This Day in Horror History: Nia DaCosta’s CANDYMAN Was Supposed To Open

EDITORS NOTE: This story originally ran with the headline wrongly attributing the film as being directed by Jordan Peele. It is in fact directed by Nia DaCosta a point that I have personally raised myself over the last few months. A mistake like this is frankly untenable. Downplaying Nia’s role either by intent or oversight is a disservice to filmmakers and perpetuates the kind of systemic failings that make diversity and representation in filmmaking so important.

For those of you at home keeping track, you’ll remember today was the day that Nia DaCosta’s Candyman was originally set to hit theaters. Bummer. It will now open on September 25th.

Again. Bummer.

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 and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright, 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 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.

It stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Hannah Love Jones, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, and Tony Todd. Universal Pictures. will unleash this new Candyman on September 25, 2020.

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