Helen Lyle is an
anthropology graduate student at the
University of Illinois Chicago. While researching urban legends, she familiarizes herself with
Candyman, a spirit who kills anyone that speaks his name five times before a mirror. She learns of a recent murder at the
Cabrini–Green Homes public housing project and several others that have been attributed by locals to Candyman. Skeptical, Helen and her friend Bernadette Walsh repeat Candyman's name to Helen's bathroom mirror, to no avail. Helen and Bernadette work together on a
thesis on how Cabrini-Green residents use the Candyman legend to cope with racial inequality. She and Bernadette visit the scene of the most recent murder. There, Helen discovers a room where sweets have been left for Candyman. Afterwards, they interview the victim's neighbor, Anne-Marie McCoy, a single mother raising her infant son Anthony. Helen and her husband Trevor, alongside Bernadette, later have dinner with Professor Phillip Purcell, an expert on the Candyman myth. He discloses that "Candyman" was an African-American man born in the late 1800s as the son of a
slave who grew up to become a renowned painter. After he fell in love with and impregnated a white woman, her father sent a
lynch mob after him. The mob sawed off his right hand and smeared him with honeycomb stolen from an
apiary, attracting bees that stung him to death. His corpse was burned in a
pyre erected on the site where the Cabrini-Green Homes were eventually built. When Helen returns to Cabrini-Green, a young boy named Jake tells her of an incident where a
developmentally disabled boy was
castrated by Candyman in a
public bathroom. Helen investigates the site, where a man claiming to be Candyman batters her with a hook. She identifies her attacker to the police, who recognize him as the head of a local gang and charge him for the murders attributed to Candyman. A few days later, however, the real Candyman appears to Helen in a parking garage, hypnotizing her. He explains that due to her discredit of his legend, he must shed innocent blood to perpetuate it. Helen blacks out and awakens in Anne-Marie's apartment, covered in blood, finding Anne-Marie's pet
Rottweiler, Annie, decapitated and her son Anthony missing. Anne-Marie proceeds to attack Helen, who stabs Anne-Marie during their struggle. The police arrive and arrest Helen. After Trevor bails her out of jail, Helen spots Candyman in a photograph she took at Cabrini-Green. Candyman breaks into Helen's apartment and cuts her neck, causing her to bleed and pass out. Bernadette arrives at Helen's apartment, and when Helen comes to, she realizes that Candyman has murdered Bernadette. Framed for the crime, Helen is committed to a
psychiatric hospital. While being interviewed in preparation for her trial a month later, Helen attempts to prove her innocence by summoning Candyman, who appears and murders her psychiatrist. Candyman then frees Helen from her restraints, allowing her to escape. Helen returns to her apartment to find Trevor now living with one of his students, Stacey. Helen confronts him, then flees to Cabrini-Green to rescue Anthony. When she finds Candyman in his lair, he informs Helen that her surrender to him will ensure Anthony's safety. Offering Helen immortality, Candyman opens his coat, revealing a ribcage wreathed in bees. The bees pour out of his mouth and stream down her throat as he kisses her. He vanishes with Anthony, and Helen awakes to discover a mural of the Candyman and his lover. Helen bears a striking resemblance to her and is hinted to be her reincarnation. Candyman promises to release Anthony if Helen helps him strike fear into Cabrini-Green's residents. Attempting to feed his legend, Candyman reneges and attempts to immolate both Helen and Anthony in a pyre. Helen stabs Candyman with a flaming plank. The flames destroy Candyman and Helen dies while rescuing Anthony. The residents, led by Anne-Marie and Jake, pay their respects at Helen's funeral. At home, the grief-stricken and guilt-ridden Trevor looks into the mirror and utters Helen's name five times, whereupon Helen's
vengeful spirit appears and kills him using Candyman's hook, leaving a hysterical Stacey to uncover his body in the bathtub. A new mural of Helen dressed in white with her hair ablaze appears in Candyman's lair. ==Cast==