And conversely, while in the original, black people confusingly bore the brunt of the Candyman's violence, here it's white people who make up the majority of victims.Īt a time when the cinema industry is still struggling to get back on its feet, the film has been a breakout success, based on its early box-office results at least. Where the first film's heroine was a white woman, this time there are black protagonists, artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his girlfriend Brianna (Teyonah Parris). This new take, again produced by Peele and directed by rising star Nia DaCosta, sees Todd make a very brief reappearance as the eponymous bogeyman – but otherwise gives the franchise a significant overhaul. Released in cinemas around the world last week, it is a "spiritual sequel" to the cult 1990s horror of the same name, which, even though it was written and directed by a white man, is often talked about as a pioneering "black horror" for the way it dealt with anti-black violence at its core Tony Todd starred as the titular hook-handed spirit who, it transpires, is a man from the 19th Century avenging his racialised murder by lynching. Now things have come full circle with a new Candyman film.
Meanwhile on TV, both HBO's Lovecraft Country, produced by Peele, and Amazon's Them, have featured black-led casts and explored racism through a horror prism.
On film, the spectrum of black-led or black-starring horror projects has ranged from Peele's smash hit Get Out follow-up, Us, to indie horrors like Remi Weekes's powerful immigration-themed British chiller His House and Justin Simien's satire Bad Hair to more mainstream, popcorn movies like Octavia Spencer vehicle Ma, Gerard McMurray's The Last Purge and Spiral, the latest instalment in the Saw franchise, which was led by two of Hollywood's biggest black stars, Chris Rock and Samuel L Jackson. Suddenly, the horror genre has become an artistic space where black people have become a lot more prominent both in front of and behind the camera. – The horror that was 2020's most timely hitĪn Oscar winner and massive box-office hit, it both subverted the genre's long record of offensive racial tropes, and showed there was a will for Western horror to correct its overriding whiteness.įour years on, its legacy can be seen across film and TV. – The X-rated masterpiece still being censored Jordan Peele's 2017 directorial debut masterfully skewered racism in US society by satirising the prejudice a young black man faces in modern America, among white people of all political persuasions – but it was also a watershed moment for horror. Occasionally a film arrives that is so compelling, so utterly thrilling, that its impact alters the future of cinema.
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