10 Most Insane Things Happening In Movies & TV Right Now (Jan 11th)

5. The Candyman's First Design Was Rubbish

Part of the enduring appeal of the Candyman as a horror villain - even when the movies he's appeared in have been poor at times - is that Tony Todd's performance was chilling and the actor had a sort of intangible terror-induction magic about him.

His menace and the simplicity of his design - essentially a normal looking guy with a grotesque hook hand - was why he worked so well. Monsters are always more scary when they look a lot like us, after all.

But thanks to the horror legends at Bloody-Disgusting, we now have a reminder that the character could have looked significantly different to Todd and not at all for the better. The site turned up the first appearance of the villain in creator Clive Barker's story "The Forbidden" after it was mentioned on Scream Factory’s recent Collector’s Edition Blu-ray of Candyman.

Barker described him to have "waxy jaundiced skin, rouged cheeks, blue lips, eyes like rubies, and a patchwork coat" but the artist who illustrated The Forbidde in Barker anthology Fantasy Tales decided to just make him a hairy wolfman bathed in silhouette with enormous feat and an elaborate hook...

Thank God for Tony Todd, that's all I'll say.