Everything We Learned From ‘Candyman’ Director Nia DaCosta’s Fireside Chat At The Nightstream Film Festival
A spiritual sequel to the Bernard Rose’s 1992 horror movie of the same name, Nia DaCosta’sCandymanreturns to the now gentrified neighborhood of Cabrini-Green in Chicago, Illinois, back where the legend began. Now, nearly 30 years later, DaCosta is hoping not only to frighten audiences with her vision, but to make them question what exactly it is that makes them so afraid.“Maybe you’re watching horror and you’re scared because of the very literal ghost that’s in the room,” muses DaCosta. “But I think, in a horror like this, we want you to also understand why the character’s scared. Not just about the ghost, but what the ghost represents. I find that really fun.“Clever, poignant and creative, it’s easy to understand what Jordan Peele saw in theLittle Woodsdirector. A lover of 1970s cinema and a determined writer since the very first time she watchedApocalypse Nowat the tender age of 16, DaCosta is an exciting up-and-comer with a vast ocean of ideas, including how to breathe new life into the old bones ofCandyman.In response to the many challenges impacting the film community amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the concerns of safety and security that presently come with physical exhibition and festivals, a collective online initiative was launched by the organizers of a number of American genre festivals for the fall season to offer a singular experience for U.S. audiences. Together the Boston Underground Film Festival, Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, North Bend Film Festival, The Overlook Film Festival, and Popcorn Frights Film Festival joined forces under the banner of “Nightstream” to present a dynamic and accessible virtual festival in October 2020./Film was lucky enough to attend Nia DaCosta’s ‘Virtual Fireside Chat’ at Nightstream, hosted by Vulture’s Hunter Harris and broadcast across the globe. We learned more than a few things during the filmmaker’s chat with Harris, and we’re thrilled to share what we learned from this very exciting talk about all thingsCandyman.
Nia DaCosta Still Won’t Say Candyman in the Mirror
“I don’t deal with that tom foolery, and demons, gargoyles, superstitions and things like that.“Listen, the fact that DaCosta won’t mention the name of the man who has a reputation for murdering anyone who acknowledges his presence just means that she’s smarter than the rest of us:
When Harris points out later in the interview that DaCosta claims she’s not easily frightened, but still won’t say his name in the mirror, DaCosta jokingly replies that she doesn’t have time to deal with demons:
The First Movie DaCosta Saw Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in was Baywatch
Watchmen.Black Mirror.Us.The Handmaid’s Tale.The Greatest Showman.The Get Down. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has graced the set of many productions, and proved himself a fascinating actor to follow through multiple noteworthy projects. The first time DaCosta remembers seeing him? Hilariously enough, it wasBaywatch:
In DaCosta’s adaptation, Candyman doesn’t appear fully formed at first – there is a slow psychological descent into madness, marked by body horror
The first time we get a glimpse of Tony Todd’s iconic Candyman character, it’s through a dreamy, rose-tinted lens, as he appears to Helen from the dark corner of parking lot in all of his fully formed glory. A luxurious wool coat encasing a bloody, hollow chest filled with hungry bees and blinding Helen on sight. DaCosta’s take on the source material will be more of a slow burn, a creeping transformation, a possession in plain sight:
Both Daniel from Bernard Rose’s Candyman (1992) and Anthony McCoy from Nia DaCosta’s Candyman (2021) Are Artists
Although DaCosta sought to make her own vision, the director still recognizes and appreciates certain aspects of Rose’s film, and sees the virtue in maintaining a sense of connectivity to the early ’90s horror classic:
DaCosta also sees the literal ways in which setting her movie in the art world can benefit her horror story:
Nia DaCosta and Jordan Peele worked Hard to Make the Character of Candyman a Physical Representation of his Chicago Setting
Born in Brooklyn, raised mostly in Harlem, DaCosta has been a New Yorker since birth, and she deeply understands the way a city can come to define a part of your soul. When it came time to reimagine Chicago, the director understood just how important it was to feel that geography deep in the marrow of the movie:
David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986) and Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) Are Huge Influences for DaCosta
When asked about her cinematic influences, DaCosta was quick to gush over a few of her favorite horror movies.“The two that I told basically everyone to watch wereThe Flybecause it has body horror and that film is amazing,” swoons DaCosta. “I’m a huge Cronenberg fan, and the central relationship between the two characters, the fact that it’s also sort of a love story, I really love. That was really important. And thenRosemary’s Baby, another film that I’ve loved for a long time, I think the psychological terror in that film is really great.“DaCosta again stresses the importance of setting and its undeniable impact on the authenticity of a film:
Horror is a Double-Edged Sword that Helps and Hurts Black Filmmakers
The horror genre has become the default vehicle for discussing difficult issues in films, especially when it comes to talking about race, racism and racial violence. Although DaCosta is aware of the advantages that this popular mode of storytelling has afforded her as of late, she is still hesitant to fully sing its praises:
Bernard Rose’s Candyman was of its time in 1992, and DaCosta’s Candyman will be very much of its own time
“So this film, I mean we shot it in the summer of 2019 and I think the very first drafts were in in summer of 2018,” recalls DaCosta. “Rewrites were happening all of last year, and even this year, we did some more shooting which was really great. The conversation which the film is apart of is much bigger than just the film. I think all films, even though they’re complex and they can contain a lot, and can show lots of points of view, they’re all static, they all are just a flash in the pan in the grand scheme of things. That’s basically what I mean, it’s of 2020, it’sCandyman, it’s gendered, when a lot of women and non-binary individuals are also victims of the kind of violence that we talk about in the film.”
She continues:
“It’s also like, George Floyd was murdered a week before the film was originally supposed to come out and you know… the unfortunate thing was, every decision I made in making this film, in the balance between the trauma at the core of it, and like the horror and the entertainment was always because I — you know, the country we live in, I knew there was always going to be another person, or persons, who was gonna die in this awful way. The unfortunate reality of this year in particular and just the way I think things are hitting, the film’s also a part of that.This space in time, this collective trauma. You know, I was reading that this summer has been the largest Civil Rights movement in modern history, and I think a lot of that is not just because we’re tired, we’re sick and tired of it, it’s also because of all of the other issues that we’re dealing with affect racial violence. Climate change affects racial violence. The pandemic, Jesus, four times as many black people are dying from the disease, and it’s not because we have bad immune systems. It’s systemic. So I think that’s part of it, too. Our points of view are so about the multilayered ways that violence can take form and can kill in America, and that’s where the film will be.”
