“WHAT'S BLOOD FOR IF NOT FOR SHEDDING?”: RACIAL VIOLENCE BETWEEN SURREALITY AND MATERIALITY IN CANDYMAN (1992; 2021)

Abstract

Based on the filmic ethnography of two films from the Candyman franchise—the original from 1992 and its most recent sequel from 2021—we reflect on the possible connections between social markers of difference, issues of belonging, space, racial and class-based violence. More specifically, we aim to explore the potential of horror cinema for understanding the phenomenon of racism and its pernicious consequences for Black bodies and subjectivities. We argue that both Candyman (1992) and Candyman (2021) approach the phenomenon of racism in distinct but complementary ways: the former through its surreal and ethereal dimension, and the latter through its materiality and directness. In both films, racism is portrayed not merely as a relic of the past, confined to the end of the transatlantic slave trade, but as a lingering specter that continues to haunt not only African American lives but also the lives of all those who are descendants of the African diaspora.