Candyman (1992)

Your first kiss?  Your first day at school?  Don't you remember your first time watching Candyman?  I was 9 when this movie came out, so obviously I wasn't allowed to see it.  But in junior high, I finally experienced the glory that is Candyman.

I actually had no idea this had anything to do with Clive Barker until I just searched the movie on Wikipedia.   That explains why I loved Dread but does not explain why I can't stand Hellraiser.

Candyman is such an awesome movie.  We all love urban legends and what is not incredible about an entire movie based around the "bloody mary" thing we feared as children?  Helen (Virginia Madsen) and her friend/colleague Bernadette (Kasi Lemmons) are writing a thesis on urban legends, which becomes more and more focused on Candyman.  Helen all but forces her friend to go to the housing projects, Carbrini Green, and investigate a recent murder supposedly committed by the Candyman.

Helen soon discovers that Candyman is the spirit/living embodiment of a slave who fell in love with a white woman and was killed in what is now Chicago.  He has come back to haunt the projects in which his ashes were spilled over.  Unfortunately, Helen gets way too involved and further dragged into the Candyman story than she planned.

This movie has levels of creepiness that I have rarely seen in another film.  I saw this movie first when I was maybe 11, and it's still stuck in my head 17 years later.  This is an excellent flick from start to finish with great acting and an awesome storyline.  I know Candyman came from the 90s, but it's a serious classic.