The lead character of Nia DaCosta‘s Candyman is Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a painter who, like Helen Lyle in the original classic, is drawn into the legend of Candyman.
A new featurette from Universal today spotlights some of the artists who contributed their work to the film, including Arnold Kemp, Cameron Spratley, and Sherwin Ovid.
DaCosta explains, “The art within Candyman is about devolution, to mirror [Anthony’s] psychological descent. I really wanted to show his early work, and then the work that he makes in the film, and how he’s being changed not only through his own search and journey, but also by, maybe, a demon ghost.”
Jordan Peele adds, “Much like the Candyman ghost, his ambition lies in becoming eternal.”
You can watch the brand new featurette down below.
In Candyman, co-written by Jordan Peele, “For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.”
“With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer (Colman Domingo) 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 returns to theaters on August 27, 2021.