Directed by Bernard Rose, U.S.A./U.K. CANDYMAN is a movie which fancies itself. Not for it, the humble, guilty pleasures of the horror film. No, no. Here we have pretensions to proper cinema: weighty dialogue, nice cinematography, and a score by a proper composer. It is, in fact, a horror movie for people who don’t really like horror movies (much like another misfire released the same year, Coppola’s appalling BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA). Based on a short story by Clive Barker, it tells the story of a researcher looking into an urban legend involving a hook-handed killer, but it rapidly sinks under notions of its own self-importance. 2/5.
MOVIES THAT DIE SCREAMING 