MGM has released the official trailer for Candyman, the spiritual sequel to the 1992 horror film of the same name which starred Tony Todd as the titular hook-handed killer. Fair warning, the trailer does seem to lay out just about all the twists and turns of the new take on the material. Even though it's a familiar story, this new spin takes some big swings; it would have been nice to see them on the big screen instead of a cropped social media post, but that's the world we live in now. Fair warning!

The original Candyman film, which starred Todd and Virginia Madsen, kicked off what is now a decades-long horror franchise with two sequels, 1995's Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh and 1999's Day of the Dead, sandwiched in between the original and this new movie. Based on characters created by Clive Barker and directed by Nia DaCosta (Little Woods), Candyman takes place in the same Chicago neighborhood as the first film.

The trailer teaser released on Tuesday previewed some of the characters we'd be crossing paths with over the course of the film played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen), Teyonah Parris (Chi-Raq), Colman Domingo (Euphoria), and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Dracula). Most intriguing of all, Cassie Kramer (Chicago P.D.) will play the same character Madsen played in the first Candyman and Todd will be returning to the franchise.

Plot details for the feature produced and co-written by Jordan Peele have been kept under wraps until now; the full synopsis follows below. Production on the pic kicked off in August 2019 and the trailer is finally here for us to enjoy. Check it out below:

Don’t say his name.

 

This summer, Oscar-winner Jordan Peele unleashes a fresh take on the blood-chilling urban legend that your friend’s older sibling probably told you about at a sleepover: Candyman. Rising filmmaker Nia DaCosta (Little Woods) directs this contemporary incarnation of the cult classic.

 

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.

Universal Pictures presents, from Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures and Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld’s Monkeypaw Productions, in association with BRON Creative, Candyman. Candyman is directed by DaCosta, and is produced by Ian Cooper (Us), Rosenfeld and Peele. The screenplay is by Peele & Rosenfeld and DaCosta. The film is based on the 1992 film Candyman, written by Bernard Rose, and the short story “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker. The film’s executive producers are David Kern, Aaron L. Gilbert and Jason Cloth.