Candyman to bring back audacious & meaningful fun of the original

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Producer Jordan Peele and director Nia DaCosta's "spiritual sequel" to Bernard Rose & Clive Barker's CANDYMAN with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (WATCHMEN) and Teyonah Parris (IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK) will be unleashed into a theater near you this June. Earlier today we shared the film's trailer with you guys. And now we have some choice word via Peele and DaCosta.

DaCosta says:

We also talked about the fun of the original film, and that was a huge part of what we wanted to bring back. We wanted to do what the original film did: be audacious, be fun and also be meaningful.

She adds:

I really love gore. That was something Jordan and I talked about a lot. What’s fun about working with Jordan is our horror aesthetics are different; Jordan’s really brilliant about not showing everything and my instinct is to do the exact opposite. It’s something I thought about a lot and there is a good amount of things you just don’t want to see in here.

RELATED: TRAILER FOR JORDAN PEELE'S CANDYMAN IS HERE! FIRST PICS!

Peele said:

My connection with Candyman is pretty simple. It’s one of the few movies that lored any aspect of the Black experience in the horror genre in the ’90s when I was growing up. It was a perfect and iconic example of representation in the genre, and it’s a movie that inspired me. We now have a reimagining of this story that we’re very excited about. 

DaCosta adds:

What was useful about working with Jordan is that he’s so good about bringing social issues to the fore in the horror genre. So, that was something that I knew was going to happen, although the original Candyman already does that very well. What we were able to do, because there has been so much change in the neighborhood, in particular with the gentrification, was dig into the things that were already there. In the original film, they were already talking about the new buildings that were being built and the way that the projects were built with the mirrors between units, and how crime was able to happen because of those things.

RELATED: TONY TODD RETURNS IN JORDAN PEELE'S CANDYMAN?

The “spiritual sequel” will return to the neighborhood where the legend began: The now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood. Based on Barker's story The Forbidden, the original CANDYMAN was directed by Bernard Rose. The synopsis: 

Don’t say his name.

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) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), 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) 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.

This summer, Oscar-winner Jordan Peele unleashes a fresh take on the blood-chilling urban legend that your friend’s older sibling probably told you about at a sleepover: Candyman. Nia DaCosta (Little Woods) directs this contemporary incarnation of the cult classic. 

RELATED: CANDYMAN NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX

CANDYMAN is directed by Nia DaCosta from a screenplay she co-wrote with Jordan Peele & Win Rosenfeld. Peele & Rosenfeld also produce with Ian Cooper. David Kern, Aaron L. Gilbert, and Jason Cloth serve as executive producers. It stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and Colman Domingo. Universal Pictures will unleash it into a theater near you on June 12, 2020. How excited are YOU? Let us know below!

Check out the trailer up top and the poster below and then make sure to hit us up and let us know what you think!