“The Forbidden” (1985)

This long story by Clive Barker is the source for the movie Candyman. As usual with Barker, it’s longer than it has to be, and it’s full of good ideas as well as overdone ideas. I like the ways Barker signals he is working within a tradition. The term “sweets to the sweet” recurs here, likely a reference to a famous story of that name by Robert Bloch. Interestingly, while there is a “Candyman” in this story, the name only shows up late and there is no business here about saying his name five times into a mirror. But much of the rest is Barker: the bees (more overplayed in the movie), the setting of a failing housing project, the academic research. I like making the main character a graduate student who is studying graffiti. It was plausible in 1985, in 1992, and it seems likely to remain so still, except in the 2021 movie the place has been gentrified, which I suppose makes sense after 30 years. The story of course goes off the rails and over the top with grotesque murders. There’s an uncertainty about the reality of these crimes that I like—it’s possible they are somehow just urban legends. Another classic source Barker draws on here is the campfire chestnut about the killer on lovers lane with a hook for a hand. Thus, “The Forbidden”—campfire ghost story, or urban legend? You decide. People living in the project talk about crimes for which there are no records in newspapers or police files. There’s a sense there’s no record of these crimes because no one particularly cares. It’s hard to tell, murky, and that’s a good tone. Helen Buchanan’s thesis is titled “Graffiti: The Semiotics of Urban Despair.” Now we’re talking, with faint suggestions of the ridiculousness of academic work, even as that “Urban Despair” lands hard. Candyman, however much of a spirit of retribution he may be, taking revenge on a world that spurned him, is a bit ridiculous himself, with that name and an epic image of him in graffiti painted on a doorway (and somewhat hard for me to imagine). He is clown-like, reminiscent of Stephen King’s Pennywise from It, which came out a year later. That’s especially true when you throw in the “Candyman” chant. In both movies and in the story too. All have flaws as well as strengths, though they are not necessarily the same.

Clive Barker, Books of Blood, Vols. 1-6 (Vol. 5 kindle)
Listen to story online.