Coming Soon: Nia DaCosta's Candyman
The wait is almost over. Writer/Director Nia DaCosta’s Candyman is coming out 27 August. With a brand new screenplay co-written by Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, the new Candyman film looks like event viewing for any modern horror fan.
I cannot exaggerate the sheer feeling of joy I experienced when the new Candyman trailer played before Escape Room: Tournament of Champions. I knew straight away what the film had to be. Then it got into the meat of the new story and it quickly became my most anticipated film of 2021.
The Candyman series is no stranger to altering the titular character’s backstory to better fit the contemporary narrative the creative team wants to tell. The new screenplay is the most radical departure yet. This Candyman was a kind man who handed out candy to the neighborhood kids. One time, this candy had razorblades in it. Naturally, The Candyman was blamed. He never got to face trial because he was killed in an act of police brutality. They didn’t care to find out who actually tampered with the candy as they had their scapegoat in the perfect position to stick to their story: dead.
Now, if you say his name five times, he comes back from the dead to get his revenge. Maybe you get warned with a piece of candy appearing from nowhere. Maybe some bees are attracted to the sweets he still carries with him. What we know for sure is you will not survive if you decide to raise him from his less than peaceful slumber.
All of the cinematic versions of Candyman involve racial violence. The story of a black artist brutally murdered by a lynch mob for dating a white woman added in more and more details to better parallel the main plots in the films. There’s a call for justice that offers certain characters a chance to redeem The Candyman in exchange for immortality, though those rules change each time.
I will always point out that the reason we have the Candyman series as we know it is Tony Todd. The source story by Clive Barker (“The Farewell”) does not deal with race. Writer/director Bernard Rose wanted to create a contemporary horror story about prejudice and used the Barker story as its foundation. Tony Todd was cast as the character and given permission to come up with his own backstory. He came up with the idea of a man lynched for the crime of being black and it shifted the direction of the entire series.
Tony Todd returns to the role for a new take on the character. We’ll see how connected the new entry is to the rest of the series soon enough. Check out the trailer below so you can also experience the horror fan equivalent of a child waiting for an extra special gift on their birthday.
