The scene in Bernard Rose's 1992 film Candyman where Helen (Virginia Madsen) visits the local public men's restroom of the Cabrini Green projects has been one of the hardest for me to watch ever since I realized that Candyman's tagline of "Sweets to the Sweet" that's scrawled on the bathroom wall is done so in...
... human excrement. (Happy Sunday, everybody.) For some reason I didn't realize this for a long time? It should be obvious, but I think I'd put a mental block up on that fact honestly -- I'd thought it was graffiti for ages. But then on one re-watch a few years ago my boyfriend pointed it out and there ain't no coming back from that.
You add on the fact that immediately before going into this restroom Helen is told a story by that kid Jake who's showing her around about a little disabled boy who was castrated by Candyman in there, and then the fact that the toilet itself...
... is full of christing bees and hoo boy is this scene is a world of "No thank you" from me every damn time. With regards to that castration legend though -- that feels like a weird thing for Candyman to do, doesn't it? I mean obviously castrating children is a weird thing for anybody to do! But it's not exactly Candyman's modus operandi, is what I mean. My guess is somebody else did this violence to that little boy and Candyman got blamed. But castration is exactly what Ghost Helen is supposed to be doing to her ex Trevor in the final scene of the movie, right? We never get a concrete look at what she's doing as she kills him (it's all just out of frame) but this face says it all, I think:
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