Say it, implore the posters for the new Candyman sequel, referring to the urban myth that the hook-handed ghost of the title can be summoned by repeating his name five times in front of a mirror. But Nia DaCosta will not say it: Oh hell, no. She is shaking her head. Never have done, never will. Despite having written and co-directed the film, DaCosta isnt taking any chances. In fact, when I was watching auditions, I would get a little freaked out so Id stop the audition before they said it all five times. So silly, she admits, laughing at herself. But she is not superstitious, she insists. Its just that one bit. Nothing [else] about it scares me at this point. Except Im just not gonna put myself in the space for my brain to play tricks on me.
Probably best not to jinx it. Right now, DaCostas career is definitely looking more charmed than cursed. Within the space of three years and three films, she has shot to the top of the industry. Candyman, which was produced by horror supremo Jordan Peele, follows her debut feature Little Woods, a social-realist western centred on two impoverished sisters in modern-day North Dakota. Now DaCosta is in London shooting The Marvels the sequel to Marvels blockbuster Captain Marvel, with a budget of well over $100m. Not bad for a film-maker who is not yet 32 years old; unprecedented for a Black, female one. Bright, enthusiastic, fast-talking and quick to laugh, DaCosta still has the air of an unjaded newcomer.
We meet in a boutique hotel in Notting Hill, which is apt considering one of Candymans central themes is gentrification. Just as Notting Hill has transformed from a run-down neighbourhood of immigrants into one of Londons swankiest postcodes, so Bernard Rose, director of the original, 1992 Candyman movie, transposed Clive Barkers story from Britain to Chicagos Cabrini-Green housing projects, a deprived, heavily African American neighbourhood. DaCostas sequel revisits Cabrini-Green in the present day. As in real life, the projects have been demolished, replaced by luxury apartment towers. Black painter Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his gallerist partner Brianna (Teyonah Parris) have moved to the area with little knowledge of its troubled past. Anthonys career isnt going great and when he discovers the urban myth of the Candyman, he thinks he has struck gold, but it turns out to be more of a Faustian pact.
As with the original Candyman, DaCostas update is no straightforward yarn of would-be victims versus a supernatural monster. Candyman is more complex than that. Memorably played by Tony Todd in the 1992 original, he is the ghost of a 19th-century artist who was horrifically maimed and killed for becoming too close to a white woman. Thus, he is Americas racist past coming back to haunt it. He is a perpetrator and a victim, monstrous yet sympathetic. Hes a person, which is the whole point of this movie. Hes not just some like floating demon slayer, and its a really tricky balance, says DaCosta. Hes someone who clearly has a lot of pain, and thats something I find really interesting about him as a character.
The original movie had its flaws, it must be said. Chiefly that the Candymans victims were mostly Black people (including DaCostas future mentor Kasi Lemmons, now a respected director in her own right), and its hero, played by Virginia Madsen, is an almost stereotypical white saviour. But in a traditionally white-dominated genre, Roses film (which was followed by two inferior sequels) created one of the few Black horror icons in popular culture. I think Candyman is important in that way, says DaCosta. Not necessarily my movie, but the concept of a sort of mythological figure that you can transpose a lot of stories on through horror, which is an easier genre through which to passively accept some hard truths.
It was important to DaCosta and Peele that this revival be a story about Black people told by Black people. She still sounds a little surprised she got the job. After Little Woods, she came to Britain to direct a couple of episodes of the crime series Top Boy (she also did her masters in writing here, at Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, so shes no stranger). That was when she found out she was on the shortlist for Candyman, to her surprise. So she flew LA to pitch to Peele. I love horror and I felt like I had a really good idea about how to make something scary, but also Im very measured, especially with a story like this, about what is appropriate and what is not appropriate.
She had to rein in her inner geek with Peele, having been a huge admirer of Get Out and his sketch show, Key and Peele. Id be in meetings with him and hed start doing voices [from the show], and Im like: Hes doing that! I dont think he knew how big of a fan I was, until I mentioned a particular sketch and he was, like, Whoa, thats a deep cut. And I was like, Ive seen every episode, like, five times. Slightly embarrassing but, um, I think hes so brilliant.
Had DaCostas film come out last June, as intended, it would have arrived at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the US. Uncanny timing, perhaps, but DaCosta, who participated in BLM marches herself, is relieved that didnt happen: I would have hated getting the question, Isnt it so timely right now, with all these deaths going on? Thats not why we made it. But I think it will happen again a summer like last summer. I think that the story were telling was about that: the fact that its cyclical. It could come out next year, it could come out any time and still be relevant.
I genuinely can just make a movie that doesnt have to traffic in Black pain
The other key target of DaCostas Candyman is the art world, which is presented as an exclusive, money-fuelled realm, policed by white critics, agents and gallerists. To boost his appeal, Anthony is encouraged to incorporate more hood themes into his art. Could we draw parallels with the film industry here?
A hundred percent, DaCosta laughs. Ive had that conversation so many times with people where I mention something offhand about my childhood or something and theyre like: Oh, they should do that [in the movie]. And Im like: Why? Candyman could be seen as an ironic comment on the fact that Black artists are expected to deal with issues of Black trauma.
It is even worse for female film-makers, DaCosta suggests: Its not necessarily overtly racist, but it is shocking the way people have talked to me in my position as a director. People who work for me. Especially on a movie like this, where Jordan was the only other person of colour at the level of decision-making on the movie. And thats unacceptable, frankly. She talks of crass comments about Black hair. She recalls a time she was outside waiting for her assistant one night and a (white, male) crew member jokingly asked if she was hooking to make money on the side. That happened to me so many times, with people who work above me, who work laterally to me, below me. In the moment, youre just like: Push on. You just deal with it. But in retrospect, I will never do that again.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Anthony in Candyman. Photograph: Parrish Lewis/AP
DaCosta grew up in Harlem, raised by her mother, who emigrated from Jamaica. Her mother was once a singer (her group, Worl-A-Girl, features on the soundtrack of Jamaican bobsled comedy Cool Runnings), so she supported her daughters creative path but warned her this is going to be very hard and youre going to be very poor. DaCostas first movie loves were 70s directors such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Sydney Lumet and Alan Pakula. Seeing Apocalypse Now was a formative experience. I revisit it before I start shooting anything, she says. People dont really make original epics on that scale any more. Its like scale and idiosyncrasy have been sort of separated from each other. She checks herself: I say as I make a Marvel movie.
The Marvels at least pushes the superhero frontiers back a little further. Alongside Brie Larsons Captain Marvel, it introduces mainstream cinemas first Muslim superhero: Pakistani-American Kamala Khan, AKA Ms Marvel, played by Iman Vellani. The Ms Marvel character was already a favourite of DaCostas. I was like: Oh, this is me in high school. I really related to her nerdiness and her being awkward.
By her own admission, DaCosta is a huge comic-book nerd. In fact, at her first meeting with her Marvel producer, Mary Livanos, DaCosta almost put her off with her enthusiasm. I just nerded out, she says. I was like, here are the movies I think you should do! Galactus, Storm and Scott Summers team-up movie! Blah blah blah! She just endured me going in super-deep. And she also gave me a lot of confidence that I would have the creative latitude to not just basically be a puppet on a string.
Unlike her Candyman character, DaCostas is not the story of an artist selling their soul; she always had the ambition to make genre movies with higher budgets, she says. And crucially, she hasnt had to compromise in order to get where she is. We should be able to make different kinds of movies, so Im really happy I got to make The Marvels because its like, I genuinely can just make a movie that doesnt have to traffic in Black pain. And I feel like a lot of black film-makers are asked to or expected to do that.
Her rise is clearly down to more than just chance, but it is, she acknowledges, also an indication of how the industry has changed and is changing. This would not be my career five years ago, she says. Ive been very lucky and Ive worked really hard, and Im really happy that Ive had the experiences that Ive had. Well the good ones at least. At the same time, as well as Im doing, this should be happening for more people who are like me.
Candyman is released in the UK on 27 Augustread more
Candyman director Nia DaCosta: ‘This should be happening for more people like me’
