Watch The Thrilling Second Trailer For “Candyman”

Two days ago we shared Candyman director Nia DaCosta’s stirring Juneteenth message—today, we share the second trailer for her eagerly anticipated film. DaCosta’s legacy sequel to the 1990s cult classic has been one of the hottest commodities for a long time now, but we’re finally getting close to the premiere date and chance to see this talented director’s fresh take on a classic horror film.

DaCosta directs from a script she co-wrote with Win Rosenfeld and Jordan Peele, who also serves as producer. The film stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as visual artist Anthony McCoy, who moves into a luxury condo in the former Cabrini Green projects in Chicago with his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris). McCoy becomes obsessed with the local legend of Candyman, and that obsession becomes deadly.

The new trailer utilizes the gut-punch of a prologue DaCosta shared last year and includes the bees that were so integral to the original film’s creep factor. There’s a reason DaCosta’s a rising star (and why her directing Captain Marvel 2 is so exciting)—she knows how to ramp up tension, frame a shot, work with actors, and deliver the goods.

Check out the new trailer here. Candyman opens on August 27.

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

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

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The Credits

The Credits is an online magazine that tells the story behind the story to celebrate our large and diverse creative community. Focusing on profiles of below-the-line filmmakers, The Credits celebrates the often uncelebrated individuals who are indispensable to the films and TV shows we love.