Exclusive: Teyonah Parris and Yahya Abdul Mateen II talk Candyman and horror films growing up
Hitting theaters this week from Universal Pictures is director Nia DaCosta’s upcoming Candyman revival, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, and Vanessa Williams.
Oscar winner Jordan Peele (Us) 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 and co-writes 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) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), 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) 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 wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.
BlackFilmandTV.com’s Wilson Morales caught up with Parris and Abdul-Mateen II as they spoke about the film and their favorite horror film growing up. Parris was last seen playing an adult Monica Rambeau in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ series WandaVision. She will reprise the role in The Marvels, scheduled to be released in 2022. Abdul-Mateen II played Bobby Seale in Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7. He will next be seen in the fourth installment of the Matrix franchise.