I am very envious of American movies in the 1990s, without sacrificing the creativity of the script for " political correctness ". Take the classic horror film "Candyman" from 1992 as an example. This is the only horror film in the history of American films with a black serial killer as the protagonist. Come up with this bold idea. If the "Candy Man" of the year is placed today, it will definitely cause controversy and boycott: Why let a black person play a murderer? Why do black people kill innocent people indiscriminately in the film? I'm sure the famous black director Spike Lee must have disliked this movie. In fact, that's where the great creativity of a genre film lies.
The story is about a female scholar researching a popular urban legend: Just say the name "Candyman" five times in a row into a mirror, and a ghost will jump out to claim her life. She came to a black settlement in Chicago to investigate, followed by a series of mysterious murders, and finally found the truth of the legend... In the traditional horror genre framework, the director kept filling in various social topics : public housing plans, Apartheid, the police's passive management of the black community, the ethical relationship between husband and wife, and so on. Although there are many stereotypes about black people and racism, the portrayal of the unfair treatment of black people is sharp: a black woman was murdered for a long time without being actively investigated by the police, and the criminals were not caught; on the contrary, a white woman was murdered Rough treatment of the same place immediately attracted the attention of the police, and the culprit was quickly caught.
This disparate comparison reveals the serious racial discrimination in American society , and the long-term injustice suffered by black people is the main cause of "Candy Man"'s revenge. When a black youth and a white woman were found in love, their palms were cut off, their bodies covered with honey, and they were tortured to death. The white heroine, on the other hand, repeated the mistakes of "Candy Man". She was first identified as the murderer, then betrayed by her husband, misunderstood and kidnapped a black child, and finally was lynched and burned to death by the black residents.
The storyline basically takes the white heroine as the point of view, from her investigation of urban legends to entering the black area to find materials and falling into a trap. The plot does not show that the black people are treated unfairly, but through the process of her becoming an innocent victim step by step, it hints at the tragic fate experienced by the black people, which is quite ironic.
From the point of view of genre films, the film interprets this terrifying urban legend extremely brilliantly, and gives the audience a strong visual impact with the help of large-scale bloody violence. Even better, the script deliberately leads the audience to believe that "Candy Man" is real, but as the plot develops, we find that it is just the product of fantasy, and its essence is a reflection of collective fear.
It is worth mentioning that the classic horror images in "Candy Man" (black cape, hooked hands, densely frightened bees) have become the objects that younger filmmakers love and are willing to learn from. This film is also "Escape from the Dead". Town" director Jordan Peele liked the work, so after nearly 30 years, he restarted the project again with a new version of "Candyman." However, he did not direct the director this time, and let the new female director Nia da Costa be in charge of the director.
The new version is further adapted on the basis of the original version. It does not completely deviate from the original version's story and starts anew, but still uses a lot of the original characters. It uses a minimalist and effective shadow play to explain the ins and outs of the important characters in the original version, and the last rescued baby in the original version becomes Continue the protagonist of this urban legend. This unique method brings unexpected surprises to fans who were not busy with the film in the past without interfering with the narrative.
There are several plots extracted and strengthened by the creators. One is the apartheid system related to the public housing program . The black settlement of the year has now become an uninhabited ghost town, but it has inspired the artist's creation. The other is gentrification , in which the descendants of black people have become middle-class people and artists. On the surface, the status of black people has been improved, but in fact, under the glossy appearance, it is still a class that suffers from discrimination. In the upper art world, the exploitation of blacks by whites is hidden, and the spirit of white supremacy even affects the creation of black art.
This new version of the violent and bloody plot is still the same, but it uses various stylized expressions to show the novel expressive power of the black female director. The mirror images that appear in many places echo Jordan Peele's "Get Out" and "Us", comparing the past and present conditions of black people; while the massacre scenes depicted in neon lights and special camera angles are full of humor and make People's eyes lit up.
However, compared to the original version, the political issues of this film are so prominent that they tend to ignore the narrative logic , and even feel that one or two episodes are missing to explain the change of the protagonist's mentality, resulting in the climax of the final killing spree being too straightforward. This kind of straight-to-the-point treatment has the disadvantage of being ill-considered, and the most serious and correct topics do not have to be so hoarse. Perhaps this is the point that black accusation-themed films need to think about.
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