When the first trailer debuted for “Candyman” — director Nia DaCosta and producer Jordan Peele’s “spiritual sequel” to the 1992 horror classic — there was a great deal of buzz about the use of a slowed-down remix of Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name” alongside the original movie’s haunting score.
But upon further reflection — the needle drop was an early hint at the way DaCosta and Peele’s take would examine deeper social themes. And the call to say “Candyman” in the mirror five times ultimately mirrors the call to remember real-life victims of racial violence.
“We shot this right up until everything started to get locked down in March of 2020, before our summer of racial reckoning,” “Candyman” star Colman Domingo told Variety. “So we were already starting to shout quietly, ‘Say her name. Say his name,’ and then it reverberated even more so in the streets.
