#nia decosta

[deviiancetv]

I think The Marvels is definitely going to be one of the better films from the MCU in a while. If you enjoy stuff like; Sailor Moon, Bee and Puppycat, Steven Universe, Avatar/Korra, and Freaky Friday — I’m sure you’ll love The Marvels. It’s got tons of action in it, great storyline, it’s funny, it’s emotional and strong female characters to back it.

[nobleelfwarrior]

Why aren’t we talking about candy man? Did I just miss it?

The bee being swarmed by ants immediately which sets us up for the story of the most recent mob killing in that neighborhood.

The way so many of the men wore yellow. Burke wore yellow in the final scenes and the dad that killed himself was wearing yellow too.

How you are rooting for her to summon candyman at the very end and then she does.

The story is so good and so painful. I really enjoyed it and would love to hear people talking about instead of seeing gif sets and “candyman x reader” fics.

Also! Directed by an obviously very skilled black woman!

[pacingmusings]

Seen in 2023:

The Marvels (Nia DeCosta), 2023

[i-mostly-reblog-things]

Finally someone willing to call out the double standard that people give Killers of the Flower Moon

[bylillian]

The cast and crew of The Marvels had an unofficial motto on set: If you don't know, ask Iman Vellani.

"I've just learned to trust Iman because she really has her timelines in order," says Brie Larson, a.k.a. Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, shaking her head. "She's the one that's always schooling us. I wouldn't know how old Carol is without her. She really does the math."

Like Kamala Khan, the fresh-faced hero she plays on Ms. Marvel, Vellani is the kind of comic book aficionado who doodles pictures of Galactus on her sneakers or nitpicks about the differences between Earth-616 and Earth-199999. That knowledge served the 20-year-old well when she teamed up with Larson and WandaVision star Teyonah Parris on the set of their upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe entry The Marvels. Vellani had no problems correcting franchise veterans about obscure comic lore — that is after getting over the fact she was working with franchise veterans. The young actress was so starstruck on her first day with costar Samuel L. Jackson that she literally hid behind director Nia DaCosta before emerging to pepper him with questions. (Did the Nick Fury actor answer all of her inquiries? "Of course I did," Jackson, 74, says with a laugh.)

Even now, as the three lead actresses join EW for a Zoom conversation in June, Larson and Parris turn to Vellani for answers whenever they're stumped. At one point, the three disagree on the first time they actually met. Was it over Zoom? Was it filming a Disney promo video? No, Vellani corrects them: It was when they met up in 2021 to see Black Widow together. Yes, the other two decide. Iman was right. Iman is usually right.

“I just say things with enough conviction," Vellani deadpans, "and they believe me."

Zooming with the three Marvels is a bit like Zooming with three sisters who are reuniting for a long-overdue brunch. The conversation is a mix of gushing praise for one another's talents and the occasional playful insult. (At one point, Vellani pokes fun at her elder costars, causing an indignant Larson, 33, and Parris, 35, to retort: "We're like 30!") Together, the trio have an easy chemistry that reflects on screen, even when they're whooshing across the cosmos or blasting energy beams from their fists. "It was a very sisterly bond on set," DaCosta, 33, says of her leads. "It was really fun to see how their relationship mirrors their relationship in the movie."

And when The Marvels finally hits theaters on Nov. 10, the three actresses hope audiences will connect with them the same way they connected with each other. "I'm excited that the MCU has three lead women, all from very diverse backgrounds, and they're all baddies in their own way," explains Parris. "It's going to be really exciting just to see these smart, fun, intelligent, and troubled women find their way."

When Captain Marvel hit theaters in 2019, female-led superhero movies weren't a total anomaly — but they were far from frequent. Carol Danvers became the first solo female lead in the MCU, and the movie later made history as the first female superhero flick to earn $1 billion at the global box office. But even before Carol's debut, Larson says Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was already looking to the future, brainstorming how to bring other beloved heroines from page to screen. At the top of that list were Monica Rambeau (the original female Captain Marvel in the comics) and Kamala Khan (a Jersey City teenager who modeled her career after Carol). Instead of a traditional Captain Marvel sequel, the goal was to bring in even more heroes.

"This was something Kevin and I had talked about from the beginning, that this was the way this story made sense to go," Larson explains of Kamala debuting with last summer's Ms. Marvel and Monica popping up as a child in the '90s-set Captain Marvel before making her present-day debut in 2020's WandaVision.

The new film — a sequel to those three projects, as well as Avengers: Endgame and Disney+'s new drama Secret Invasion — finds Carol, Monica, and Kamala uniting for the first time under unusual circumstances. Somehow, the three women have become linked, causing them to physically swap places every time they use their powers. It's a classic comic book quandary, forcing the three lone wolves to form a reluctant pack. (Well, Carol and Monica are reluctant. Kamala is downright psyched to be hanging with her super-powered idols.)

“I understand that feeling of being afraid to let go of control, of being afraid of passing on responsibility to others," says Larson, who won the Best Actress Oscar in 2016 for Room. "You almost want to take on all of the burden yourself. So, I think this is an incredible metaphor for learning how to be in a team. It's a very clear example that no one person can do it all. You need all kinds of skill sets, all kinds of people with different viewpoints and different backgrounds in order to save the world."

Since helping to knock out Thanos in 2019's Endgame, Carol has largely left Earth behind, choosing instead to hunt down villains on the far edges of the galaxy. "The way I was able to tap into it and understand it is the concept that Carol kind of became a workaholic, and she lost touch with her heart and with family and friends," Larson says of her character's absence from recent MCU adventures. "That's certainly something I can relate to."

Those family and friends include Jackson's Nick Fury, who forged a close friendship with Carol in Captain Marvel. But that was decades ago, and Fury has lost touch with his original Avenger — until all that interstellar body swapping starts interfering with his spy work. "He's been calling her, and she's off in galaxies far, far away," Jackson explains. "She's like, 'Fury, why are you calling me? I told you not to use this [number].' He's like, 'You gave it to me, so I'm gonna use it. And I'm calling you because I need your help!'"

One of the other people left behind is Monica, the daughter of Carol's old Air Force buddy Maria Rambeau (played in Captain Marvel by Lashana Lynch). Monica first met "Aunt Carol" as a young child, but she's since grown into a hero in her own right, complete with her own powers. "Carol is such a huge part of Monica's life in Captain Marvel," Parris explains. "When we see her in WandaVision, you get a sense that she has not talked to Carol in a very long time. So, we have to address the elephant in the room."

Executive producer Mary Livanos says Marvel was already thinking about the future payoff when including Monica as a smaller child in Captain Marvel. "Always in the back of my head was a story based on family reconnection, and how hard that can be to navigate," she says.

Livanos notes that the idea of location swapping harkens back to early Captain Marvel comics from the 1960s, where Mar-Vell (the first Captain Marvel) and human Rick Jones would swap places using magical Kree bracelets called Nega-Bands. Livanos remains tight-lipped about exactly how Carol, Monica, and Kamala's powers get tangled together, but she notes that all three have light-based abilities: Carol can absorb energy and shoot powerful photon blasts; Monica can manipulate all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum; and Kamala can harden light, which she uses to make giant fists or stepping stones in mid-air.

It all makes for a trippy interstellar odyssey that DaCosta couldn't wait to direct. The filmmaker broke out with the acclaimed 2018 indie Little Woods and helmed the 2021 horror reboot Candyman — and, like Vellani, she has an impressively nerdy pedigree. As a kid, she would obsessively pore over her uncle's old Marvel issues. Later, as a college student, she stumbled upon the original Ms. Marvel comics, which first introduced teenager Kamala Khan.

"I'm a big nerd from New York City, and here was this hero who was a big nerd from Jersey City, writing fan fiction the way I used to when I was that age," explains DaCosta, who is also the first Black woman to direct a Marvel Studios film. "It was really fun to feel close to that character in that really specific way, in a way you don't often feel when it's Iron Man or Thor. That was so exciting to me, knowing that I could be a part of bringing this character who I've loved for a decade to the big screen."

Parris previously starred in DaCosta's Candyman, and she raves about her director's distinct voice and ability to find a new perspective on an existing franchise. "Even if you work with her once, you do feel like, 'Oh, we're the best of buds,'" Parris says. "I love how smart she is. I love how strong her point of view is. And I love that she has a very fresh take on material."

"She has a really calm vibe, too," Vellani adds. "These movies are not easy to make at all. There's like a million, bajillion little moving pieces. She and Mary [Livanos] did such a great job to keep morale high. Even if there were days where they wanted to rip people's heads off, they would never show it and never put their stress on anyone else."

Still, helming a massive sci-fi blockbuster has its hurdles — especially when you want to do right by your geeky inner child. "The biggest challenge was finding the balance between my point of view as a director and as a comic book nerd," DaCosta admits. "Obviously, there are changes between the comics and the movies, and sometimes I'm like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa!' Sometimes Kevin [Feige] would be like, 'You're being too much of a nerd. Please stop.'"

The Marvels also introduces a few new faces, with Parasite star Park Seo-joon, 34, joining the MCU in a role that's being kept secret for now (though Livanos reveals he plays an "ally to Carol"). Meanwhile, Zawe Ashton suits up as the villainous Kree revolutionary Dar-Benn, who's fighting to restore her homeland after a long civil war.

Known for films including Velvet Buzzsaw and Mr. Malcolm's List, Ashton, 38, had auditioned for other Marvel projects in the past, but The Marvels wasn't even on her radar. The British actress tells EW that she's long been a fan of DaCosta's work, and in the early days of the pandemic, she met with the director via Zoom, hoping to collaborate on a future indie film. Almost a year later, Ashton received an unexpected phone call from a U.S. number. It was her agents, ringing to say DaCosta was offering her a role. "I was like, 'Oh, the tiny movie we talked about in the pandemic, brilliant,'" Ashton recalls. "They were like, 'No, it's actually to join the cast of Captain Marvel 2.'"

Ashton was stunned. She quickly threw herself into stunt training and comic research, but she also turned to another iconic Marvel villain for advice: her fiancé Tom Hiddleston, who's played trickster god Loki since 2011.

"It led to some incredible conversations about his experience being part of this franchise for over a decade," Ashton says, noting that it went beyond the "very good" practical advice to make sure there were "enough zippers to go to the bathroom" in her costume. "One of the main takeaways from our conversations was 'What you put into Marvel, you get back.' He said, 'If you go into this with an open heart and a great work ethic and just want to provide an amazing experience for the fans, you'll have an amazing experience on those sets.' He really empowered me in that way."

Rounding out the cast is one more key player — one with whiskers and a long fluffy tail. In Captain Marvel, Carol adopted a small orange cat named Goose, who turned out to be a Lovecraftian alien called a flerken. (Despite their cuddly appearance, flerkens are known for their deadly, man-eating tentacles and their seemingly bottomless stomachs.) In The Marvels, Goose is primarily played by two feline actors named Nemo and Tango, who quickly became crew favorites. But Goose wasn't the only four-legged star on set: The film's trailer teases a whole cascade of kittens — or are they flerkens? "The crew was delighted whenever the kittens were around," Livanos says. "It was like Christmas when we had our bigger kitten scenes. Everyone had their own favorite."

But not everyone bonded with the feline talent. As with the first movie, Larson's allergies meant that she had to keep her distance from the cats on set. She jokes that even with all the wild stunts and wire work she does in The Marvels, the only stunt she couldn't perform was being in the same room as a cat.

"I'm still allergic," Larson says, sadly. "I hope that changes. But until it does, a lot of the CGI budget goes towards me and the cat."

"And your runny nose," Parris jokes.

Each Marvels character has a unique combat style, which meant that while Parris spent months practicing boxing, Vellani was perfecting Kamala's parkour-inspired moves. One of DaCosta's early priorities was making sure her cast didn't look (or fight) the same, and Ashton remembers an early conversation with the director where DaCosta encouraged her to prioritize agility and strength over physical appearance.

"I was saying how much I was loving working out and getting physically strong, and she was like, 'Whatever you do, please do not turn up here on day one looking like a pencil!'" Ashton remembers. "That was the most freeing thing as a performer who thought the only way to be on camera in movies like this is to present aesthetically in a certain way. Having Nia's empowerment — and the empowerment of the stunt team — to know that it's about your mental attitude, your agility, and your strength was life-changing."

As the cast would come to learn, training on land is one thing. Taking to the sky is much more difficult. "Baby was hanging on by a wire a lot of the time — literally," Parris jokes of herself. "It was a lot of wire work for Monica." At one point, remembering long days dangling above the ground, Parris, Larson, and Vellani dissolve into laughter, wiping tears from their eyes. Once they compose themselves, they explain: There was one scene where Parris had to take off, leaping and zooming high into the air on a wire. Instead of a graceful ascension, she flailed, legs askew as the wire jerked her high into the air.

"I fell onto the ground," Larson recalls, giggling. "I fell over. I couldn't believe it. It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in my life."

"I thought I held it together!" Parris adds, shaking her head. "So, I'm up at the top, swinging in the sky, like, 'Damn, that wasn't a good one, but no one noticed.' But I looked down, and Brie is on the floor in tears, and Iman is holding her face. I was like, 'Oh, I guess everybody did see that."

The cast hopes that silliness shines through when The Marvels flies into theaters this fall. "It doesn't have to be intense and heavy," Larson says. "There's a lot of humor. I think this movie's very funny, and we laughed a lot while making it." In between takes, Larson, Parris, and Vellani would bond over card games like Uno, and at one point, Larson began making pizzas in her trailer, wandering around the set each day to make deliveries to crew members.

After Captain Marvel and the pressure of being the MCU's first female-led superhero movie, there's something nice about no longer being an outlier. After all, it's much easier to handle the spotlight when you're sharing it. ​​"It's this all-female sci-fi extravaganza, with a woman on the other side of the camera," Ashton explains. "I felt very moved, actually, being involved in it. It's not an environment you're often in — a huge-budget movie with all these badass women and Samuel L. Jackson. That just doesn't happen."

We're really lucky because we have such a plethora of female characters with real flaws and real arcs," Vellani says of the evolving MCU, which has flanked its Marvels with the female-led Black Widow, She-Hulk, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and more. "Time and time again, it's proven that not only do these stories have such a robust fan base, but they sell."

She continues: "Marvel has always championed that idea of finding this idealized version of yourself through their characters — a version of yourself that can fly in space or stop a train with one hand. I think that aspiration to be greater than who you are is such a universal feeling, regardless of gender identity. I hope people recognize that and find ways to identify with all of our characters."

Larson and Parris nod, beaming at their teammate. "See?" Larson says with a smile. "We should just let Iman answer all these questions."

Additional reporting by Sydney Bucksbaum.

These interviews were conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

[poebrey]

Steven Yeun may have dropped out of thunderbolts 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

[dicapiito]

The Marvels is a great movie. How I rate it? 4.5/5 stars.

A team of three. Teyonah Harris as Monica Rambeau is awesome and with no Wanda in sight; she definitely gets to shine here. And add that Nia DeCosta knows how to hire people to know how to highlight and lowlight all skintones; it’s nice that her powers and her look so awesome. I definitely hope she has her own movie in the future with the same film crew. No more of the Christopher Nolan/ standard boring MCU lighting.

Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan is fun because she oozes excitement of wanting to be Ms Marvel. Ms Marvel also has a great family cast and feels fresh and fun as well. I see why Ms Marvel has a TV series. Add that it seems like she’s in actual costumes that look like a fan made it is also pretty cool. Great job

Brie Larson being Captain Marvel is a great choice and glad to see her without all those other Avengers. Plus her costume looks even better than the first movie.

As for the villains, Zawe Ashton as Dar-Benn is top notch. Very fun and it wasn’t that complicated to be caught up with The Marvels without seeing the Ms Marvel show.

If anything, I think The Marvels is a movie that would make new fans of Monica and Kamala and want to learn more about them and check out the comics , which a Marvel movie hasn’t really done in a long time, since the first Black Panther movie.

I hate that this movie even worse treatment than Birds of Prey because how dare women lead movies, and how dare two of them be WoC! Plus this movie has great lighting; actual costumes, it feels like the crew members were fans and even the CGI looks like they were happy to be there. It feels like pre Disney Marvel and I like it

Highly recommend!

[juhneenteagues]

many people have said they're not going to see The Marvels in theaters when it comes out.

it sucks for them bc of timing. between the strike and genocide going on in Palestine, many people do not want to actively support Disney.

and on top of that, many mcu "fans" are just sexist/misogynists and racists so how convenient for them to not support a movie they weren't gonna see anyways, or go see just to trash talk it.

when Captain Marvel came out, i saw it in theaters and it wasn't my favorite movie. I didn't necessarily hate the movie, or Carol Danvers, but I just like "meh". I rewatched the movie earlier this year for fun and I liked it a lot more this time around but the movie is still kinda middle of the road for me.

but from the trailers. plus with Monica and Kamala, i am very excited to see the movie. It looks really good! s/o to Nia DeCosta.

it is definitely a nuanced take, but although not supporting the movie in theaters hurts the cast and crew of the film, overall the more important thing is to not actively help Disney fund a genocide.

and all the other corporations as well, as much as possible

[rowinablx]

Nia Decosta is now my least favorite Marvel director ever, she's claiming the Marvels is different for being "wacky and silly" and blamed Steve for Thanos winning. Chloe Zhao and Sam Rami remain supreme.

[mbharestuff]

Stupidass post. The Marvels is a pretty good superhero flick, and I'm no MCU fan. Godzilla Minus One is a masterpiece of its genre. They have nothing to do with each other, you're just getting sucked into an idiotic debate that's wrapped up in the old hate campaigns against Brie Larson and the new one against Nia Decosta.

absolute fuckchumps, I swear.

[criticarter]

Films Watched in 2024 - (15/???)

The Marvels (2023) Nia DeCosta -- (3.5/5)

This was so much better than people said! First and foremost: IMAN VELLANI IS RDJ-TIER PERFECT CASTING. Fangirl moments with Carol Danvers alone were worth the price of admission. Parris takes a bit of a backseat to the other two, but there's enough fun to be had with the switching to both make up for that and the same vs same element of the big bad (who, unsurprisingly, clearly took inspiration from the Tom Hiddleston school of MCU acting). We also get a musical sequence, because everyone should learn the lesson that Edgar Wright did 15 years ago.

[afamer-112a-blogposts]

Blog Post #3: February 4, 2023

This week, we focused largely on the two renditions of Candyman (1992,2021). I always most enjoy watching material that I have never seen before, so this week was particularly enjoyable for me. As far as my opinions go, I have to say that I preferred the 2021 Candyman. I appreciated Nia DaCosta’s revisions and expansions of a previously criticized and problematic film, despite public love and appreciation for it.

As Professor Due discussed in lecture, she mentioned that the recent Candyman extended and elevated the previous one by retelling Black trauma through a Black lens and shifting the attention away from the previously white protagonist. The recent Candyman also refrains from depicting Black trauma, with more respect and care for its Black (and other marginalized) characters. In fact, not a single Black character is killed throughout the duration of the film. This is important, as creating a story intended for Black audiences and as a critique of a previous problematic film should not include graphic depictions of violence against the very people it is aimed towards entertaining.

I really enjoyed Nia DeCosta’s visuals, the striking creativity made for captivating scenes and attention demanding screens. I’m also a huge fan of using humor in horror, similarly to Jordan Peele’s character, Gabe, from Us. The film also had a lot of great commentary on other issues, including toxic relationships. I really enjoyed being able to pick out the differences between each rendition of the film and discover how Hollywood and times in general have changed. When I was reading some other opinion pieces about each Candyman film online to help me get some inspiration for this blog post, I found a very thought provoking phrase (original author’s account was deleted, but here is a hyperlink to the blogpost). In it, he notes that the provacative elements present in the original are not “come to terms with” or accepted, but rather builds upon and expands them through a different lense than the original. Overall, I think the most recent Candyman had a profound commentary on its older brother. With striking visuals, a fantastic cast, and an excellent plot, the film sucks its audience in for a wild ride from start to finish, building upon a legendary film to retell a story the way it needed to be told. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all of the material we have examined in the quarter thus far and I’m looking forward to many many more. My favorite part so far is being able to take all of the films and messaging I learn and deliver it to those around me, spreading Black voices and media for others to enjoy.

[msclaritea]

I'm fucking pissed. Because director Nia DeCosta, Activist director, I should say, added a then deleted scene, claiming Carole Dancers was Gay AND because little Miss Marvel herself, leaked information about the scene in an interview, regular fans got to hear this shit that Captain Marvel is now Queer coded. #Disney better fix that creo and I mean NOW!

[spikeironfoundersson]

There’s also the part about Nia DeCosta (director of The Marvels) leaving the post-production process of the film when they still had a few months left and the article smarmily says:

“Then eyebrows were raised again when DaCosta began working on another film while “The Marvels” was still in postproduction — the filmmaker moved to London earlier this year to begin prepping for her Tessa Thompson drama “Hedda.” (A representative for DaCosta declined to comment.)

‘If you’re directing a $250 million movie, it’s kind of weird for the director to leave with a few months to go,’ says a source familiar with the production.”

When literally the article, mere paragraphs later, explains how the post production of The Marvels was pushed back a full YEAR with reshoots because the executives weren’t happy, and it swapped places with the release date of Quantumania—so idk geniuses, maybe there’s a reason Nia left? Because she was already booked for something else and you fucked the schedule on her? Trying to throw her under the damn bus.

marvel watching their new quantity-over-quality projects flop, realizing exactly how hard they fumbled the bag on setting up an ongoing Avengers Team Movie Series and frantically being like “ok ok maybe we uhhHHHHH try to get the OG avengers back. the circa 2012-2016 mcu zeitgeist avengers those ones were popular we can bring back the interest” is so sad.

like babe do u think u can simply turn back the hands of time. do u think u can simply bring back the characters u killed off for shock value and expect the same level of engagement. more importantly do u think you can simply afford a 2023 robert downey jr

accept ur failure with grace. steve is in the 40s now & tony you CHOSE To Do That,

[screenspirit]

Goodbye Ghosts and Killers. Hello Politics and Commentary: Horror in the 2020s

Spoiler Warning for Get Out, Candyman and Squid Games. Some spoilers refer to racial tensions and attacks/murders.

What is it about horror that draws so many people to it? What fears shown in horror scare people the most? Expected answers would involve getting to watch dumb teens get slashed one by one or unworldly forces terrorising a family during the night. The horror genre has given a lot of different scares over the years- vampires in gothic castles to evil computers in a teen girl’s bedroom chilling audiences to the bone. As time goes on and external factors change, the genre may fully delve into something a little too realistic to get some fresh scares. Recently, the contextual background of our own political climate has been inspiring horror screenwriters’ imaginations and has been bleeding onto our screens. Rather than masked knife-wielding maniacs making us jump, the 2020s may be the decade that sees the torch handed to ghastly representations of political figures and events.

Films, similar to most mediums, can be documentation of current events. Our culture is always influencing creatives and horror is beginning to demonstrate this. Each era or trope of horror can be tied to a decade or two. The 70s brought us chilling supernatural stories and exploitation films, the 80s and 90s gave killers Jason and Ghostface the spotlight, and the 2000s to 2010s concerned themselves with torture porn. Now, social allegories are looking to be the latest craze, with recent horror exposing societal ills in metaphors. Writers and directors are utilising their stories and mise-en-scene as tools to execute social commentary. It’s important to note that while these political metaphors are only now becoming popular, the genre has dipped into this before. Profound directors such as Romero and Carpenter steered some films to critique societal issues: Romero’s Night of the Living Dead attacked ideas of civilisation while They Live was Carpenter’s disapproval of excessive materialism. But now politics is heavily and frequently reaching the visual arts in correlation with an influx of widely absorbed social justice.

One figure who can be credited with springboarding socio-political horror is Jordan Peele, whose award-winning screenplay and complemented direction in Get Out (2017) referred to racial issues in society. The film received accolades and praise for exploring and performing the psychological horror of racism in America. In turn, it generated not only an intense emotional reaction as horror does but also a display of critical evaluation among audiences in their reflections. Get Out’s terror didn’t reside in something shallow and familiar in horror, but instead something powerful and familiar in societal structures and attitudes. Chris becoming a victim of a psychological hijacking as a means of exploiting his traits was Peele’s outlet to communicate the disgusting culture vulture mistreatment that black people experience. There was also a critique on white liberalism and pandering to black people shown in the white family, lacing the film with some painfully true aspects.

Peele contributed to another racial allegory featured in the horror genre, as he wrote and produced alongside director Nia DeCosta in her re-telling of Candyman (2021). This film told a story of a cursed killer breaking through the gap of life and death to get his victims, but also a story of racial injustice and tribute to the victims. Candyman’s origin displays prejudice and unfairness, as he was murdered by a white mob after being accused of harming a white girl, not proven to, accused. This echoes the devastating murders black people fall victim to at the hands of police once those officers decide they’re a threat over nothing. The hook (pardon the sudden pun) of Candyman’s curse is that you have to say his name. As Candyman had a pushed back release due to the Covid pandemic, it came after the murder of George Floyd and the BLM marches that followed-where Say Their Name is a verbal signal of acknowledging the victims of racially charged murders. The story reflects the Black Lives Matter movement in its events and characterisation, further cementing horror blending with political landscapes and social critiques which serve as the backdrop for its stories.

Presidential campaign debates and elections can be harrowing events to maintain track of. The sheer hypocrisy and inconsistencies one has to endure when watching the televised debates always proves to be a challenge and concern for America’s future. If this is the case, surely you would switch the TV off and turn over to a film as a means of escapism instead? Not if you choose to watch The Purge franchise, as the sequels to the original 2013 flick are a hyperbolic presentation of American political leaders and climate. These films follow an annual night of all legalised crime, justified by an alleged claim of “purging” civilians’ negative emotions, however, the sequels show how this is a false cover-up. The elite population take this night as an opportunity to murder minorities; the lower class, POC, basically anyone who does not suit their narrow-minded manifesto. The government see the purge as an opportunity for population control and a sick case of natural selection to keep America “great”. The third instalment, Election Year, came out during one of the most controversial and discussed presidential elections- Trump v Clinton. Since Trump’s unfortunate win, The Purge sequels that followed only became more on-the-nose and extreme with their political satirical commentary, paving the way for more representations of politics in horror that, given the current political climate, will stop seeming so over the top.

What does torture horror have to say on the matter? Darren Lynn Bousman and Josh Stolberg provided an answer to this with Spiral: From The Book Of Saw, a spin-off to the Saw franchise. Despite the misplaced classification of the previous films as shock value, buckets of gore driven torture porn, the franchise has always held political and philosophical undertones (the whole sixth film is a massive f you to the American health care system for being heavily commodified), however, this spin-off was less under and more overtone. Chris Rock plays a cop who finds himself in a web of a Jigsaw copycat’s sick games, where seedy corrupted officers are murdered for shooting innocent POC and the witnesses who can get their jobs taken away. The traps aren’t testing the officers but instead simply punishing them for abusing their power in such vile manners. Likewise to Candyman, this film got pushed back a year due to the pandemic and so viewers watched it with George Floyd in their minds, something that gave the twist ending an unforeseen kick in the stomach of realism.

If you spent any time on Twitter last year, it’s safe to say you know what Squid Games is, even if you didn’t watch it. The smash-hit and record-breaking Netflix original series constructed a gripping horror story using class inequality as a value. A group of players crippled by debt compete in childhood games with a deadly twist in order to win a mass sum of cash. The situation is a literal matter of life and death, correlating with the metaphorical one debt creates. The show’s scare factor was distributed between the “loser’s” deaths and the uncomfortable but powerful portrayal of class division influencing concepts of humanity. The death scenes in the games are of course chilling, but that cannot compare to the horror of the players killing one another to get rid of too much competition. Squid Games held a mirror to our capital-mad society and its detrimental flaws, in turn, displaying how horror is employing social commentary in the 2020s.

Social commentary horror doesn’t appear to be letting up any time soon as we move into the new decade, with the Covid pandemic possibly sparking new ideas for horror stories of infections destroying civilization. A strong chance of a new wave of zombie movies that are more hard-hitting given the context is therefore on the cards. Peele has to our screens with his mysterious feature Nope and a remake of capitalism satire The People Under The Stairs, so it looks as if the 2020s will be brimming with horror grounded in political discourse.

[horrorfanaticjas]

Blog Post #2

Black horror has altered the horror genre and resulted in the addition of films that are shedding light on representation, systemic racism, and more. Throughout the week, there has been a detailed analysis of Nope and a dive into Candyman, prompting my interest in exploring them further. The evolution of Jordan Peele’s films holds consistency in the themes that are examined, such as “centering Black characters, science fiction horror rooted in true-life issues, entertaining stories on the story with layers underneath (iceberg diagram), Black characters in isolation, and restraint in depicting violence against Black characters.” (Due 2022). After examining Jordan Peele’s films, I would like to apply the themes explored to Nope and Candyman, as Nia DeCosta also strategically incorporates important themes into her film. Throughout this analysis, I will focus on the themes explored within class and compare them to each other. 

Although Nope and Candyman are entirely different films and discuss separate themes within the movies, they hold similarities in what the themes represent overall. For example, Nope’s sci-fi aspect is the flying alien saucer that sucks up anything that looks up at it and Candyman’s sci-fi aspect is the “urban legend” of Candyman, or Daniel Robitaille, that is summoned when someone says his name five times. In addition to the sci-fi aspect, the films are rooted in true-life issues – Nope explores issues such as Blackness in Hollywood (and more) and Candyman (2021) focuses on gentrification (and more). 

While Nope was more complex, difficult to fully understand on first watch, and had more layers to unpack, both films were extremely well-calculated with the “iceberg” topics that were put into them. Within Candyman, there were surface level topics and deeper topics that one must think about to truly understand, such as the artist and society, and weaponizing Candyman for Black lives. Throughout Candyman, Anthony’s profession as an artist is constantly questioned and Troy makes jabs at him – Anthony will also do anything to get his break to fame as an artist, being elated at the news of death in front of his Candyman exhibit. A similar aspect is seen in Candyman, where OJ and Emerald will go to any length to catch the alien, going to Best Buy to buy cameras and wanting to ensure that the fame would stay theirs. In Nope, the toxic allure of Hollywood is a theme that does not jump out straight away, but it makes more sense as one analyzes the film more. From the beginning of the film, it is a desire of the characters to be immersed in Hollywood, so much that it has caused trauma to some of them (Jupe), and the same occurs in Candyman with Anthony trying to pursue fame and become a well-known artist.

Overall, I believe Candyman and Nope are films that exemplify Black horror and allow for a deeper understanding of the themes covered throughout class.