The Origin of ‘Candyman’ Comes to Life in Haunting Animated Teaser — Watch

Tyler Hersko
·3 min read

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The new “Candyman” teaser might not feature any scenes from the upcoming horror movie, but the animated video is still as visually breathtaking as it is deeply unnerving.

“Candyman” director Nia DaCosta shared a two and a half minute-long teaser for the upcoming horror film that consists entirely of animated puppets. The teaser is loosely based on the origins of the film’s titular character and features a variety of depressingly topical scenes of racism, such as police beating a cowering black man, which is followed by a mob breaking into a black man’s home and killing him.

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It’s a bleak teaser that effectively sets the tone for the upcoming “Candyman” film, which will serve as a sequel to the original 1992 film of the same name. The upcoming “Candyman” is a direct sequel to the 1992 film, which centered on the vengeful ghost of a black artist and son of a slave who kills those who summon him.

“’Candyman,’ at the intersection of white violence and black pain, is about unwilling martyrs. The people they were, the symbols we turn them into, the monsters we are told they must have been,” DaCosta said on Twitter.

DaCosta also noted that the shadow puppetry was done by Manual Cinema, while the score was created by Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe. DaCosta teased that their work would also be featured in the upcoming film.

Here’s the upcoming film’s synopsis, per Universal: In the 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.

The new “Candyman” teaser was released several months after the upcoming film’s trailer dropped. “Candyman” was originally slated to premiere in June but has been rescheduled to hit theaters on September 25 due to current events.

The film is produced by Ian Cooper, Win Rosenfeld, and Jordan Peele. Rosenfeld, Peele, and DaCosta also wrote the screenplay. “Candyman” will serve as Peele’s third horror outing, following his directorial work on the acclaimed “Get Out” and “Us” films, which helped elevate the comedian and “Key & Peele” mastermind to the forefront of the film industry.

Check out the animated teaser for “Candyman” via DaCosta’s embedded tweet below:

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