Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: "The movie is not just about monsters, it’s about what a community deems to be psychological horror, or the way they experience horror and fear."

It’s been an incredible few years for actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Ten days after graduating form an acting programme in the Yale School of Drama, he was cast as disco king Cadillac in Baz Luhrmann’s hip-hop opus The Get Down. Since then, he’s played a range of brilliant roles, including Doctor Manhattan in Watchmen, Black Manta in Aquaman and Black Panthers co-founder Bobby Seale in Netflix’s The Trial Of The Chicago 7.

Now, he’s celebrating the belated release of Nia DaCosta’s Candyman, a sequel to the classic 1992 film that was based on Clive Barker’s shorty story, The Forbidden. Originally slated for a summer 2020 release, Covid pushed back the film’s release, but now we can finally enjoy some smart, witty and thought-provoking horror.

Abdul-Mateen plays Anthony, a struggling artist who starts to explore the folklore of Candyman, the urban legend rumoured to still be haunting the Chicago housing project where Anthony grew up. The 1992 film created its own urban legend – kids and teenagers who hadn’t even seen the film had still heard of Candyman, and Abdul-Mateen admits he too had been spooked by the tale as a teen.

“I grew up with the legend of Candyman,” he recalls. “I didn’t have really strong recollections of the film because I was so young when I saw it, but I remembered those iconic moments: the long jacket, the hook, the bees coming out of the mouth. In my house, Candyman was more of a Bloody Mary folklore story. You’d always talk about it, as kids you would dare each other to play the game.”

But in this new iteration, writers Jordan Peele, Nia DaCosta and Win Rosenfeld wanted to explore what it means for the Candyman to be a Black villain – and how he got that way.

“I was so excited for this iteration and to revisit Candyman as a tragic figure instead of a monster,” says Abdul-Mateen. “Someone who was, against his will, turned into a monster, and how he haunted the grounds of the wrongs committed against him. So I feel like the conversations we had about this version were so fascinating, thinking what if we set the film in 2020 – what are the repercussions of that act that happened a long time ago?”

Horror films have always been about more than just scaring people; the best have always tapped into cultural concerns, validating ears, challenging firmly-held beliefs and also documenting the cultural zeitgeist. This version of Candyman taps into that tradition, examining issues of gentrification, race, police brutality and generational trauma. The film is set in the Cabrini-Green housing projects, a former public housing project in Chicago which has now been gentrified.

The film has lots of smart, depressing nods to the relationship between setting and the characters, as Black people are increasingly made to feel like unwelcome visitors or criminals in spaces that were previously theirs. The film’s examination of race and gentrification hit home for Abdul-Mateen, who lived in Oakland and worked as a city planner in San Francisco – two cities that a new study claims are the “most intensely gentrified cities” in the US.

In the 1970s, Black people made up nearly 15% of San Francisco’s population. Now that number is barely 4%, with tech companies’ influx of rich white men. Abdul-Mateen says that his previous job was important to him, as he got to explore what communities needed, but it also exposed how racism literally shapes cities in the United States.

“It really exposes whose voices are heard, and where resources are allocated when it comes to community planning and gentrification,” he notes. “I would say the film’s exploration of that was pretty spot-on.”

Abdul-Mateen says he’s very proud of the way the film incorporates so many different types of horror, tackling important issues while remaining funny, entertaining and thought-provoking throughout.

“We wanted to make something that was awesome and entertaining and fun and insightful all at once,” he enthuses.

“We wanted to be able to move from those jump-scares, gore that people often like with horror films, and then embrace a strong message. And what was interesting about the time between the script being completed and the film’s eventual release is that the political messages became even more pressing. The movie script didn’t change, but the world changed, and so I think it lands in a different way now.

“No-one knew what 2019 and 2020 was going to bring – this new wave of awareness around police brutality and oppression, and the result is we have something that is potentially as poignant and unsettling as the world is. And something I also think is really important about horror as a genre is that it means something different to different people. The movie is not just about monsters, it’s about what a community deems to be psychological horror, or the way they experience horror and fear.

“Monsters and fears come in many different shapes and sizes and personalities and power structures. There’s a moment where Anthony is walking around Cabrini-Green taking pictures after he hops a fence, and a cop car drives by – and he jumps back to hide from the cop car. Little moments like that reveal that horror can come from many different sources, and they don’t always look the same for everyone. Horror can hugely depend on who you are and how much power you have.”

Abdul-Mateen won widespread acclaim and an Emmy award for his performance as Doctor Manhattan in the HBO limited series Watchmen, which focused on modern-day racist violence in Tulsa, Oklahoma – the site of the 1921 race massacre. After the show had wrapped, Abdul-Mateen noted its palpable effect on discussions around race, even normalising the historical moment as a massacre, not the euphemistic “riot.”

Candyman is hugely entertaining as a horror film, but is he hopeful that Candyman will similarly contribute to conversations about police brutality, the violence of gentrification, and white people’s voyeurism and relationship with Black people’s art and trauma?

“I was so heartened by the conversation that happened around Watchmen,” says Abdul-Mateen. “I think Candyman is so strong that the audience will forge their own relationship with it. We can have intentions, but when an audience watches something, a new relationship is created and the film takes on a life of its own. I’m curious to see what comes out of that space, what audiences extrapolate from our work. I do think it’s a film that can be a critical think-piece, but I also think it’s fun and witty, and has good jokes and moments of levity, which we also badly need in the world right now.”

We do indeed, and Candyman delivers in spades. Abdul-Mateen himself is charismatic and funny onscreen, and the film is layered with smart, witty characters played by brilliant actors such as Teyonah Parris (Dear White People, If Beale Street Could Talk), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (TV’s Misfits) and meta jokes about the oft-ridiculous behaviour of characters in horror films.

The film features so many brilliant Black actors, writers and creatives – including, of course, producer Jordan Peele. Abdul-Mateen had worked with Peele on Us, playing the father of Lupita Nyong’o’s character in flashbacks, and was thrilled to be working with him again.

“We had such a good experience on Us,” Abdul-Mateen reflects. “So when this opportunity came into my lap, I really trusted his vision, and I  really liked Nia as well. Jordan told me about Nia before I met her, and told me she was this brilliant young director with incredible vision. I was so excited to sign up.”

Something that has been slightly frustrating about the marketing of the film is how Peele’s name has almost eclipsed DaCosta’s. There’s no denying Peele’s genius and commercial appeal, but the film has repeatedly been billed as ‘Jordan Peele’s Candyman’, erasing the name of this brilliant new director – which feels particularly disappointing given that the film has such a strong thread about Black women often being under-appreciated parts
of their community.

“Those are conversations that happen outside of our creative community,” Abdul-Mateen asserts, “and we’re so happy to be the champions of Nia. We know how talented she is, and also how brilliant every single person is who works on a film. We’re of course thankful for Jordan’s contributions and the opportunities he has given so many wonderful black creators, and there’s room for that appreciation while also honouring what an incredible talent Nia is and her leadership on the film.”

• Candyman is in cinemas from August 27.

Watch the trailer below.