WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Scream: Resurrection, airing on VH-1.
The '90s: the Candyman franchise is one of the horror genre's cult classics. This trilogy focused on Tony Todd as the titular killer, the son of a slave who was murdered by white people only to return in modern times to commit murders so the public wouldn't forget him and the pain he endured. It's Todd's most famous role and one that placed him front and center as a master of horror, not just for his deep, haunting voice, but from the way he truly struck fear into the hearts of the audience.
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Since 1995's Candyman: Farewell to the Flash and 1999's Candyman: Day of the Dead, Todd has been popping up in other horror franchises here and there, such as in the Final Destination series, and with a role in Scream: Resurrection, genre aficionados were giddy to see what he'd bring to the table with his repertoire. Sadly, Todd's potential to up the scare factor is extremely wasted by the creative team.
Todd's powerful aura as a horror legend unfurls in the first few minutes of the season when two kids trick or treating stumble into his garage. One kid, Marcus, is dressed in a Ghostface costume, while his twin, Deion, is dressed as a quarterback. When Marcus makes noise amid all the cars and scrap iron, a metal hook sinks into his flesh from the back. The boy ends up being carried off by Todd's character, Luther Thompson, who then becomes known as Hook Man, which is clearly a tribute to the hook-handed Candyman, the tool serving as his main weapon after being summoned from a mirror.
Deion peeled off but sadly, the cops wouldn't find his brother's remains, leaving Luther free and in the shadows. But after that, we don't really see "Hook Man" again. Dee takes a long time to come back and confront him for stabbing and hiding the boy's body decades before, which shapes the character as nothing more than a novelty item. What makes Luther so inconsequential is, later in the season, when Dee does meet up Luther, he's nothing more than a war vet with PTSD who got spooked by the boys. He never stabbed anyone; that was merely Dee's imagination playing tricks on him. As for the boy who went missing, well, he hid in a car trunk and suffocated there, which led Luther to bury his body to avoid further drama.
It's pretty underwhelming as Luther isn't given too much to do or say otherwise, leaving Todd as a very under-utilized cast member. We're not saying he had to be the killer, as stereotypes would usually paint him, but still, if Resurrection wanted to throw us off the trail, Luther could have been disguised better as a form of misdirection, perhaps by making him more shadowy.
This could have easily cut a boogeyman figure that would lead to Dee stalking and guessing as to what he did with his twin. After all, it's this kind of seedy presence that made the Candyman series so horrifying, as Todd's voice, the image of him covered in bees, lynched and burnt, all helped turn him into a genre icon. To say he petrifies fans with his every move is a massive understatement and honestly, it's something this particular series needed much more of.
Todd's villainous potential comes to an abrupt halt when the real Ghostface killer, Dee's half-brother, Jay, beats Hook Man down and crushes him in his trash compactor. Other than this, Hook Man doesn't get a chance to do anything in the series, which leaves fans who wanted to see him help cultivate an air of horror severely disappointed and wondering why he wasn't given something more prominent to do.
There was so much hype to Todd's casting and having him as a ghoulish mentor to whoever was wearing the Ghostface mantle would have felt so fitting. If at some point, he actually wore the mask, then that would have been even better. But ultimately, that set up is wasted and such a quick death leaves the character fizzling from memory as fast as you could mention Candyman's name in front the mirror.