10 Things You Didn't Know About Candyman

10. Candyman Is Not Dean Corll

We start with something that’s less an entry than a disclaimer. Yes, Dean Corll was a real serial killer and, yes, the press occasionally called him The Candy Man. He even did what he did in the '70s, giving 1992’s Candyman plenty of time to trade on his evil acts.

Thing is, it didn’t. Candyman rose above such cheap and nasty thrills. The Clive Barker story the film is based on didn’t have a damn thing to do with the contemptible Corll, and the film followed a Black urban legend through working-class Chicago, not a predatory white pedophile through the suburbs of Houston. Corll’s family just happened to own a candy factory, which he used to lure boys and young men to his home to be abused and murdered.

Full disclosure: Corll did what he did about five hours from this author’s home. Any connection between one of film’s finest monsters and that broken, hateful man is far better than he deserves. On with the show.