Top to bottom:
Anthony McCoy
(Yahya Abdul-
Mateen II) in a
mess; Creepiest
gallery ever; Nia
DaCosta and
Abdul-Mateen II
on set; Your
mirror’s broken.NIA DaCOSTA GREW up loving horror. She
counts Alien and Jaws among her favourite-ever
movies, while The Fly and The Thing are “hugely
important” to the Harlem-raised director.
Yet they were all, for the most part, missing
something: people like her. In 1992, that changed
with Candyman, Bernard Rose’s adaptation
of a Clive Barker short story, relocated to the
Chicago projects and featuring the fi rst Black
horror icon: the hook-handed, bee-wrangling
phantom played by Tony Todd. “It was awesome
to see Black people in horror that didn’t all die
immediately,” says DaCosta. “And Candyman
lived in the projects. I lived near the projects my
entire childhood, so it felt really close to home.”
Rose’s fi lm received some fl ak for its portrayal
of racial stereotypes and DaCosta recognises that
“when you look at it through a modern lens, some of
the politics don’t really land the way we’d like them
to today”. Having been picked to update the movie
by producer Jordan Peele, who was impressed by
her gritty contemporary-Western debut Little
Woods, DaCosta says there is “defi nitely a sense
of taking ownership” of Candyman, of “telling a
Black story about Black people, and casting Black
people as the leads”. She and Peele co-wrote
a script that also deals with more modern
concerns, such as the gentrifi cation of areas like
the original fi lm’s Cabrini- Green projects.
Much of that is embodied in the titular
character, played by Watchmen’s Yahya Abdul-
Mateen II. “He’s an artist who lives in the
neighbourhood,” says DaCosta, “and part of
the movie is him fi guring out his place there asa Black gentrifi er. His identity is a really cool part
of this fi lm.” She is circumspect about the precise
involvement of Tony Todd himself, who has been
confi rmed as part of the cast but is notably lacking
from the trailer. “Obviously, he’s the lightning
rod of this whole thing,” she says, “but also
something we are protecting at the same time.”
At the very least, he’ll be there in spirit (so
to speak), if not in person, whenever the name
“Candyman” is intoned fi ve times in front of
a mirror — that ingenious urban-legend device
retained for DaCosta’s version, which she
promises is a full-on, bloody horror fi rst and
foremost. She will confi rm one thing, though: she
has never — and will never — say that name while
looking at her refl ection. “You can’t risk it,” she
laughs. “I mean, I’ve literally made a movie on it,
so I know it’s all fake, but I’m still like, ‘Nope.
Not me. Not today.’” Sometimes, we guess,
a horror fi lm can be too relatable. DAN JOLINCANDYMAN IS IN CINEMAS FROM 11 JUNENo./ 4
Return of
a horror icon
Director Nia DaCosta
explains how she’s remade
groundbreaking ’90s horror
CANDYMAN for modern times
PREVIEW