′ 5″ to Murphy’s salary demands.
As to Bullock, on the film’s DVD commentary, producer Alan Poul said that had Virginia Madsen couldn’t portray Helen as they wanted, the part would have likely been offered to Sandra Bullock.
Candyman Fact 3
The film used more than 200,000 real new honeybees throughout filming. The bees were newborns (just 12 hours old) so that they looked fully grown, but their stingers weren’t as powerful. However in the scene in which Candyman sends 500 bees into Helen’s face from his mouth, the film’s bee keeper Norman Gary had to use freshly hatched, non-stinging and non-flying bees because actress Virginia Madsen was very allergic to stings.
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Candyman Fact 4
Clive Barker’s original short story, The Forbidden, which the film is based on is based in a fictional British housing project. But when writer/director Bernard Rose took on the project, he updated the setting to 90’s Chicago and the real life Cabrini-Green project; they used the exterior and interior of the real Cabrini-Green for film shooting.
To make this happen the producers had to agree to use some of the project’s residents, including the ruling gang members, as extras.
Candyman Fact 5
The movie Candyman is based on a fictional Chicago-based legend but there was in fact an actual serial killer named Dean Corll known as Candyman/The Candy Man. Corll killed at least 28 young boys in the Houston area between 1970 and 1973. His named derived from the fact that his family owned a candy factory.
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