Marvelous Videos presents the backstory of the Candyman legend…
There’s a reason a name as seemingly silly as “Candyman” conjures up as much tension as the infamous “Bloody Mary” folk legend; in 1992, filmmaker Bernard Rose and actor Tony Todd created Candyman, a horror film that focused on the dangerous reality of an urban legend.
The sequels, unfortunately, failed to do its predecessor justice, but Jordan Peele of Get Out and Us fame has signed on to produce a “spiritual sequel” to the original movie from director Nia DaCosta, which is currently slated for an October release. To get up to speed with the mythology ahead of the new movie, we highly recommend checking out Marvelous Videos’ covering of the horrifying lore behind Candyman. Watch the video here…
SEE ALSO: Nia DaCosta’s Candyman receives an R rating for “blood horror violence”
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; HBO’s Watchmen, Us) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris; If Beale Street Could Talk, The Photograph), 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; HBO’s Euphoria, Assassination Nation) 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.
Red Stewart
Originally published October 1, 2020. Updated October 20, 2020.
