Helen Lyle and Bernadette Walsh, two graduate students at the University of Illinois in Chicago, research their thesis on urban legends. Helen records a student’s story about “Candyman,” a monster who appears if you look in the mirror and say Candyman five times. Helen stops by her husband Trevor’s class and notes the flirtatious attentions of his student, Stacey. Later, as Helen transcribes the Candyman recording, the cleaning women inform her that Candyman lives at Cabrini Green, an infamous Chicago housing project. They insist he killed a woman named Ruthie Jean, who was found gutted by a hook. Helen scans newspaper articles for information on Ruthie Jean’s death and the Cabrini Green housing project. She discovers that a killer could have entered Ruthie Jean’s apartment from an adjacent unit through the medicine cabinet. Helen wants to focus their thesis on the Cabrini Green community, who attribute the horror of their daily life to a mythical figure. Helen and Bernadette do not believe the Candyman story and challenge each other to look in the mirror and say his name five times. Bernadette stops after the fourth time, but Helen says Candyman aloud the fifth time. Helen wants to search Ruthie Jean’s apartment and question Cabrini Green residents. Bernadette is reluctant to visit the dangerous area, overrun with gang activity, and brings weapons to protect them. As they pass the apartment adjacent to Ruthie Jean’s, a dog barks and the tenant, Anne-Marie McCoy, eyes them suspiciously. Ruthie Jean’s dilapidated apartment has been abandoned and Bernadette reluctantly follows Helen into the bathroom where Ruthie Jean was murdered. Helen knocks out the medicine cabinet and crawls through. When she looks back from the other side, she sees the medicine cabinet opening forms the mouth in a large portrait of an African-American man painted on the wall. She photographs paintings and graffiti in the hidden lair before returning to Ruthie Jean’s apartment. Anne-Marie McCoy enters and confronts Helen and Bernadette. They tell her about their thesis and follow Anne-Marie back to her apartment. She picks up her baby, Anthony, and insists she is trying to protect him from the gangs outside and Candyman in the building. That night, Helen and Trevor dine with Bernadette and other academics. Purcell, a pompous colleague, learns of their Candyman angle and tells Helen to read the paper he wrote about Candyman years earlier. Helen admits she does not know the Candyman backstory, and he shares the legend, which first appeared in 1890. Candyman’s father was a slave who prospered after the Civil War. Candyman was well-educated and became a portrait artist. When a wealthy landowner commissioned Candyman to paint a portrait of his daughter, they fell in love and the daughter became pregnant. The father hired killers who chased Candyman to Cabrini Green and cut off his right hand. They stole a honeycomb from a nearby apiary and smeared it over Candyman’s body. After the bees stung him to death, the men burned Candyman’s body and scattered his ashes over Cabrini Green. According to legend, Candyman haunts Cabrini Green, killing with a hook shoved into the stump of his right hand. Helen visits Cabrini Green again to take more photographs and questions a young boy, Jake, about Candyman. He leads her past an enormous stack of rubble being prepared for a bonfire and stops at the men’s public restroom, where a boy was reportedly killed by Candyman. As Helen steps inside and photographs the filthy restroom, a gang leader known as “Candyman” arrives. He leads three cohorts inside, confronts Helen, and knocks her unconscious with his heavy hook. The police converge on Cabrini Green and arrest “Candyman” and his men. Helen is the first person willing to testify against them, and police are certain they have the killers of Ruthie Jean and the boy. Helen thanks Jake for rescuing her, but he is worried Candyman will get him. Helen insists the gang leader pretended to be Candyman to scare everyone, and assures Jake that Candyman is just a story. Helen’s camera was smashed in the attack, but Bernadette’s friend saved several photos and developed them into slides. Thanks to publicity from the attack, Bernadette is fielding offers from interested publishers. Alone in a university parking garage, Helen hears Candyman call her. She sees a tall African-American man dressed in a stately coat and brandishing a hook pushed into the bloody stump of his right hand. Helen falls into a trance-like state as Candyman reveals that her lack of belief in his existence compelled him to materialize to reassert his legend. Helen faints and regains consciousness in Anne-Marie’s apartment, covered with the blood of Anne-Marie’s decapitated dog. She picks up a meat cleaver lying next to the dead animal and rushes to the baby’s room where Anne-Marie screams by the empty, blood-soaked crib. Anne-Marie attacks Helen, accusing her of murdering the baby. Helen hits Anne-Marie with the cleaver as police arrive. At the police station, Helen attempts to explain that she was attacked by Candyman, but no one believes her. In her jail cell, Helen has flashes of the baby being alive in Candyman’s lair. The next day, her husband and lawyer take her home. The lawyer reveals she has not yet been charged because police think the baby may be alive. Trevor worries about leaving Helen alone, but he has to stop at work. After Trevor leaves, Candyman appears and announces that Helen must join him or the baby will die in her place. As she runs from him and grabs a knife, Bernadette arrives. Helen screams a warning, but Candyman kills Bernadette. Trevor returns to find Bernadette’s dead body and Helen clutching a kitchen knife. Helen is arrested and locked in a psychiatric ward. Candyman floats above her bed, but disappears when attendants enter to tranquilize her. Helen regains consciousness and believes it is only the next day, but learns she has been sedated for a month. She meets with Dr. Burke, who will assess her ability to stand trial for first degree murder. Helen knows she did not murder Bernadette and offers to prove it. She looks in the mirror and says Candyman five times. Candyman appears behind Dr. Burke and guts him. Helen steals a nurse’s uniform and escapes. She rushes to her condominium and discovers that Trevor’s student, Stacey, has moved in with him. Helen goes to Candyman’s lair in Cabrini Green and makes a deal to surrender herself to him in exchange for the baby’s life. Candyman swarms with bees as he kisses her, and she faints. When she regains consciousness, she sees he has written “It was always you Helen” above a painting of the woman he loved, whose face is a likeness of Helen’s. She hears the baby crying and sees Candyman has placed the infant beneath the bonfire pile. She grabs the hook, rushes outside and digs deep into the mountain of rubble until she finds the baby. The boy, Jake, sees her, realizes Candyman has returned, and alerts the residents. As they douse the wood with kerosene and light the fire, Candyman places his hand over Helen’s mouth. Helen sees Anne-Marie through the flames, and struggles against Candyman, yelling that he lied about saving the baby. She grabs a torch and thrusts it inside Candyman. Protecting the infant with her body, Helen crawls through the bonfire. She is ablaze as she crawls out and people rush to put out the flames. Helen hands the baby to Anne-Marie, then dies. Inside the bonfire, bees burst from Candyman’s body and Jake watches him burn. At Helen’s funeral, Jake and Anne-Marie lead a stream of people from Cabrini Green and Jake places the hook on Helen’s coffin. Later, at their condo, Stacey makes dinner for Trevor as he sits in the bathroom, distraught. He looks in the mirror and says Helen’s name five times. She appears behind her husband and slices him to death with a hook.