Candyman (character)

The Candyman is the titular main villain of the 1992 slasher horror film of the same name, loosely based on the short story "The Forbidden" from the anthology Books of Blood, written by Clive Barker.

Daniel Robitaille was the son of a slave; he was an artist and was employed by a wealthy landowner named Heyward Sullivan. His talent was painting in which he painted a portrait of the wealthy landowner’s daughter Caroline Sullivan, whom he had fallen in love with.

He is the lover to Caroline Sullivan and the biological father of Isabel Sullivan. He is also the ancestor to Annie Tarrant, Caroline McKeever, Claire Lyle and Roxanne Robinson. After his death Daniel returns back the earth by the name of Candyman, killing whoever says his name in the mirror with a bloody hook that replaced his hand.

In the films, he is portrayed by Tony Todd.

Personality
Due to the grievous tragedy surrounding his death, having been murdered under unjust pretenses and for personal revenge, Candyman arose from the grave and became a wrath-driven specter, haunting the land where he had been executed. But, rather then reduce the land of Cabrini Green, or the Sullivan household (depending on which movie we follow), as uninhabitable, Candyman preferred to keep the denizens in the dark, unaware of his presence until they made the mistake of doubting his presence.

Candyman, while well-spoken and articulate, is portrayed as being incredibly self-absorbed, narcissistic and vain, valuing his reputation over human life. His sole motivation is to maintain the rumors and stories surrounding his death alive, as he believes that the longer people talk and fear him the more he will continue to haunt the land, later shown to be fact. The only times he had ever killed someone was merely a means to remind the people of his existence by striking terror into their hearts.

Candyman is also shown to possess a severe god complex. He implies self-omnipresence by identifying himself with the rumors and imagery based around his name and likeness, further claiming that without such things he is "nothing", making it clear that he enjoys hearing people talk about him. Candyman takes his role as a god to quite literal religious lengths. He refers to the denizens of his burial grounds as his "followers" and "congregation". Furthermore, Candyman does not kill his believers should they abandon their faith in him, instead opting to murder the people who have called him out as being superstition, such as Helen Lyle, who in the first Candyman movie, told a young boy from Cabrini Green that "Candyman" had merely been an alias used by serial killers to get away with their crimes.

The people who worship Candyman, i.e. the residents of Cabrini Green and New Orleans, have a habit of participating in offerings for the vengeful apparition. During the first film a run-down apartment flat houses a sort of altar in Candyman's name, a pile of chocolate sweets with razor blades inside their packages is placed in front of a large graffiti depicting Candyman's screaming head. Also during the events of the first film, the Cabrini Green's African-American community created a make-shift pyre which they set ablaze, an obvious ritual used to appease the spirit. In the second film the people of New Orleans had created an actual altar in the attic of the Sullivan mansion, the shrine having skulls, candlers and a large wall painting depicting Candyman in a crucifix stance.

Powers and Abilities
Not too many of The Candyman's powers have been shown through the movies, but it is well known that he is immortal because he has been around for century and does not age or need food and water to survive.

He is also able to teleport at fast speeds as well as phasing threw walls for where ever his victims ran he was there before they got there. He also possesses superhuman strength, being able to throw his victims through walls with little effort and has also shown regenerative capabilities (shown when Annie ran out the room).

He also has power over a massive army of bees that live within his very being, as shown in the first Candyman film he covered an entire city with killer bees. He has shown some form of telekinesis along with ability to fly or levitate, and also can become invisible to the naked eye, this allows him to keep his image from being seen or recorded on surveillance equipment like security cameras. The mirror that contains his soul is the secret of his power. If the mirror is destroyed he will cease to exist. If this fails, Destroying his paintings, particularly burning his self-portraits damages him physically.

Backstory
Daniel Robitaille (born in 1855 - died in 1890) was the son of a slave on a plantation in New Orleans. Chosen by a wealthy landowner, Heyward Sullivan to paint a portrait of his daughter Caroline, the intimacy of the setting causes a torrid affair between Daniel and Caroline. The relationship results in Caroline becoming pregnant with Daniel's daughter, and Daniel being reviled.

After being tortured by the bigoted lynch mob, Daniel is chased out of the town and hunted across the fields by Caroline's father and an angry mob, and mutilated by having his right hand sawed off with a rusty arborist saw blade and being coated in fresh honey from a nearby beehive. A small boy tastes the honey, and proclaims "Candy Man!", whereupon the crowd seizes the name and shouts it with gusto. The bees then swarm over Daniel's body, mortally wounding him. Caroline enters the scene, and is restrained as her father taunts Daniel (over how he now looks) with her mirror to which Daniel gasps the words "Candy Man" before dying. Caroline seizes upon the mirror, and cradles it. It is this mirror that holds the tortured, hateful soul of the Candyman; the only remnant of her lover, Caroline hides the mirror in Daniel's birthplace. After this, she gives birth to Daniel's daughter named Isabel. Isabel is born Creole, but she is raised by her mother as being white.

The mirror grants Candyman his spiritual medium, and imbues his soul with the strength to kill when called upon. Summoned through the mirrors of his victims who only have to call his name 5 times, Candyman would murder them with a hook he now replaced his hand with and return to the mirror. A Legend was born through this and Candyman became somewhat of a Monster to those who knew the tale.

Encounter with Helen Lyle (Candyman)
Helen Lyle is a graduate student conducting research for her thesis on urban legends and the mother of her only 8-year-old shy and quiet darkest brunette brown haired and blue eyed daughter, Claire, who's the most talent paint artist made the paint portrait of Daniel Robitaille/Candyman himself and with her mother visit her father in university as a professor in a class in afternoon during lunch time and meeting Michael Robinson, a jet-black haired and green eyed 10-year-old boy who's with his family knowing her father for years, later they became close friends and his love interest after the death of his younger brother Tommy by Candyman.

Her mother talking with father about the urban legends and called from her principle in school that Claire got trouble for hang with the older kids goes to outside to doing practice the spiritual mediumship to connecting with spirits includes call Candyman in the mirror and went to the Candyman's lair to learn about his past and origins, the woman whose resembles her mother all after she lost her silver heart locket necklace with her name on it and a picture inside Candyman is chased through the plantation and when caught, has his drawing hand cut off and replaced with a hook. He is then smeared with honey (prompting the locals to chant 'Candyman' a total of 5 times- hence the 'say his name 5 times into the mirror'), stolen from a nearby apiary, and the bees sting him to death. The legend also claims that Candyman is summoned by anyone who looks into a mirror and chants his name five times (similar to the Bloody Mary folkloric tale). Summoning him often costs the individual their own life.

Later that evening, Helen and her friend Bernadette jokingly call Candyman's name into the mirror in Helen's bathroom but nothing happens, and Clarie getting too scared to sleep, but she tell her mother about Candyman was the evil spirit and immortal ghost killer boogeyman, who's lived in the mirrors, and control the bees, she was doing community of the spiritual mediumship with her best friend, Michael, Chris and other older kids that he's real killer of the Cabrini-Green is true, not gangsters or criminals didn't do this on innocent people with their crimes and the white woman is Caroline Sullivan, but Helen tells her that Candyman wasn't so real, it's just nightmares, then she's send her into the bedroom and goes sleep. Clarie gets a horrible nightmare about Candyman is revealed himself in person to her, watching him kill her parents in front of her in the kitchen floor on the pool of blood and her scream woke them in the middle night, ran into her bedroom to calm her down.

While conducting her research and her father has take Claire to school, Helen enters the notorious gang-ridden Cabrini–Green housing project, the site of a recent unsolved murder. There she meets Anne-Marie McCoy, one of the residents, as well as a young boy named Jake, who tells her a disturbing story of a child who was castrated in a public restroom near the projects, supposedly by Candyman. While Helen explores the run-down restroom, a gang member attacks her: he carries a hook, and has taken the Candyman moniker as his own to enhance his own street credibility by associating himself with the legend. Helen survives the assault and is able to later identify her attacker to the police.

Helen later returns to school but hears a voice calling her name as she walks through a parking garage with Claire about to going home. Another a tall black man she encounters states he is the Candyman of the urban legend, Claire is horrified to see the real Candyman again, as she's recognized him from his attic mancraft lair and because of Helen's disbelief in him, he must now prove to her that he is real killer of Cabrini-Green and leave Claire illness with a flu inside the car behind alone. Helen blacks out and wakes up in Anne-Marie's apartment, covered in blood. Anne-Marie, whose Rottweiler has been decapitated and whose baby is also missing, attacks Helen and she is forced to defend herself from Anne-Marie using a meat cleaver. The police then enter the apartment and arrest Helen.

Trevor, Helen's husband, bails her out of jail the following day, Claire fell illness with a flu from the other day inside the car locked and found by her father and the police, she got a big scar on her left arm like Michael did to showed to her parents shocked this, Claire was too scared and leaves her in their apartment alone while he runs an errand, but Claire crying with tears down by tries to tells her daddy about to confess the real Candyman kidnapped baby Anthony, she and Michael was learning the spiritual mediumship with Chris and the older kids from a couple days ago, practice to communication with the spirits together to summoning Candyman exists on the other day in school, and framed her mother in his murder crimes. Candyman approaches Helen again in her apartment, have Claire held hostage in his arm front of her, and cuts the nape of her neck, causing her to bleed and unconscious. Bernadette arrives at Helen's apartment and, too weak from the loss of blood, Helen is unable to stop Candyman from murdering her and kidnaps the sickly Claire with him. Trevor arrives home and after it appears that Helen has murdered Bernadette and their daughter is missing like baby Anthony, Helen is sedated and is placed in a psychiatric hospital pending trial.

After a month's stay at the hospital, Helen is interviewed by a psychologist in preparation for her upcoming trial. While restrained, Helen attempts to deny culpability in the murders and convince the psychologist that the urban legend is indeed true. After she summons Candyman, the psychologist is violently killed by Candyman, Helen is able to escape to her own apartment. There she finds Trevor with another woman, Stacey, one of his college students. Helen then flees to Cabrini–Green to confront Candyman and to locate Anne-Marie's still-missing infant and rescue her daughter.

Candyman predicts that Helen will help carry on his tradition of inciting fear into a community, and promises to release the baby and spare her only daughter if Helen agrees to sacrifice herself to protect her daughter from this same fate. After Candyman vanishes with Anthony, Helen finds a mural of Candyman alongside a woman (presumably the lover he fathered a child with) who happens to bear a striking resemblance to her with the "It was always you Helen," implying that Helen's the reincarnation of Candyman's lover, Coraline Sullivan. Instead of holding his end of the bargain, Candyman takes both the baby and Helen into the middle of a massive junk pile which the residents have been planning to turn into a bonfire, but her daughter is spared, let her live, and unharmed, but he's used his hypnosis mind control takes over both Claire and Michael to be his slaves, intending to sacrifice both Helen and the baby in order to feed his own legend. However, the residents believe Candyman is hiding inside the bonfire pile and set it a flame. Helen manages to rescue the baby, but dies from burns in the process in Claire's arms and cries over her mother's death. Candyman also burns in the fire, leaving only his hook-hand behind.

After Helen's funeral, in which the residents of Cabrini–Green pay their respects, seeing Claire cries over her mother's death and give thanks to Helen, Trevor stands before a mirror in the bathroom of their former apartment. He chants Helen's name in grief, summoning her vengeful spirit. Helen kills Trevor with Candyman's hook, leaving Trevor's new lover Stacey with his bloodied corpse as Helen becomes the embodiment of the urban legend and Claire goes to the foster home and raised by the foster parents and visit paternal uncle, Marcus Lyle and two younger cousins, Nathan and Marie in Los Angeles, California until Claire reach her teen years in the third film.

Contact with Annie Tarrant (Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh)
The father of New Orleans schoolteacher Annie Tarrant (Rowan) was murdered in a Candyman-like fashion some years prior. When Professor Philip Purcell is murdered in a bathroom by Candyman after presenting the legend to his class and calling him forth, Annie's brother is accused of the murder (since his furious public confrontation of Purcell over the subject) and one of her students starts to see the Candyman. In order to disprove to herself that the Candyman exists, she says his name five times in front of a mirror, summoning him to New Orleans on the eve of Mardi Gras, where the killing begins in earnest. Her husband Paul McKeever becoming one of Candyman's new victims as well as her mother.

Annie is revealed to be the great-great-granddaughter of Caroline Sullivan. It also means she is Daniel Robitaille's descendant. Candyman stalks Annie so that he may kill her and destroy himself at 12 Midnight on Ash Wednesday. This is possibly to secure their resurrection into the afterlife, a running theme throughout the Candyman series.

Octavia is Annie's guilt-ridden mother who drowns her worries, the deaths of Helen and Trevor Lyle from three years ago, and the existence of the Candyman in booze and in lies. She later admits that Coleman tried to link the family name with "that monster" and denies that Candyman exists and he is related to her bloodline, only to meet her end at his bloody hook, incensed over her offensive blatant disbelief of him.

Coleman was Annie's father; he was murdered by the Candyman after seeking to expose the truth. Driven to madness at his search for the mirror, he eventually gives in and calls on the Candyman to justify his search at the expense of his life.

Ethan is Annie's brother and a law student who drops out of college after Coleman's murder. He confesses to the murder of Dr. Purcell, whom Candyman killed in a bar restroom, to keep the secret of the Candyman from getting to his sister meet the suffering same fate like Helen did. He, like his father, is killed but not by the Candyman. He is shot while trying to flee the police station after Candyman slays a detective.

Annie runs to her old house and runs into Matthews. They go to the slaves quarters, a huge flood occurs and the building is starting to be washed away. Annie finds the mirror, but the Candyman show her his past as the same way that he's showed Claire. She is sympathetic but destroys the mirror anyway, destroying Candyman. Annie, Mathew and the other kids (who came to rescue Annie) leave happily ever after. Annie now has a daughter called Caroline McKeever (she named after Daniel's love) and she starts saying Candyman 5 times into a mirror, Annie stops her.

Destroying the Myth (Candyman 3: Day of the Dead)
Candyman somehow returns once again from beyond the grave; this time, during the eve of Day of the Dead, to haunt a Los Angeles art gallery owner named Caroline McKeever, the daughter of Annie Tarrant; in order for him to claim her soul so she will be next to him and then he's confronted and meets Claire Lyle again, now a 15-year-old with her 17-year-old boyfriend, Michael Robinson as the high school teenagers and sweethearts again from seven years ago of the 1992 Candyman first film. In the meantime, the Candyman goes about killing all those associated with Caroline (starting with artist named Miguel Velasco, her lover, and following with her roommate Tamara) in his usual gory ways with his hook and making it appear to the authorities that Caroline is the one responsible for the killings.

He also kidnaps her friends: David de la Paz and Michael Robinson and makes it appear to the authorities that Caroline is the one responsible for the killings. Particularly when seasoned police detective (and closet prejudice of most minorities) L.V. Sacco dies, which not only brings the whole local police department down on her head; but puts her in the firing line of Sacco's equally bigoted partner Lt. Detective Samuel "Sam" Deacon Kraft who has no intention of bringing her in alive.

When Caroline, and Claire visits Abuela after the Candyman abducts both David and Michael, Abuela informs her that evil cannot exist without good, and she must destroy the Candyman’s “good” – his paintings – if he is to perish which is the one of Claire made the painting portrait of him from seven years ago since she was a child in Chicago in her childhood.

Caroline and Claire with little kids is kidnapped by a gang who take her to an abandoned building, Claire recognize Chris and his friends from her past and call Candyman in hope of sacrificing Caroline to Candyman to end the murders, but Candyman kills the whole gang. He reveals to Caroline that after her mother Annie Tarrant told the story of him, she called him to give herself to him to protect her daughter like Helen did. Candyman killed her by slitting her throat with his hook and made it look like a suicide. He also reveals that he killed her father Paul, uncle Ethan, and grandparents Coleman and Octavia. Candyman killed Claire's parents by manipulating Claire into his slave and took the paintings. Caroline, enraged, threatens to kill him for killing her family, but Candyman disappears. Caroline, Claire and kids to explores the building and finds David and Michael both alive but injured. Candyman suddenly appears and convinces her to give her life to him and Claire and Michael woke from his hypnosis. However Caroline, changes her mind and destroys the painting of him that Claire made and was the cause of his resurrection with a hook, causing the Candyman to burst into flames, killing him for good.

Caroline frees David but is attacked by Detective Kraft, who tries to kill her with a hook but is shot in the back of the head by Detective Jamal Matthews, who was following Kraft. Before he dies, Kraft gasps in shock "Candyman!" Caroline then remembers her mother's advice to destroy the myth and tells Matthews that Kraft was the Candyman killer. After the news that Kraft was the psychopath killer with the Candyman’s murders,