In the beginning of the movie, Helen walks into a lecture hall at the University of Chicago, during which the professor is talking about urban legends and the sociological concepts associated with them. Helen doesn’t believe in the legend of Candyman and is studying him to solve the crime and to further develop the theories out there about urban legends. Obviously, Helen doesn’t believe in Candyman, but the people she interviews do and the consequences of the serial killer and its legend are real. The people respond to the legend and the fear associated with it causes people to act differently. As Helen gets more involved with the legend and the people, the more personal it gets and she begins fearing Candyman herself. Once she fears Candyman, there are more consequences—and deaths. According to Joel Best and Gerald T Horiuchi, “Urban legends, like collective behavior and social problems construction, are responses to social strain, shaped by the perception of the threat and social organization.” The urban legend of Candyman is a response to the threat of the serial killer and deaths that occurred mostly in the projects in the Chicago area in the movie. That, and the movie is a scary movie which portrays the urban legend as real, potentially perpetuating society’s fears and urban legends.
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