Tony Todd delivers an iconic horror performance as the Candyman, a vengeful spirit with a hook for a hand summoned by saying his name five times in a mirror, who targets a grad student researching his urban-legend origins in Chicago's Cabrini-Green housing projects. Director Bernard Rose grounds the supernatural slasher premise in real social context — race, urban decay, and institutional neglect — giving the film unusual thematic weight for its genre. Widely regarded as one of the smartest horror films of the 1990s, it launched a franchise and, decades later, a Jordan Peele-produced legacy sequel.