Back when the first trailer dropped for the Jordan Peele–produced “reimagining†of Candyman in February 2020, we had already been hearing about it for more than a year. Then, something even scarier happened, and it was put on hold until now. Today, the final trailer for Candyman dropped, but you have to say the magic words. On IDareYou.CandymanMovie.com, saying “Candyman†five times will unlock the trailer. But for those of us who were scared our thoughts would accidentally summon Bloody Mary as kids, there’s also the official trailer above. We see a few iconic touch points that fans will recognize from Candyman movies of yore: the long hook coming out of the titular character’s bloody arm stump, a fair amount of bees (though we hope for even more bees in the feature), Virginia Madsen (who starred in the 1992 original), and even what looks to be a reflection of Tony Todd in a mirrored elevator as star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II summons the titular evil. There are also the artistic flourishes recognizable from previous Monkeypaw movies Us and Get Out, like the claustrophobic tight close-ups, the sound of screeching strings, and the occasional peppering in of humor from the supporting cast.
Peele, who also co-wrote the script, and director Nia DaCosta introduced the first trailer to a small sampling of journalists a day before it went wide online, with DaCosta fielding a few questions after the preview. “There’s an ArcLight [movie theater] really close to where Cabrini-Green used to be. There’s a lot of development in the area because Cabrini has been torn down,†said DaCosta. “So, what we do in our film is talk about the ghosts that are left behind because of gentrification.â€
As far as what audiences will and will not see in what’s been dubbed a “spiritual sequel†to Bernard Rose’s first film in the Candyman franchise, DaCosta said she and Peele come from different schools of thought on how much of the gory bits should be present onscreen versus how much should be left to suggestion, and it will satisfy the bloodhounds to know there’s “a
good amount of things you don’t want to see.†As to whether or not we’ll be seeing Todd, the first Candyman himself, the director left that question similarly open-ended, stalling for a moment before offering, “I really love Tony Todd. He’s iconic and, um, I will say what what we’ve done this film is great! Jordan’s great, and I don’t want to give anything away.â€
Scour the new trailer for hints and Easter eggs and wait for it to hit theaters on August 27.