Max Schreck in 1922 as Count Orlock in 'Nosferatu'
On March 4th 1922, "Nosferatu" had its German premiere! Directed by F.W. Muranu, who never won the rights to Bram Stokers Dracula made his own version of the novella by changing the settings and names of the characters.
This remains one of the greatest films in history and helped create the German Expressionism movement in cinema.
Robert Eggers, director of "The Witch" and "The Lighthouse" has confirmed he will be directing a modernised version of the classic. More information coming as we get it!
In 1980, Stanley Kubrick adapted Stephen Kings novella “The Shining” that scared audiences worldwide. Albeit King himself hated the adaptation and decided to make his own TV series version. Then, years later, penned the sequel to it calling it “Doctor Sleep”, which was then adapted by Mike Flanagan in 2019.
The burning question is: did “The Shining” really need a sequel? Many classic horrors: including “The Exorcist” have spawned multiple sequels, so it was a matter of time before the iconic 80s horror would get its sequel, however, did it really need to be done?
“The Shining” starring Oscar winner Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall is the story about a family looking after The Overlook Hotel over the winter months while its closed. Albeit Jack knows it holds a dark secret, it doesn’t take long for Danny, the young son to see the darkness of the hotel. It turns out Danny has a power to ‘shine’; meaning he can communicate without speaking and see things that have happened, which makes the spirits of the hotel very angry. Amongst all this, Jack is slowly deteriorating into insanity with the spirits, more so the butler, Grady (Phillip Stone) who tells him that his wife Wendy and son Danny need to be ‘corrected’, like he done many years before to his wife and daughters. This causes Jack to go on a spree of killing and will not stop until everyone is dead.
Jack Nicholson as the infamous Jack Torrance in 1980s 'The Shining'
Then, the sequel, “Doctor Sleep” follows the story of Danny (Ewan McGregor), an adult and has become an alcoholic due to the experiences in his childhood. He becomes sober and gets on with his life by getting a job in a local hospice, where he ends up helping people to their dying breath with many of them calling him “Doctor Sleep”. While this is happening, we are introduced to the True Knot, led by Rose the Hat (played by Rebecca Ferguson). The True Knot are quasi-immortal ‘vampires’ who feed off the steam (lifeforce)of children who can ‘shine’ and are drawn to Abra (played by Kyliegh Curran) – a very gifted girl who seeks the help of Danny to help defeat them.
The dreaded word Danny (Ewan McGregor) didn't want to see again in 'Doctor Sleep' (2019)
Both films equally smashed the box office and holds 85% and 78% approval ratings on Rotten Tomatoes respectively, which shows both critics and audiences alike enjoyed both films. Many Shining fanatics were extremely sceptical of a sequel; the thought of a classic horror being tainted with a potential poor sequel was damning for fans, but it didn’t prove to be worth the scepticism.
"Come and play with us" - the Grady girls taunting Danny in 1980
As much as King disapproved of Kubrick’s ‘epic’ horror, he had to agree to Flanagan’s nods to the original film to keep the fans happy. Granted, there are a lot of differences between the books to the films, Flanagan did keep it closer to the book than what Kubrick did.
What is striking is we found out that The Overlook Hotel was powered by a form of the True Knot – drawing the steam from poor Danny in a paranormal way, where in “Doctor Sleep” the True Knot were immortals, vampires if there is a better word, who are ultimately child killers – as it turns out that children have more pure steam rather than ‘polluted’ adult steam.
We were also told who the iconic ‘Tony’ was. In Danny’s words ‘Tony is a little boy who lives in my mouth’ as he explained to Halloran (played by Scatman Crothers) in “The Shining”. In “Doctor Sleep”, Danny has a ‘blackout’ to which is mentioned to him that he shouts, ‘Tony help me!’ – Tony is the name that Danny inadvertently called his ‘shine’, which ties up many loose ends that many scratched their heads over in the 1980s film.
Of course, Flanagan had to do one thing to really please the fans – take us back to the Overlook Hotel. The final section to the sequel is solely in the hotel. An accurate rebuild of the original with some flaws (such as no stairs in the Torrance’s apartment, the change in appearance to the woman in the bathtub and the iconic carpet colour changes amongst silly other elements true Shining fans would notice). There was also a huge nod to one of the most iconic scenes of “The Shining” – ‘Heeerrreeesss Johnny!’ Jack Nicholson adlibbed that scene with a real axe, to which Kubrick kept in the final edit. In “Doctor Sleep”, we see Danny lean his head into the infamous panel with a recreated flashback of the sequence – this shows Flanagan’s attention to detail to please both readers and film fans of the original.
The question is – did “The Shining” really need a sequel? Well, it depends on your overall love for the genre; “The Shining” is by far a psychological horror – what makes the film scary is the images presented to the audience with no context makes the film unique and terrifying. “Doctor Sleep” on the other hand reveals the context in a thrilling horror that might annoy the fans – sometimes no explanation is what makes a film stand out. However, there are so many fans that would rather know to piece together a completely different context that could be potentially the wrong one.
Danny back at The Overlook Hotel after nearly 40 years away
As a Shining fan, as much as I loved “Doctor Sleep”, especially the rooted undertones to the original, the mystery and psychological aspects of the 1980s classic makes the film what it is today. Let’s just hope, it is never remade.
What is the difference between fact or fiction; one is real, one is made up. Many horror films tend to release fears we the audience don’t necessarily knew existed. Other horrors are based on true stories – notably “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” being created on the foundation of Ed Gein’s violent frenzy.
What if a story was created and inadvertently referenced a real life killing?
Clive Barker, creator of the “Hellraiser” franchise brought us the story “The Forbidden” in 1985, which introduced us to the iconic killer Candyman. By 1992, director Bernard Rose adapted the story, simply naming it “Candyman". The story is about graduate Helen Lyle (played by Virginia Madsen) who is sceptical of the story of Candyman; Daniel Robitaille, an African American painter who was killed hundreds of years ago because of an inter-racial affair. His hand was cut off and a hook put in its place, boiling honey poured over him for bees to sting him and then set on fire. The legend of Candyman became an urban legend until a spate of murders framing Helen made her realise, she shouldn’t have said his name five times in front of the mirror…
"Helen..." the introduction of Tony Todd as 'Candyman' in the 1992 film
More recently, “Candyman” returned to the cinema from Oscar winning producer, Jordan Peele, and director Nia DaCosta only this time Yahya Abdul-Mateen II takes over as the titular antihero as the adult version of baby Anthony from the first film. Of course, we must mention that Tony Todd returns briefly at the end.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in 2021s 'Candyman'
In the new version, “Candyman” ramps up the rooted myth of the killer through the ‘Bloody Mary’ modernisation that he kills anyone who says his name five times, rather than a love story reminding viewers of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
From the story hitting shelves in 1985, there was a murder in 1987 that showed likeness to the hook wielding killer.
According to the-line-up.com, it discusses a viral TikTok video that circulated during the lockdown of 2020, which shed light of the killing of Ruthie Mae McCoy. The video was uploaded by Samantha Hartsoe, who discovered a large hole behind her bathroom mirror, which led to an abandoned flat behind it.
This led to people discussing the killing of Ruthie Mae McCoy. She was an African American living in a block of flats in Chicago, who suffered from mental health issues since she was in her twenties and was in and out of mental health hospitals over the years.
Newspaper clipping of Ruthie Mae McCoys murder
In 1983, she was moved to ABLA public housing, which was a fifteen-minute drive to Cabrini-Green; the setting for the “Candyman” films.
Despite her health issues, McCoy led a normal life, however, on the night of April 22nd, 1987, that would all change.
That evening, the Chicago PD received a call from McCoy – stating that someone had threw a cabinet down and were coming through the bathroom. Confused at the call, the PD sent a police car to the home where things started to unravel.
The PD dispatcher didn’t note down that it was a break-in, only as a ‘disturbance’, to which the police car didn’t respond immediately to. In fact, more calls were made to the PD by McCoy’s neighbours stating that they heard shouting and gunshots. Once the police eventually arrived, they knocked the door to no avail. The officers then went to the management office and couldn’t find a spare key to her flat, so rather than breaking down the door, the police left.
The next night, the PD received another phone call from McCoy’s neighbours saying they hadn’t seen her. The police returned to the flat, knocked her door then left after receiving no answer.
Her neighbours, especially Debra Lasley became extremely concerned about Ruthie. So, she took matters into her own hands and along with fellow neighbours, they managed to get the door open to find Ruthie lying in a pool of blood in her bedroom after being shot multiple times.
Years later, it was found that negligence did happen on Ruthie’ plea for help because she was a black mentally ill woman, something to which still happens to this day.
It was also found that the killers had broken through her medicine cabinet in the bathroom and were found not guilty in court.
Apart from the striking similarities in the way of entry and treatment of Ruthie Mae, “Candyman” also used her name in sperate instances in the film; Anne Marie McCoy (baby Anthony’s mother in the film took the second name McCoy and the name Ruthie was also used as the first victim in the film of the killer Candyman.
Coincidence? It is a possibility yes, however there is still more to come.
Although, not in resemblance in method, back in 2020 a death caused shockwaves around the world. George Floyd was killed by police offer Derek Chauvin. Floyd was an African American who was killed by the police – something that occurs too much.
"I Can't Breathe" - the last words of George Floyd after he was murdered by Derek Chauvin
In 2021s “Candyman”, the main star, Anthony McCoy (played by Yahya Abdul- Mateen II) has in effect become the new Candyman and is struggling to stay alive. The police barge in on him and his girlfriend Brianna (played by Teyonah Parris), who is trying to help him. The police brutally guns down Anthony – their reason – he had a hook for his hand. Then they had the audacity to try and get Brianna to change the truth to the events all because of the colour of their skin so the police wouldn’t get into trouble.
This resonates so much with the case of George Floyd on so many levels, which tells you a lot about society; we still live in a world where they are still Daniel Robitaille’s being killed for no reason; whether it is for love, standing up for themselves, mental health - all because of the colour of their skin.
Ruthie Mae McCoy died almost 35 years ago out of pure negligence in a similar situation of the way Candyman carried out his killings. George Floyd died for being black and unarmed. What the films of “Candyman” show us is this; nothing will change our society. We look to films as an escape from the real world, but film now mimics real life and that is the true horror of the legacy of “Candyman”.
