Both the original Candyman film and the 2021 sequel are unique entries in the horror genre. They both feature a haunting antagonist whose a ghost and a slasher that only arrives when he's called. Even more haunting is how he's also a lost soul, often exercising his internal anger through violence, so if anyone looks deeper into the character's story, they may find that The Candyman isn't a slasher movie character but a monster movie character.
Where Creature Features are often categorized as monsters that terrorize a town, monster movies are often far more nuanced. There's no better place to look to see this idea in action than the Universal Classic Monsters. While many of these characters have taken lives, most of them are driven because of a tragedy that pushed them to the dark side. In many cases, some form of loss aided in them embracing the monster within, and, in a way, the same could be said for Candyman.
In the first Candyman, the story follows Daniel Robitaille, a vengeful spirit who stalked and killed anyone who said his name in the mirror five times. His main victim, Helen Lyle, was someone he wanted to continue his legacy with as she resembled the long-lost love, who had led to his demise. While he was fueled by vengeance, he still had a love for those that reminded him of his past, and, like all classic monster films, his expression of that love was twisted, as he'd spent so long as a killer spirit.
2021's Candyman had a story similar in terms of legacy but was more of a Wolf Man-esque transformation. The movie followed painter Anthony McCoy, who was obsessed with the legend of Candyman. In reality, he was the child that Candyman had marked in the first film and also the one saved from burning in a fire by Helen Lyle.
Being marked by Candyman, he slowly became the terrifying figure told in the stories, and it was revealed that after Daniel Robitaille died, more people became Candyman through various tragedies, often born through racial violence. For Anthony, he had love and lost it to the legacy of his tormentor, and even though he could never return to her, his name could live on through Candyman.
Love and pain have always been the foundations for the Candyman franchise and monster movies as a whole. Whether it's Dracula or The Mummy having embraced their pain and became villains, or Frankenstein's Monster unable to cope with being what he is, monsters represent internal struggle. Amazingly, Candyman captured all of these emotions perfectly and still managed to be utterly terrifying.
Slasher films have shown how anger and revenge can turn an ordinary person into a menace. Unlike the others, Candyman has shown that the definition of slasher isn't enough to describe what makes this character important. In fact, monster films are the best way to categorize him, as he's been through so much torment that it makes his evil acts more tragic than menacing. Through that tragedy, the real terror also bleeds through as there will always be the sinking feeling that The Candyman's life could've been different and ultimately better.