Posted on March 18, 2021

Candyman: Essential Reading

Dawn Keetley

Conversations about the Candyman franchise will undoubtedly be ongoing as we await Nia DaCosta and Jordan Peele’s “spiritual sequel.” To that end, we’ll be collecting essential reading here – so send us any further suggestions.

Here’s the trailer for the upcoming Candyman:

Abbott, Stacey. “Candyman and Saw: Reimagining the Slasher Film through Urban Gothic.” Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film, edited by Wickham Clayton. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 67-78.

Austen, Ben. “Cabrini-Green and a Horror Film That Captured the Fears of Public Housing.” Chicago Tribune, August 16, 2018, https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-flashback-cabrini-green-candyman-public-housing-austen-0819-20180815-story.html.

Bethea, Dani. “Becoming Folklore: Black Lives to Black Ghouls.” GhoulishMedia, October 11, 2020, https://ghoulishmedia.com/black-lives-to-black-ghouls/.

—. “The Optics of Gentrification in Candyman.” Medium, February 29, 2020, https://danibethea.medium.com/the-optics-of-gentrification-in-candyman-4d3a248bf43e.

Blouin, Michael J. “Candyman and Neoliberal Racism.” Magical Thinking, Fantastic Film, and the Illusions of Neoliberalism. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 81-107.

Bogira, Steve. “How a Story about the Horrors of Housing Projects Became Part of a Horror Movie.” Chicago Reader, March 14, 2014, https://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2014/03/14/how-a-story-about-the-horrors-of-housing-projects-became-part-of-a-horror-movie.

Botting, Fred. “Candygothic.” The Gothic. Boydell and Brewer, 2001, pp. 133-51.

Briefel, Aviva, and Sianne Ngaî. “‘How much did you pay for this place?’ Fear, Entitlement, and Urban Space in Bernard Rose’s Candyman.” Camera Obscura, vol. 37, January 1996, pp. 71-91.

Helen and Bernadette drive to Cabrini-Green

Cipolla, Matt. “The True Villain of “Candyman” Isn’t the Urban Legend Himself—It’s Helen.” The Spool, February 27, 2020. https://thespool.net/features/candyman-1992-white-savior/.

Connor, Jay. “The Candyman Can Because Yes, Gentrification Deserves Its Own Horror Flick.” The Root, February 27, 2020. https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/the-candyman-can-because-yes-gentrification-deserves-i-1841951107.

Donaldson, Lucy Fife. “‘The suffering black male body and the threatened white female body’: Ambiguous Bodies in Candyman.” Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, February 2011.

Erwin, Elizabeth. “Race & Historical Memory in Candyman.” Horror Homeroom, October 10, 2019. http://www.horrorhomeroom.com/candyman-2/.

Graveyard Shift Sisters. “Wicked Rewind: Candyman (1992), October 16, 2017, https://www.graveyardshiftsisters.com/2017/10/wicked-rewind-candyman-1992.html#more.

Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters. Duke University Press, pp. 4-6.

Hester-Williams, Kim D. “Neoslaves: Slavery, Freedom, and African American Apotheosis in CandymanThe Matrix, and The Green Mile.” Genders, vol. 40, 2004.

Hill, Mike. “Can Whiteness Speak? Institutional Anomies, Ontological Disasters, and Three Hollywood Films.” White Trash: Race and Class in America, edited by Matt Wray and Annalee Newitz. Routledge, 1997, pp. 155-73.

Hoeveler, Diane Long. “The Postfeminist Filmic Female Gothic Detective: Reading the Bodily Text in Candyman.” Postfeminist Gothic, edited by Benjamin Brabon and Stéphanie Genz. Palgrave, 2007, pp. 99-113.

Kee, Jessica Baker. “Black Masculinities and Postmodern Horror: Race, Gender, and Abjection.” Visual Culture & Gender, vol. 10, 2015, pp. 47-56.

Keetley, Dawn. “What’s Wrong with Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh?” Horror Homeroom, March 15, 2021, http://www.horrorhomeroom.com/whats-wrong-with-candyman-farewell-to-the-flesh/.

Koven, Mikel. “Candyman Can: Film and Ostentation.” Contemporary Legend, vol. 2, 1999, pp. 155-73.

Kydd, Elspeth. “Guess who else is coming to dinner: Racial/sexual Hysteria in Candyman.” CineAction, vol. 36, 1996, pp. 63-72.

Means Coleman, Robin. Horror Noire: Black in American Horror Films from the 1890s to the Present. Routledge, 2011, pp. 188-91.

Muir, John Kenneth. Horror Films of the 1990s. McFarland, 2011.

Ochonicky, Adam. “‘Something to Be Haunted By’: Adaptive Monsters and Regional Mythologies in ‘The Forbidden’ and Candyman.” Horror Studies, vol. 11, no. 1, 2020, pp. 101-22.

Pinedo, Isabel Cristina. Recreational Horror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing. State University Press, 1997, pp. 128-31..

Richardson, Sydney. “Candyman Origins: From Medicine Cabinet Killer to Hook-Handed Slasher.” GhoulishMedia, March 6, 2021, https://ghoulishmedia.com/candyman-origins/.

Thompson, Kirsten Moana. “Strange Fruit: Candyman and Supernatural Dread.” Apocalyptic Dread. SUNY Press, 2007, pp. 59-81.

Towlson, Jon. Candyman. Devil’s Advocates, 2018.

Weiss, Josh. “Candyman Producer Jordan Peele on How 1992 Original Helped Pave Way for His Horror Career.” SyFyWire, April 16, 2020, https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/jordan-peele-candyman-get-out-career.

Wyrick, Laura. “Summoning Candyman: The Cultural Production of History.” Arizona Quarterly, vol. 54, no. 3, 1998, pp. 89-117.

 

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