What we have here, as far as i'm concerned, is the best slasher movie ever made. Not just because it's genuinely scary, it's also intelligent (unlike 80% of all the slasher movies), it's extremely well acted, and it's serious which is always a plus in my book. I just don't ever get scared by movies that don't take themselves or their characters seriously. People making jokes or wise-cracking while they're being stalked by an unseen terror has always been a mood-killer for me. But besides that, the movie has got great production values. There has obviously been paid a lot of attention to the look and feel of the movie. The haunting, beautiful score by Philip Glass adds to the mood of the film. The photography has a realistic feel to it. It doesn't look glossy and smooth like most movies. The fact that the main character is framed by the killer is also pretty original for this type of movie. And the gore in this movie is really violent, and looks horrible, as it should. It should never be fun to watch people get butchered because it takes away any realism there may be. It's NOT fun to actually see people having their backs split open with a hook. What may be the best thing is that there is a certain tragedy about the Candyman character. This is not a mute mask wearing loser who was wronged and wants revenge, but you can't relate to. This is a character who was tortured and brutally murdered for doing nothing but love a woman. This character is not making jokes or being funny, and is therefor all the more realistic and even tragic. It's the combination of all it's qualities that make this one of the best thrillers / horrormovies of the 90s period!<br /><br />(Too bad some producers couldn't help themselves and had to ruin a great new horror icon in the sequels).