For a villain as iconic as Candyman, whose status remains in effect thanks to Tony Todd’s timeless performance, finding a new actor to play the character is a daunting task. The challenge lies in finding someone that can honor and add to the iconic status of the character while also embodying him. Jackie Earle Haley, for instance, tried his hand at it by becoming Freddy Krueger in the 2010 reboot of Nightmare on Elm Street. While Haley turned in a great performance, the movie itself didn’t live up to expectations and the new Freddy seemed to become dimmer in the process, not to mention that there was something missing about the updated version.

Nia DaCosta’s 2021 interpretation of Candyman looks like it’s eager to avoid comparisons and unrealistic expectations by not sticking to a single manifestation of the monster. Instead, it’s going for several manifestations of the character at once by placing black victims of police violence and brutality as potential candidates for the now shared title.

The movie’s latest trailer goes as far as to confirm that the idea is to turn the monster into a kind of vessel that finds its life source in the people American culture has wronged the most. Much like the original 1992 movie, the new Candyman comes as a dark response to the racial conditions of its time.

For the ‘92 Candyman, it was the lack of support for the more “urban” sections of cities and then the misrepresented idea that illegal activity was a legitimate and natural character trait of low-income black neighborhoods.

The 2021 Candyman seems to be powered by a Black Lives Matter perspective that frames police misconduct as the primary creator of Candymen. That, in itself, does enough to put the latest iteration of the story in a spot where the original concept is allowed to continue coursing through the movie’s veins while also injecting a healthy dose of new horrors to turn the experience into something different.

As a horror fan, this has to be one of the anticipated horror movies in recent years. It has a world of possibilities riding on it and it can inspire a new generation of black horror that can continue to challenge the bad things that turn victims into dark forces of retribution.

Candyman opens in theaters on August 27, 2021.