The West Norwood Free Film Festival presents a screening of Candyman at The Portico Gallery.

Whatever you do, don’t say his name! Helen, a graduate student investigating urban myths in the Chicago ghettos, chances upon the legend of the Candyman. The tale goes that if one looks in a mirror and says the name of this hook-handed bogeyman five times he appears to kill you. Helen believes she is researching the stain of racial inequality upon a community but the Candyman has other, darker designs.

Britons may be more familiar with Bloody May but the dread of gazing into a mirror and wondering what might be gazing back is universal. Filmmaker Bernard Rose masterfully moves the original Liverpool-set short story by Clive Barker to North America and grounds the film in the real-life Cabrini-Green slum housing estate. Throw in a haunting score by Philip Glass and this film is one of the scariest films of the 1990s.

There will be a cash bar at this screening.

When: Saturday 1 November 2025, 8pm
Where: The Portico Gallery, 23B Knight's Hill, West Norwood
Further info: here