Universal Pictures has released the trailer for the upcoming horror film Candyman, described as “a fresh take on the blood-chilling urban legend”.
The movie, directed by rising filmmaker Nia DaCosta from a screenplay that she co-wrote with Jordan Peele & Win Rosenfeld, is set in Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood, whose residents were terrorized, for as long as they can remember, 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. The protagonist is Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) a visual artist who moves, together with his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials. After a chance encounter with an old resident of the neighborhood, he is exposed to the horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman and “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”.
The trailer, featuring an eerie cover of Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name,” gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of Cabrini Green’s residents after they say Candyman in the mirror.
Candyman will hit theaters nationwide this summer on June 12th.
