First trailer for Jordan Peele and Nia DaCosta’s Candyman teases a new scare – The Verge
Jordan Peele has defined a new voice within the horror genre over the last few years with movies like Get Out and Us, and his new project with director Nia DaCosta teases a similar take on the classic boogeyman story Candyman.
The first trailer for Candyman, a “spiritual successor” to the 1992 movie of the same name and Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden,” brings artist Anthony McCoy (Watchmen’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his girlfriend Brianna (If Beale Street Could Talk’s Teyonah Parris) to the same Chicago community fans will remember from the first film. There are some other similar beats to the film, including Tony Todd returning to reprise his role as the terrifying Candyman, but it’s clear that Peele and DaCosta will introduce a series of new spins to the original title.
One theme that will be explored in DaCosta and Peele’s version of the film is the effect of gentrification on Chicago’s Cabrini-Green neighborhood. A synopsis for the new film refers to Anthony and Brianna’s relocation as a “move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile Millennials.” Peele often uses his horror films to touch on important sociopolitical and socioeconomic topics, so seeing Candyman become a conversation starter for the effects of gentrification in low-income neighborhoods makes sense. A more detailed synopsis of the film reads:
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 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.
Candyman is set to be released on June 12th.
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