New “Candyman” Spot Creates More Buzz for Nia DaCosta’s Film

A new TV spot for Candyman utilizes the gut-punch of a prologue director Nia DaCosta shared with the world on June 17 and mixes in new footage to hype the upcoming horror flick. That prologue, a thing of haunting beauty, teased the backstory to DaCosta’s continuation of the horror franchise, which first began in 1992.

The prologue—created with shadow puppets—revealed the nested stories that hint at the origins of the film’s titular “monster” and the world in which he was created. We see an artist painting images, which speaks to Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s character Anthony McCoy, who moves with his girlfriend Brianna (If Beale Street Could Talk‘s Teyonah Parris) into a luxury condo in Chicago where the Cabrini towers once stood. This is where, decades ago, the legendary Candyman once terrorized people in the 1992 original. We see a factory worker who hands out candy to children—until he’s chased and beaten to death by the police. We see a young boy riding his bike, only to end up in jail and executed. And finally, we see Candyman himself, born into slavery, becoming an artist, and murdered when it’s discovered that he’s in love with a white woman.

In the new spot, Anthony (Abdul-Mateen II) asks William Burke (Colman Domingo), an older guy who has lived in the Cabrini Green neighborhood forever, about the legend of Candyman. The answer he gets further emphasizes the implicit message in the prologue; the things that happened to the original Candyman, and the things that keep happening to Black people in America, are the source of all the anguish and the horror.

“A story like that, pain like that, lasts forever,” William tells Anthony. “Candyman is how we deal with the fact that these things happen. That they’re still happening.”

Sadly, we know this to be true. DaCosta’s timely sequel is due in theaters on September 25, 2020.

Here’s the official, fulsome synopsis from Universal Pictures:

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. Rising filmmaker Nia DaCosta (Little Woods) directs this contemporary incarnation of the cult classic.

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; HBO’s Watchmen, Us) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris; If Beale Street Could Talk, The Photograph), 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; HBO’s Euphoria, Assassination Nation) 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.

Featured image: Featured image: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in ‘Candyman.’ Courtesy Universal Pictures/MGM