Candyman is the hook-handed spirit of the Candyman films, an urban legend who appears to anyone who says his name five times in front of a mirror. In the films he is Daniel Robitaille, the son of a slave and a gifted painter who was lynched in the late 19th century for loving a white woman. Tony Todd’s towering, velvet-voiced performance made him one of horror’s most elegant and tragic villains, and Nia DaCosta’s 2021 sequel reimagined the legend as a cycle of racist violence that keeps creating new Candymen.
At a glance
| Franchise | Candyman |
| First appearance | Short story “The Forbidden” (1985); film Candyman (1992) |
| Creators | Clive Barker (original character). Writer-director Bernard Rose adapted the story for the 1992 film, and Tony Todd developed the character’s tragic backstory with co-star Virginia Madsen in rehearsals. |
| Portrayed by | Tony Todd (Candyman, 1992; Farewell to the Flesh, 1995; Day of the Dead, 1999; Candyman, 2021) Michael Hargrove (Sherman Fields, 2021) Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Anthony McCoy, 2021) |
| Weapon of choice | The hook where his right hand used to be; swarms of bees; a hypnotic voice |
Origin story and backstory
The character began in Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden,” published in volume five of his Books of Blood. Set on a run-down Liverpool housing estate, it follows a student, Helen, researching graffiti who uncovers the legend of the Candyman. Barker’s Candyman has a hook and bees, but no race, name or backstory; doubting him is enough to summon him.
Bernard Rose moved the story to Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project for the 1992 film and made it about race and class in urban America. Graduate student Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) studies the local legend and learns the story behind it: Candyman was the son of a slave who became a celebrated portrait painter, fell in love with a white woman he was painting and fathered her child. Her father sent a mob after him. They cut off his right hand, smeared him with honey so that bees stung him to death, and burned his body where Cabrini-Green would later stand. Rose has said the interracial love story is not in Barker’s text; it grew out of the actors’ work in rehearsal.
Sequels and the “hive”
Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) moves to New Orleans, names him Daniel Robitaille and fills in more of his life and death. Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999) follows his descendant in Los Angeles. Nia DaCosta’s Candyman (2021), co-written with Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, is a direct sequel to the 1992 film. It was first described as a “spiritual sequel,” and how it fits with the two earlier sequels is debated. Its big idea is that Candyman is a “hive”: the legend absorbs other Black men killed unjustly, such as Sherman Fields, an innocent man beaten to death by police in the film’s backstory. Robitaille is the first, but not the only, Candyman. The film is set in the gentrified neighborhood that replaced the Cabrini-Green towers, and stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Anthony McCoy, the baby Helen rescued in 1992, now grown up and working as a painter.
Iconic moments
- Say it five times (1992): Helen and her friend Bernadette try the mirror ritual as a joke, and nothing happens. At first.
- The parking garage (1992): Candyman’s first appearance to Helen is less a jump scare than a seduction, delivered in Todd’s deep, hypnotic voice.
- The bees (1992): In his lair, Candyman opens his coat to reveal a ribcage swarming with bees, one of the most memorable images in ’90s horror.
- The bonfire (1992): Helen saves baby Anthony from a burning pile of debris, and the ending turns her into a legend herself.
- “Say My Name” (2021): Artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) turns the legend into a gallery piece built around the mirror ritual, and the story starts spreading again.
- “Tell everyone” (2021): In the closing moments, the new Candyman’s face transforms into Tony Todd’s Daniel Robitaille, who tells Brianna (Teyonah Parris) to “tell everyone” what she has seen.
Appearances
Films in release order
- Candyman (1992)
- Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)
- Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999, direct-to-video)
- Candyman (2021)
Literature and legacy
Literature: “The Forbidden” first appeared in the magazine Fantasy Tales before being collected in Books of Blood, volume five (1985), published in the United States as In the Flesh. Directors: Bernard Rose (1992), Bill Condon (1995), Turi Meyer (1999) and Nia DaCosta (2021). The 1992 film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and grossed over $25 million in the U.S.; the 2021 film grossed about $77 million worldwide on a $25 million budget after being delayed more than a year by the COVID-19 pandemic. Legacy: Tony Todd played the role in all four films. He died on November 6, 2024, making the 2021 film his final appearance as Daniel Robitaille. No new Candyman film has been officially announced.
Trivia and behind-the-scenes facts
- During rehearsals Todd called the character “Granville T. Candyman.” The name Granville was never used, and the sequels settled on Daniel Robitaille.
- Virginia Madsen has said the character was conceived as an “African-American Dracula.” Todd compared him to the Phantom of the Opera.
- The 1992 film used more than 200,000 real honeybees. Todd negotiated a bonus of $1,000 for each sting and was stung 23 times.
- Madsen is allergic to bee stings, so the scene in which bees cover her face used freshly hatched bees that could neither sting nor fly. Rose also used a professional hypnotist to put her into a trance-like state for some scenes.
- Philip Glass composed the score. He has joked that it still earns him royalty checks every year.
- A rumor that Eddie Murphy was the first choice for the role has been denied by Rose.
- Todd was also known for playing William Bludworth in the Final Destination films.
- Farewell to the Flesh was directed by Bill Condon, who later won an Oscar for writing Gods and Monsters.
- The 2021 Candyman opened at No. 1 in North America with $22 million, and its director, Nia DaCosta, became the first Black woman to direct a film that debuted at the top of the U.S. box office.
- The 2021 film’s end credits tell the stories of other members of the Candyman “hive” through shadow puppetry.
- Rolling Stone readers ranked Candyman the tenth-best horror villain in a poll.