Nia DaCosta’s Candyman has been so long coming that all the key creative players are much bigger names now than they were when production wrapped in late 2019, with the hybrid of sequel and reboot initially scheduled to hit theaters on June 12th, 2020, but after many delays, it finally comes to the big screen tomorrow.
Horror has tended to play well during the pandemic era as A Quiet Place Part II and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It have shown, so the chances are good that it might even be able to dislodge Free Guy and claim the number one spot at the box office. All the trailers and TV spots have promised an unnervingly creepy, atmospheric and ultimately terrifying reinvention of the property, and the reviews are backing it up.
At the time of writing, Candyman is holding an 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes from just over 100 reviews, with the consensus stating that director Nia DaCosta has crafted an unsettling, topical and timely terror, albeit one that can be prone to self-indulgence on occasion. That being said, for the most part, critics seem to be in unanimous agreement that it’s one of the year’s best horror titles, which is good news indeed for audiences.
DaCosta is currently shooting The Marvels with Candyman star Teyonah Parris, while leading man Yahya Abdul-Mateen II can’t seem to stop snaffling up high profile gigs as he continues to shoot up the Hollywood ladder, so a few years from now we could well be looking back at the film as a meeting point for three of the biggest talents in the industry.