Candyman teaser stresses tragic timeliness of Nia DaCosta's spiritual sequel

Director Nia DaCosta's new version of Candyman (set for release Sept. 25) always promised to be more than just your average horror movie. But this spiritual sequel to the 1992 Candyman — in which Tony Todd played the son of a slave who is murdered and returns as a hook-handed supernatural killer — has gained a new resonance, or at least a resonance which will be felt by more people.

The 2020 Candyman stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as a visual artist named Anthony McCoy who moves in to a luxury loft in the formerly rundown Chicago neighborhood of Cabrini Green with his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris).

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.

Candyman is produced by Jordan Peele, who also co-wrote the script with Win Rosenfeld and DaCosta. “My connection with Candyman is pretty simple,” Peele said at a screening of the film's trailer in Los Angeles earlier this year. “It was one of the few movies that explored any aspect of the Black experience in the horror genre in the ’90s, when I was growing up. It was an iconic example to me of representation in the genre and a movie that inspired me.”

Watch the new teaser trailer for Candyman above.

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