'A story like that lasts forever': Latest Candyman teaser stings with relevant horror

Following up its masterful shadow-puppet teaser from a few weeks back, director Nia DaCosta's Candyman reimagining just dropped some more live-action footage that highlights the titular character's enduring legacy.

"Who's Candyman?" asks wide-eyed artist Anthony McCoy (Watchmen's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II).

"Candyman ain't a he," replies Cabrini Green old-timer William Burke (Fear the Walking Dead's Colman Domingo). "Candyman is the whole damn hive. A story like that, pain like that, lasts forever. Candyman is how we deal with the fact that these things happened, that they're still happening."

Intercut with footage of police officers and the brutal, racially motivated attack that turned Daniel Robitaille into the hook-handed "antagonist," Burke's haunting speech frames everything we thought we knew about the famous myth in a new light.

The movie's story begins when Anthony (who may be the grown-up version of the baby from the 1992 film) and his gallery-director girlfriend, Brianna Cartwright (WandaVision's Teyonah Parris), move to the Cabrini Green neighborhood of Chicago, which is now gentrified.

Wanting to remain relevant as a painter, Anthony begins to use the Candyman legend as inspiration for projects, "unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny," reads the official synopsis.

Written by DaCosta and executive producers Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, the movie also features the acting talents of Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Dracula) and original Candyman star Tony Todd. The latter's role is still a mystery.

Candyman is slated to arrive in theaters everywhere on Sept. 25.