10 Things You Didn't Know About Candyman
8. He’s About Graffiti
One of the themes Candyman retains from Barker’s original story is that the academic protagonist is studying graffiti. The plot hook (heh) is clear – on the one hand, graffiti is by nature art for the disaffected and marginalized, a way for people to reclaim the place where they live and work from its nominal owners; on the other, the protagonist is a privileged academic who intends to ride her observations of other people’s art straight to the top of her ivory tower. It’s not like she’s cutting anybody a check.
That starting conflict sets the tone for Candyman and Helen Lyle’s fraught romance. She may be the reincarnation of his love, but she’s also appropriating his culture. In a sense, Candyman is claiming Lyle the way graffiti artists claim Cabrini-Green, incorporating her into his story rather than meekly remaining a background character in hers.