Chapter 1; the urban lenged killer
The story of urban legend begins on a
cold winter day
with a young couple who were having a christening party in their home for their new baby. The guests started to arrive out of the cold, and as they were welcomed by their hosts, they tossed their coats onto a bed that was near the main living room. In 1960, Helen Lyle, a semiotics graduate student in Chicago researching urban legends, learns of the Candyman, who can be summoned by saying his name five times to a mirror, causing him to appear and kill the summoner by using a hook attached to the bloody stump of a right arm. Two cleaning ladies tell Helen the Candyman killed Ruthie Jean, a resident in the notoriously dangerous Cabrini-Green housing project. Helen and colleague Bernadette Walsh investigate and discover there were 25 similar murders. Skeptical, Helen and Bernadette repeat the Candyman’s name to Helen’s bathroom mirror, but nothing happens.
Helen, now writing a thesis on how the residents of Cabrini-Green use the Candyman legend to cope with hardship, visits the scene of Ruthie Jean’s murder there, and meets Anne-Marie McCoy and her infant son Anthony.
Professor Philip Purcell tells Helen the Candyman was the son of a slave, and became prosperous mass-producing shoes after the Civil War. Accepted by white society, he became a well-known artist sought after to paint portraits of wealthy landowners and their families. After falling in love with a white woman whom he was hired to paint, and fathering a child with her, he was set upon by a lynch mob hired by his lover’s father. The mob cut off his right hand with a rusty saw and smeared him with honey stolen from an apiary, attracting bees that stung him to death. His corpse was burned and his ashes scattered across the land on which Cabrini-Green was built.
On a return visit to Cabrini-Green, Helen is attacked by a gang leader who carries a hook and calls himself the Candyman. Helen survives the assault with a black eye and identifies her attacker to the police, who believed him to be responsible for the killings.
Later, in a parking garage, Helen is confronted by the real Candyman. He tells her that because she discredited his legend, he must “shed innocent blood” to perpetuate it. Helen blacks out and awakens in Anne-Marie’s apartment, covered in blood. Anne-Marie, whose dog was decapitated and whose baby was stolen, attacks Helen, who is arrested by the police. Helen’s husband Trevor, a university professor, bails her out of jail. The Candyman appears again and cuts Helen’s neck, causing her to bleed and pass out. Bernadette arrives at Helen’s apartment, where she is murdered by the Candyman, who frames Helen for the crime. Helen is sedated and placed in a psychiatric hospital.
After a month there, Helen is interviewed by psychiatrist Dr. Burke in preparation for her upcoming trial. She attempts to prove her innocence by summoning the Candyman. The Candyman appears and kills Dr. Burke, allowing Helen to escape. Once Helen is home, she finds Trevor living with Stacey, one of his students with whom he’s been having an affair. Helen flees to Cabrini-Green, seeking to confront the Candyman and rescue Anthony. When she finds the Candyman, he tells her that surrendering to him will ensure the baby’s safety. Offering Helen immortality, the Candyman opens his coat, revealing a ribcage wreathed in bees. The bees pour out of his mouth as he kisses her, sending the bees down her throat. The Candyman vanishes with Anthony, and Helen discovers a mural of the Candyman and his lover, who bears a striking resemblance to Helen.
The Candyman promises to release Anthony if Helen helps him strike fear in Cabrini-Green’s residents. In a bid to feed his legend, the Candyman tries to immolate Helen and the child in a bonfire, but he is destroyed in it. Helen saves Anthony, but she is burned severely and dies. The residents, including Anne-Marie and Jake, pay their respects at Helen’s funeral. Jake tosses the Candyman’s hook into her grave. Afterward, a grief-stricken and guilt-ridden Trevor looks at his bathroom mirror and says Helen’s name five times. Helen’s vengeful spirit appears and kills Trevor with a hook, leaving his body to be found by Stacey.
In the Candyman’s former lair, there is a new mural of Helen with her hair ablaze.
