A few days ago we passed along a "rumor" that revealed none other than the original CANDYMAN himself Tony Todd was returning to play the titular nightmare in producer Jordan Peele's "spiritual sequel" to Bernard Rose's 1992 adaptation of Clive Barker's short story starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (AQUAMAN) and Teyonah Parris (IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK).
While it might be a while before we get 100% confirmation on this aspect of the new movie, today you can go ahead and stream the original 1992 movie over on Netflix. Based on Barker's story The Forbidden, the original CANDYMAN was directed by Bernard Rose. The synopsis:
A children's ghost story comes to terrifying life in this gut-wrenching thriller about a graduate student whose research into modern folklore summons the spirit of the dead. Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) laughs when she interviews college freshmen about their superstitions. But when she hears about Candyman, a slave spirit with a hook hand who is said to haunt Chicago's notorious Cabrini-Green housing project, she thinks she has a new twist for this thesis. Braving the gang-ridden territory to visit the site of a brutal murder, Helen arrogantly assumes Candyman can't really exist… until he appears, igniting a string of terrifying, tragic slayings. But the police don't believe in monsters, and they charge Helen with the grisly crimes. Only one person can set her free: CANDYMAN.
Bernard Rose directed the original CANDYMAN from a screenplay he adapted from the short story "The Forbidden" by Clive Barker. Steve Golin produced along with Sigurjon Sighvatsson and Alan Poul, and the film starred Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons, and Tony Todd. TriStar Pictures unleashed the movie into theaters back on October 16, 1992. Stream it HERE.