This archive gathers together resources relating to the 1992 cult horror film Candyman, from educational resources and academic works to online videos and an online creative art gallery. This archive was created alongside Candyman and the Whole Damn Swarm, an online, international conference organised by the Centre for the History of the Gothic at the University of Sheffield and University of California, Riverside from 7-9 October 2022 and that celebrated the 30th anniversary of Candyman and explored its legacy. Part of the archive also includes the Candyman and the Whole Damn Swarm Online Gallery that includes a range of artworks exploring Candyman including poetry and short fiction, photography and digital art, embroidery and videos.

Candyman and the Whole Damn Swarm

Candyman and the Whole Damn Swarm Online Gallery

[hosted by the University of California, Riverside]: https://ucrarts.ucr.edu/exhibitions/candyman/

Candyman and the Whole Damn Swarm Conference schedule

View schedule.

‘Blaxploitation, Black Gothic, and Black Agency in Horror’ - Lisa Wood, Shenandoah University

[recording of paper originally presented at Candyman and the Whole Damn Swarm] watch on YouTube.

The Object of Horror: Gaze and Voice in Candyman’ - Jack Black, Sheffield Hallam University

[recording of paper originally presented at Candyman and the Whole Damn Swarm] watch on YouTube.

APT HORROR PRESENTS From Rumor to Flesh: How Candyman Treats Tragedy in Villainy’ - Ava M Fields, The Horror Advocate

[project originally presented at Candyman and the Whole Damn Swarm] view the presentation here.

Articles and online resources

Possible inspiration from real Chicago news

Videos and films

Books and book chapters

  • Stacey Abbott, ‘Candyman and Saw: Reimagining the Slasher Film through Urban Gothic’, in Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film, ed. Wickham Clayton (London: Palgrave Macmillan: London, 2015), pp. 67–78

  • Michael J. Blouin, ‘Candyman and Neoliberal Racism’, in Magical Thinking, Fantastic Film, and the Illusions of Neoliberalism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), pp. 81-107

  • Aviva Briefel and Sianne Ngai. ‘“How much did you pay for this place?” Fear, Entitlement, and Urban Space in Bernard Rose's Candyman’, in Horror Film Reader, eds. Alain Silver and James Ursini (Limelight Editions, 2000)

  • Brigid Cherry, ‘Imperfect geometry: Identity and culture in Clive Barker’s ‘The Forbidden’ and Bernard Rose’s Candyman’, in Monstrous adaptations: Generic and Thematic Mutations in Horror Film, eds. Richard J. Hand, Jay McRoy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015), pp. 48-66

  • Robin R Means Coleman, Horror noire : blacks in American horror films from the 1890s to present, (New York: Routledge, 2011) [especially chapter 7: ‘Black Is Back! Retribution and the Urban Terrain: 1990s’]

  • Bruce F Kawin, Horror and the Horror Film (London: Anthem Press, 2012) [especially chapter 5: ‘Supernatural Monsters’]

  • Jon Towlson, Candyman (Devil’s Advocates series) (Auteur / Liverpool University Press, 2018.)

Journal Articles

  • Aviva Briefel and Sianne Ngai, ‘“How much did you pay for this place?”: Fear, Entitlement, and Urban Space in Bernard Rose’s Candyman,’ Camera Obscura, Vol. 37 (1996), 71–91

  • Lucy Fife Donaldson, ‘The Suffering Black Male Body and the Threatened White Female Body': Ambiguous Bodies in Candyman’, The Irish journal of gothic and horror studies, Vol. 9 (2011)

  • Mikel J. Koven, ‘Candyman can: film and ostension’, Contemporary Legends, (1999), 155-173

  • Elspeth Kydd, ’Guess who else is coming to dinner: racial/sexual hysteria in Candyman’, CineAction, No. 36 (1996) 63-72

  • Adam Ochonicky, ‘“Something to be haunted by”: Adaptive monsters and regional mythologies in ‘The Forbidden’ and Candyman’, Horror Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2020) 101-122

  • Laura Wyrick, ‘Summoning Candyman: The Cultural Production of History’, Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory, Vol. 54, No. 3 (1998), 89–117