Nia DaCosta’s upcoming Candyman is shaping up to be the horror movie of the year. Whether that’s because of the pandemic or just because it looks awesome, is up to you. But Candyman is definitely coming back. Fresh off the Director’s choice to helm Captain Marvel 2, Empire Magazine is giving DaCosta’s film a huge platform. The cover of their magazine this month has what could be a huge spoiler, or just a tease. You can take a look at them and decide.
Now my eyes aren’t the best, but that’s very clearly not the original Candyman, Tony Todd. That looks more like star Yahya Abdul-Matten II. His character in the film Anthony McCoy, is a journalist who has ties to the events of the first film. This points to a couple of scenarios. Tony Todd is the Candyman and this is just a ruse to drum up marketing furor. Possible. That Tony Todd hands over the mantle of the Candyman to Yahya Abdul-Matten II’s McCoy in the film. Also possible. Or that this is some sort of dream/vision sequence in the film similar to “Dark Rey” from Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker. Either way, we’ll have to see when Candyman releases October 16th.
The original Candyman was a largely psychological film that included some seriously horrific scenes. That still puts it firmly into the horror camp. This new film is looking to build on the socio-economic imagery of the first film. Themes like poverty, bigotry, and commentary on racial inequality. For some that might turn them off. To those people, we kindly say “don’t watch the damn movie”.
The Official Synopsis For Candyman
For as long as the 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 the present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, a visual artist named Anthony McCoy and his girlfriend, a gallery director named Brianna Cartwright, moved into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by the upwardly mobile millennials.
With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind the 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.
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