Every new detail we hear about the new Candyman (2020) remake makes it sound more interesting. Already since the first news about the project, with Jordan Peele being involved as co-writer and producer of the movie, one could expect this reboot to be something more creative than some other new versions of horror classics we have had populating the scene in the last decades. Now, we have out a paper puppet short film that also serves as a trailer where the director of the movie Nia DaCosta narrates the origins of Candyman and how it juxtaposes with modern events.
Back to the description of the movie, the Candyman (2020) remake is based on the short story The Forbidden of the collection Books of Blood by Clive Barker. It surrounds the Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, who can be summoned to reality if you repeat his name in front of a mirror. Taken as a myth, the appearance of the creature can unleash devastation and gruesome death.
For as long as the 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 the present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, a visual artist named Anthony McCoy and his girlfriend and a gallery director named Brianna Cartwright moved into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by the upwardly mobile millennials. With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind the 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.
Candyman (2020) has been directed by Nia DaCosta, a young filmmaker whose debut feature Little Woods (2018) achieved a good collection of awards and nominations. She has been also co-author of the screenplay, together with Win Rosenfeld and Jordan Peele.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, Kyle Kaminsky, Vanessa Williams, Rebecca Spence, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Brian King, Miriam Moss, and Cassie Kramer form the main cast for Candyman (2020). Oh, ladies and gentlemen, Tony Todd reprises the role of Daniel Robitaille / Candyman. Have you already added the movie to your must-see?
Candyman (2020) began filming in early August 2019 and wrapped in late September 2019 in the Chicago area. It was set for a theatrical release on June 12, 2020, by Universal Pictures but it has been pushed to the final date of September 25, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although it’s an independent piece aside Candyman (2020), director Nia DaCosta posted the short film/trailer with the following statement:
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
