I’d overlooked Candyman (1992, Bernard Rose) maybe because before Scream (1996, Wes Craven) I didn’t know of any decent early 90s horror movies. Still don’t really. After Scream, the cycle of Kevin Williamson knockoffs overpopulated with hot cute teen actresses as box-office bait sucked and the genre was dead until J-horror brought it back to life in the early 00s. But in 2021 I finally watched Candyman and am shocked to say it’s surprisingly one of the most satisfying amazing horror movies I ever seen.
This claim is based on the Philip Glass score. Also right around the time I saw Candyman earlier this year I was listening to this old Emily’s Sassy Lime song, the last track from 1995’s Desperate, Scared, But Social, called “Superior Threat.” And I couldn’t really say why, but it always sounded to me like somehow it had something to do with Philip Glass. Probably doesn’t. But okay so I was just really in a Philip Glass mood.
And so yeah I’m just way into the movie, way into the score, then the shocker ending came out of nowhere and it’s the kind of twist I couldn’t believe they actually had the nerve to commit to. I mean taking this nice, good person, the hero of the plot, and then she’s lured into this trap that was set for the villain and she gets burned alive instead—and no she doesn’t end up living, she’s dead, end of movie. But this sublime moment is all set to this Philip Glass piece “It Was Always You, Helen.” There’s even like this early 90s joyous gothic rapturous celebratory quality to it like “Like A Prayer,” by Madonna or something. Like everyone’s rejoicing this horror movie actually did what a horror movie should do, really fuck someone up instead of just going for a and everyone lived happy ever after resolution.
II.
In preparation for The French Dispatch (2021, Wes Anderson), I watched Isle of Dogs (2018, Anderson) again. And I mean a lot. Rewatchability at an all-time high with this one. Just kept launching the Disney + app and constantly replaying the hell out of it. It’s not that I didn’t like it when I saw it in theaters, but I fell in love with it like a newly christened cult favorite. Okay but so the reason I’m bringing this up is something that I didn’t pick up on the first time around.
Giving Isle of Dogs a second look I noticed something I missed before, a montage where the following is summarized:
· CHAIRMAN FUJIMOTO (President of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical) – secretly introduced mega-quantities of infected fleas and contagious tic larvae into a metropolitan city center, creating an unprecedented animal disease outbreak.
· GENERAL YAMATACHI (Commander of the Megusaki Municipal Task Force) – oversaw deportation of over 750,000 caged animals to a nearly uninhabitable offshore refuse center.
· SUPERVISOR KATANA (Director of Kobayashi Robotics) – developed most promising artificial life form in the history of corporate technology, and a powerful weapon to boot.
· YAKUZA NAKAMURA (Head of Clenched-Fist Gang) – Eliminated all pro-dog opposition through the use of bribery, extortion, intimidation, and violent force.
And the montage is concluded with MAYOR KOBAYASHI revealing his plan to implement the “final stage/the permanent end to the canine saturation crisis.” Final stage just sounds so much like "Final Solution..." All this, in addition to a later scene where a lab is discovered where 250 dogs were experimented on against their will, finally hit me: this story is basically what the Nazis did to the Jews during the Holocaust, right? I mean I know it this might sound a little absurd but seriously. The reason I bring it up at all is because I thought of this as a cute lighthearted kids movie until, y’kno. The Holocaust? That’s heavy. Still it’s a cool movie and all, but ethically I had to chew on this for a while.
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