One of my favorite horror movies is the Bernard Rose-directed Candyman, a chilling urban horror film adapted from Clive Barker‘s “Books of Blood” short story “The Forbidden”. “Urban” has a dual meaning in that the adaptation was moved from England to the now demolished Cabrini–Green public housing development in Chicago, while the antagonist is an urban legend in himself, the Candyman (played by Tony Todd), an artist and son of a slave who had his hand severed and was then murdered (with bees, of course) by his lover’s father. Released in 1992, the film spawned two sequels, the latter being direct-to-video.

While lesser known among the horror icons, Candyman is easily one of the scariest; he can be summoned by saying his name five times while facing a mirror.

As for the franchise, it’s been dormant for nearly 20 years. In poking around for a revival screening, I learned that the rights have become available once again. Tri-Star had released the first two films while Artisan was behind 1999’s Day of the Dead. While I’m unsure who is the current rights holder – it may have reverted back to Clive Barker for all I know – I do know that Jordan Peele is in talks to produce a remake of the film through his Monkeypaw Productions. It’s unclear if he plans to direct. Sounds sweets to the sweet to me.

Even if highly unlikely, two years ago, Rose had openly stated that he’d love to direct a “proper” sequel to the film and bring Virginia Madsen as Helen.

Peele won an Oscar earlier this year for his Get Out screenplay and was also nominated for “Best Director”. He’s currently filming Us, another social thriller, while his Monkeypaw Productions is behind a remake of “The Twilight Zone”, “The Hunt” and “Lovecraft Country”. He also produced this summer’s BlacKkKlansman.

“It was always you, Jordan.”