CANDYMAN

BY: Amanda Jane Stern

Jordan Peele has teamed up with Nia DaCosta to bring us Candyman, a follow-up to the 1992 horror movie of the same name. Yes, this is a sequel and not a remake, set decades after the original film’s events. Tony Todd, the terrifying and alluring villain from the first flick, will reprise his role as the titular Candyman in the new movie. DaCosta directed the film from a script she co-wrote with Peele and Win Rosenfeld. Peele also served as producer on the film.

The first film was set in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green neighborhood. It was a notorious public housing project where the urban legend of a mysterious killer with a hook for a hand terrorized residents. He could be summoned by anyone who repeated his name, Candyman, five times into a mirror. The projects are gone now, replaced by the gentrified Cabrini Towers, and the Candyman myth has all but died. That is until visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), move into the towers.

 

 

Anthony’s career is at an impasse, and he is without inspiration. However, after meeting an old resident Colman Domingo, Anthony learns of the Candyman myth and becomes enthralled. As Anthony delves deeper and deeper into the macabre tale, all to maintain his status in the art world, he unleashes the monster once again.

While this is the sequel to the 1992 movie, it is the fourth film in the Candyman franchise. The second and third movies were Candyman’s Farewell to the Flesh (1995) and Candyman’s Day of the Dead (1999). Both follow how the Candyman legend ruined the life of school teacher Annie Tarrant’s family.

Candyman is scheduled to open in theaters on August 27, 2021.