Due out later this year, this latest look at Nia DaCosta’s new Candyman film shows us the unsettling past via a haunting puppet show.
Created by Manual Cinema, the shadow puppets re-tell the gruesome scenes that form the Candyman’s lore set to Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe’s score. Director, DaCosta released the video on her Twitter account with the caption: “The people they were, the symbols we turn them into, the monsters we are told they must have been.” Amidst a world of rising-up in protest against police brutality and systemic racism, the short feels as timely as ever.
The trailer follows a black man walking back from his job at a candy factory. Police see him offer some candy to children and chase him down, beating him. This is juxtaposed with another story showing a small black boy accused of some sort of crime by a white girl. A faceless jury sentences the child to die by electric chair. The trailer ends on a third segment, showing Candyman’s origin story from the original movie. This all adds up to one of the most unsettling and effective horror trailers in a long time, and that’s after debuting a pretty stunning first trailer already.
Produced by Jordan Peele, the upcoming film follows the story of artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who was kidnapped by the Candyman (Tony Todd) when he was younger. Anthony, along with his girlfriend (Teyonah Parris), move into the now-gentrified Cabrini-Green housing projects in Chicago where the Candyman’s haunting grounds are said to take place. When Anthony encounters a Cabrini Green old-timer (Colman Domingo) he exposes Anthony to the tragic backstory behind the tale of Candyman.
In the original 1992 Candyman, adapted from a Clive Barker short story, the Candyman was once the son of a slave who became wealthy by making shoes. Before he was the Candyman, he was an artist that was accepted by white society and frequently painted portraits of wealthy families. However, when he began a relationship with a white woman, her father hired a mob to chase him from his house, cut off his hand, and smeared honey on him so bees would sting him as he was burned.
The horror flick was originally set to premiere on June 12, but due to the COVID-19 outbreak and theaters still being closed, the date was pushed back to September 25. However, even that new release date isn’t necessarily set in stone.
Source: Universal
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