Nia DaCosta’s quasi reboot develops the horror myth as an expression of rage against racism in the era of Black Lives Matter
Candyman, in its first incarnation, stepped daintily out of the mirror in 1992, in writer-director Bernard Rose’s US-set version of the Clive Barker novella The Forbidden, a parable of English class shame set in a Liverpool housing estate. Rose shifted the locale to Chicago’s deprived Cabrini-Green projects, switched the racial identity of the demon from white to black and gave filmgoers that inspired premise of exactly how he is summoned by rash unbelievers and giggling teens. Since then, Candyman has spawned sequels, references, memes and gags: such as Handyman – say his name five times in the mirror and he shows up three hours later and does a horrific job on your boiler.
Now, director Nia DaCosta, working with co-writer and producer Jordan Peele, has created a slick, macabre and very sophisticated sequel-reboot for the Candyman myth. Over the credits DaCosta cheekily, if inevitably, uses The Candy Man song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – and as this is based on a novel by Roald Dahl who also apparently created the sweet-brandishing childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I think there could be an MA thesis for someone here.
