The Candyman is heading into theaters soon, and he wants you to say his name. Inspired by real urban legends and Clive Barker's short story, "The Forbidden," the titular Candyman is a supernatural killer who appears whenever someone says his name in a mirror five times. While the just-released first trailer for the film teases plenty of gory thrills, its disturbing scenes are scored to an eerie rendition of Destiny's Child's "Say My Name."
As the hook-handed slaughters Chicago yuppies and terrorizes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's Anthony McCoy in the trailer, the acapella from the late '90s hit is mixed with an ominous, pounding score. At one point in the trailer, the Candyman even refers to himself as "the writing on the wall," and -- perhaps coincidentally -- the Destiny's Child album that features "Say My Name" is entitled The Writing's on the Wall.
Like the 1992 film, this movie will take place around the Cabrini-Green Projects, only now that area has been transformed by gentrification. While Virginia Madsen portrayed a graduate student investigating the urban legend of the Candyman and finds gruesome murders in his wake in the original film, this film appears to center around Abdul-Mateen's character, who's an artist fascinated by the Candyman myth.
Although Destiny’s Child’s commands to say Candyman's may be tempting, this trailer proves why that's not a good idea. In the trailer, a group of teenage girls summoning Candyman in the mirror of their high-school bathroom, and we only see a glimpse of the carnage that followed.
This isn’t the first time a Jordan Peele production has opted to use a pop tune in the marketing for one of his horror movies either. In 2019, Us famously used a dark interpolation of the hip-hop track “I Got Five On It” by Luniz in its first viral trailer. The song would continue to be a musical motif throughout the film and has since become nearly inseparable from the movie. Like that film and the original Candyman, this Candyman seems set to use horror as a means of exploring societal problems rather than just chasing cheap scares (although it looks plenty scary, too.)
Given its more recent success, "Say My Name" probably won't be inextricably tied to Candyman forever. Although its inclusion here probably means it won't show up in the advertising for potential Beetlejuice reboot or sequel, it's a strong creative choice to kick off the film's marketing campaign. And given what happens to the slasher's unlucky victims in this trailer, the world of Candyman is the only place where you shouldn't listen to Beyonce's advice.
Candyman is directed by Nia DaCosta with a script by Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld. It stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, Vanessa A. Williams, Rebecca Spence and Tony Todd. The film is scheduled to be released on June 12.