This autumn, cult classic Candyman returns to theatres to scare a whole new generation of horror fans and first look images don’t disappoint.
Candyman 2021 is directed by rising filmmaker Nia DaCosta, who last year became the second youngest filmmaker to direct a Marvel film [after Ryan Coogler] when she was hired to direct The Marvels.
No stranger to big productions, DaCosta also directed the award-winning Little Woods starring Tessa Thompson in 2018.
With Oscar winner Jordan Peele among the producers, DaCosta’s interpretation promises to give us a contemporary incarnation of the cult classic.
Candyman 2021 is set in the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighbourhood. For as long as residents can remember, their neighbourhood has been terrorised 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, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (HBO’s Watchmen) 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) 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 wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.
Candyman 2021 is based on the 1992 film Candyman, written by Bernard Rose, and the short story “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker. The screenplay is by Peele & Rosenfeld and DaCosta.
We’re looking forward to seeing this fresh take on the blood-chilling urban legend film, but whatever you do, “Don’t say his name!”
