Director Nia DaCosta '11 (BFA, Kanbar Institute, Film & TV) has a new vision for Jordan Peele's reboot of the classic horror film, Candyman.
The film is slated to hit theaters on Friday, August 27th, nearly a year after it's initial release date was postponed due to Covid-19. The original Candyman came out in 1992, followed by two sequels. For Peele and DaCosta, this re-telling is meant to be a "spritual sequel", and picks up the story from a modern lens.
In the 1992 film, the Candyman haunts Cabrini-Green, a notorious public housing project in Chicago plagued by crime and neglect. His spirit is that of a Black man who was tortured and killed after having an affair with a white woman. DaCosta's retelling picks up from the first film, expanding upon the history of racist violence committed against Black men throughout history.
“For me, Candyman has always been about telling stories and how they are important to keep telling because they will hopefully stop us from repeating the past. But it also shows how everlasting this pain and trauma are.”