Candyman

"Candyman," bolstered by a haunting Philip Glass score and atmospheric handling by writer-director Bernard Rose, is a lurid horror yarn (loosely based on a Clive Barker story, "The Forbidden") with a unique premise. It also has a white heroine and a black monster, which has been construed as racist in some corners.

Virginia Madsen stars as a woman debunking urban legends for her graduate thesis (calling Jan Brunvand!) — until she runs into one that is real. Supposedly, if you look in a mirror and say "Can-dy-man" five times, a hulking black man with a huge hook in place of one hand appears to cause no end of murder and mayhem. (He also breathes asthmatically and speaks in Darth Vader tones.)

Naturally, Madsen gives it a try — and, naturally, Candyman (Tony Todd) appears. But instead of simply killing her, as he does with so many other victims, Candyman declares his love for Madsen — simply because she didn't believe in him when she called him. And to prove his love for her . . . he frames Madsen for a series of murders. Right.

The film tries to paint Can-dy-man as a victim who, a hundred years earlier, was wronged, tortured and killed in an area that is now a Chicago slum. He apparently returns when summoned to get revenge.

In this manner, he is something of a Freddy Krueger and as the film progresses and the old creative-killing motif takes hold, it becomes even more like the "Night-mare on Elm Street" pic-tures.

The problem with modern-day movie monsters, aside from their films being drenched in far too much blood and gore (which is plentiful here), is that there doesn't seem to be any logical history for the monsters' existence — or any rules to play by. How does this guy choose his victims? What is his modus operandi? It's all pretty random.

And how can he be killed in the end? He can't, of course. Otherwise, how could we have "Candyman II"?

As to the question of whether the film is racist . . . in the filmmakers' defense, it should be noted that the film has several sympathetic black characters in support. But you do have to wonder why Candyman falls in love when he meets a blonde after brutally murdering the many black women who have been his earlier victims.

"Candyman" is rated R for considerable violence and gore, along with nudity, profanity, vulgarity and sex.