Blockbuster Futures, Friday Night Frights
An incisive, visually thrilling approach to the horrors of gentrification and the deep scars of the past combined with the chills that come from the minds of director Nia DaCosta and producer Jordan Peele.
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 and his partner, gallery director Brianna Cartwright, 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 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 terrifying wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny. [91 min; horror; English]
"With its shadow puppetry, sophisticated reclamation of the Candyman legend and slick, confident filmmaking, even for those not thrilled by the idea of horror cinema more generally, it is hard to deny that Candyman is a massive and exciting step forward." — Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, ABC Radio
"It's in the Get Out-level category of relevant horror." — Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News
"A standout splatterfest that's simultaneously silly, frightening and simmering with rage at the festering wound of US racial injustice." — Kevin Maher, Times (UK)
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