And that’s why I didn’t know Candyman was based on a book

 I recently learned that the movie Candyman was based on a novella called the Forbidden by Clive Barker. I wasn’t that surprised since that seems happen a lot for Barker.

Sometimes, though, not only is the movie better than the book, you’re not missing anything not knowing there was a book in the first place.

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I cannot help but compare Candyman and The Forbidden to Hellraiser and the Hellbound Heart. Clive Barker works that became movies. Simply put, the Hellbound Heart is a little masterpiece while the Forbidden is just okay.

The core concept in both works is the idea of belief making urban legends become real. And those legends will take steps if anyone creates doubt.

The Forbidden is set in a fictional British estate that’s less than four years old. The Candyman is an undefined collection of urban legend traits and is actually unnamed until almost the end. And he looks like a jaundiced white guy in a clown outfit based on candy wrappers.

The decision to move the story to a real life setting, the Cabrini-Green projects in Chicago that had a long history, is probably the most significant change. It grounds the story, as well as adding a meaningful racial element. Filming some of the scenes on location helped that.

The movie’s version of the Candyman, in addition to having a much better wardrobe, is introduced as a concept much earlier and much more developed. The book version of the character walks in without any introduction.

And Tony Todd could fill a stadium just by reading the phone book.

Despite being a book lover, I have to admit that sometimes a movie improves on a book. In the case of Candyman, it’s like comparing the Greatest Gift of All by Philip Van Doran Stern with It’s a Wonderful Life.