'Candyman' Gets Terrifying New Trailer, Release Date

The upcoming Candyman movie just dropped an absolutely terrifying new trailer, and also announced [...]

By Stephen Andrew

The upcoming Candyman movie just dropped an absolutely terrifying new trailer, and also announced the film's official release date. The new teaser starts by giving background on the legend of Candyman, the spirit of Daniel Robitaille, a slain Black man who appears whenever his name is spoken five times in a mirror. As the trailer continues, fans are given more clues into Candyman's folklore, while the vengeful ghost leaves buckets of blood in his wake.

Candyman is a direct sequel to the franchise's original film, of the same name, which debuted in 1992. It stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Anthony McCoy, an artist who used to live in the Cabrini Green Housing Projects as a baby. The defunct building was haunted by Candyman nearly three decades ago. Anthony was kidnapped by the spirit as an infant, and would have been killed, but he was saved by Helen Lyle, who was played by Virginia Madsen in the original film. Reprising her role from the original film is Vanessa Estelle Williams, who plays Anthony's mother, Anne-Marie McCoy. Tony Todd also returns, playing the hook-handed Candyman.

The new Candyman film is directed by Nia DaCosta (Little Woods) from a script she co-wrote with Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld. Peele is well-known for writing and directing the Oscar-winning horror film Get Out, as well as 2019's Us. Notably, the Candyman franchise is based on Clive Barker's short story "The Forbidden," from Books of Blood: Volume Five.

DaCosta recently issued a special Juneteenth message connected to the film, sharing how she feels the story parallels real-life race and social issues. "In the real world, we create monsters of men all the time," DaCosta said, in part. "People are murdered and they become either saints or they are vilified. So, throughout the last year and a half, it was always coming back to that truth. Horror is a really effective tool when it comes to telling stories about things that impact us on a social level."

Other stars of Candyman include Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, Rebecca Spence, Cassie Kramer, and Hacks breakout actor Carl Clemons-Hopkins. Recently, Clemons-Hopkins spoke with PopCulture.com about the new film, and shared how "frustrating" it was for them that the film had to be postponed from its original 2020 release date. However, they are "so excited" that audiences are finally going to get to see the movie. "It's going to be interesting seeing this work we all did from two years ago," Clemons-Hopkins said.

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