‘Candyman’ Trailer: Horror Reboot Tackles Police Brutality and Haunting Scares

Don’t say his name.

Universal and MGM released a terrifying new trailer for Nia DaCosta’s supernatural slasher film, hitting theaters on Aug. 27, 2021.

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The trailer gives a backstory to the classic Candyman character, who is said to be an innocent man killed by police after being suspected of putting razor blades in kids’ candy.

“Candyman ain’t a ‘he.’ Candyman is the whole damn hive,” Colman Domingo says in haunting narration in the trailer.

Serving as a “spiritual sequel” to the 1992 horror pic of the same name, “Candyman” follows visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his girlfriend, art gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), as they move into the newly gentrified Cabrini-Green neighborhood of Chicago. When McCoy learns about the tragic true story of Candyman, he begins incorporating the vengeful spirit — summoned if someone says his name into a mirror five times — into his art, unlocking a door to a complex past and unraveling his own sanity.

Written by Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld and DaCosta, the film also stars Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Brianna’s brother Troy Cartwright, Domingo as Cabrini old-timer William Burke, Tony Todd as Daniel Robitaille/Candyman and Vanessa Estelle Williams as Anthony’s mother Anne-Marie McCoy. Rounding out the cast are Rebecca Spence, Cassie Kramer, Kyle Kaminsky, Christiana Clark, Brian King, Torrey Hanson, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Cedric Mays, Nancy Pender, Pam Jones and Breanna Lind.

While “Candyman” postponed its release date several times throughout the pandemic, DaCosta pushed for a theatrical release instead of moving to a streaming service.

“We made ‘Candyman’ to be seen in theaters,” DaCosta wrote on Twitter. “Not just for the spectacle but because the film is about community and stories — how they shape each other, how they shape us. It’s about the collective experience of trauma and joy, suffering and triumph, and the stories we tell around it.”

Watch the trailer below.

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