CANDYMAN
Clockwise from main: Michael Hargrove as the hook-handed Sherman Fields; Art lovers Brianna (Teyonah Parris) and Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II); Anthony’s obsession grows.
★★★
OUT NOW CERT TBC / 91 MINS
DIRECTOR Nia DaCosta
CAST Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo
PLOT Artist Anthony (Abdul-Mateen II) and his partner Brianna (Parris) move into a new apartment in the now gentrified Cabrini Green. After learning the true story behind the local urban legend of Candyman and displaying it as a new art piece, Anthony unknowingly opens a door through which the horrors of the past return.
THE LATEST IN a number of horror franchises that have received the ‘legacy-quel’ treatment — soft reboots that sweep aside what is viewed as messy and disposable canon (think David Gordon Green’s Halloween) — Nia DaCosta’s new take on Candyman directly continues the story of the original and most beloved entry in the series.
The film revives Bernard Rose’s 1992 cult horror, continuing its mythologising of buried, collective historical trauma in the form of its eponymous vengeful spirit, but also attempts to self-reflexively engage with the missteps of its predecessor. And where the original used gentrification and academia as a route into discussions of governmentenforced social barriers, DaCosta builds upon how this has continued into the present day.