Historical Events  Movies
Candyman

Alternate:
 Say 'Candyman' 3 times

Current:
Say 'Candyman' 5 times

Say his name how many times?

Candyman was the 1992 movie in which all who saw him were certainly not about to receive a sweet treat.

Written by Clive Barker, from Hellraiser fame, it focuses on an urban legend which describes the summoning of an entity by saying his name a certain number of times in front of a mirror. The Mandela Effect here is that number, because whilst today it shows it was 5, many people are saying they remember it being 3.

Even weirder is that this is shown in the movie to be able to change, because at the end one character says "Helen" 4 times to summon a spirit.

Bloody Mary

The confusion on this might well have come from the legend of Bloody Mary, another spirit supposedly being able to be summoned via a ritual involving repeating her name in a mirror. This goes back centuries, and is aimed at young women who want to see the face of their future husband. To do this, the story goes they must walk backwards up some stairs holding a candle and a mirror. This changed later to just requiring the repetition of her name a total of 3 times in a mirror. However, it's possible a skull or the grim reaper might appear, which means the young lady will die before she is married.

The ritual of seeking divination using a mirror has a name: Catoptromancy  The number of times the name is repeated can vary up to 13, and the spirit which appears is sometimes good, sometimes evil and sometimes covered in blood, hence the name.

There's even a scientific explanation for the phenomenon. Staring at anything in darkend conditions for a prolonged period can actually cause hallucinations. 

Clearly, those with only a passing awareness of either, or both the legend and the movie, might easily conflate them and not remember the exact number of times the name needs to be invoked.

Sequel

There is a sequel planned for 2019, which is said to reset the lore and explore the origins deeper than the 2 earlier sequels from the 90's.