It doesn’t matter how many times you tell people not to say his name five times, dammit someone’s going to do it anyway. The latest trailer for Nia DaCosta’s much-anticipated Candyman takes a peek inside the mind of an artist determined to find inspiration — and answers to his own story — at any cost.
Universal Pictures has released a new trailer for Candyman, a sequel to the classic horror film that also reimagines the franchise. It picks up several years after the events of the first film; the baby Candyman tried to sacrifice in the 1992 original is now an artist named Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who’s eager to know all about this mysterious killer.
He’s told the story of Candyman — or should I say “a” story of Candyman, as it’s not the one we’re already familiar with that was also depicted in DaCosta’s short film. Instead, it’s about a man wrongly accused of trying to give kids razor blade-filled candy in the 1980s. This indicates that Candyman is something more than myth. His legend is ongoing.
Having learned the legend of Candyman, Anthony dives deeper into the story, thinking it’s the key to his latest artistic breakthrough. But as his obsession grows, and his own connection to the supernatural killer strengthens, it becomes harder to separate the artist from the horror story that’s inspiring him. Here’s the synopsis:
For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighbourhood were terrorised 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 (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 wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.
Candyman arrives in theatres on August 26.