Chilling New ‘Candyman’ Teaser Couldn’t Be More Timely

Director and co-writer Nia DaCosta unveiled a chilling new teaser for this year’s Candyman today in the form of a shadow puppet show that could not be more timely right now, as protests against racism and police violence rage around the country and throughout the world.

In her tweet revealing the two and a half minute video, DaCosta says, “Candyman, at the intersection of white violence and black pain, is about unwilling martyrs. The people they were, the symbols we turn them into, the monsters we are told they must have been.”

The shadow puppetry was done by Manual Cinema, and the haunting score was created by the new film’s composer, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe.

After watching the video, it is clear that this will be one of the most socially relevant horror movies in years, with imagery depicting The Candyman’s mythology as we know it from the original film mixed with visuals reminding us of the brutal reality of real life victims of racism that have gained national attention recently.

This contemporary incarnation of the horror icon has been described as a “spiritual sequel” to the original 1992 film, which itself is based on Clive Barker’s short story The Forbidden.

The official synopsis: For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II; HBO’s Watchmen, Us) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris; If Beale Street Could Talk, The Photograph), move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.

With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer (Colman Domingo; HBO’s Euphoria, Assassination Nation) exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny. 

Genre legend Tony Todd will also appear in the new film, rumored to be reprising his role as the titular hook-handed killer also known as Daniel Robitaille. Virginia Madsen is also reprising her role from the original 1992 film as Helen Lyle. Also back from the original film, Vanessa Williams returns as Anne-Marie McCoy, whose baby was kidnapped by Candyman in 1992.

The film was pushed back from its original June 12 release date to late September, due to the ongoing global pandemic.

From producer and co-writer Jordan Peele (Us) and director and co-writer Nia DaCosta (Little Woods), the new Candyman is scheduled to arrive in theaters on Sept. 25.

You can watch the new teaser, as well as the first official trailer below.

CANDYMAN, at the intersection of white violence and black pain, is about unwilling martyrs. The people they were, the symbols we turn them into, the monsters we are told they must have been. pic.twitter.com/MEwwr8umdI

— Nia DaCosta (@NiaDaCosta) June 17, 2020

 

 

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