Daily Archives: January 20, 2025

How Sundance’s Storied Past Will Help Shape the Hazy Future of Indie Film

Sundance’s leadership speaks frankly about how the organization will forge ahead in an anxious moment for the industry, from the rise of AI to the festival’s possible move out of Utah: “Change is a good thing.”By David CanfieldJanuary 20, 2025L-R: Sundance world premieres Brooklyn, Get Out, A Real Pain.Brooklyn: Kerry Brown/Fox Searchlight Pictures/ Everett Collection; Get Out: Universal Pictures / Everett Collection; A Real Pain: Searchlight Pictures / Everett Collection.Save this storySaveSave this storySaveConsidering everything the Sundance Film Festival is about, its resilience—and strength—as of this writing is something of a miracle. Of late, the annual Park City-based January event has weathered, like the rest of the movie industry, significant disruptions related to the COVID pandemic, months-long strikes by actors and writers, and most recently, a deadly natural disaster. But Sundance has also long served as the meeting ground for American independent film, a sector under particular, intense threat in the era of streaming pivots, financial consolidation, and production contraction. Talk to the makers of indies and they’ll tell you—it’s hard to get these kinds of movies off the ground right now. The kinds that have long fed Sundance, and in turn Hollywood itself.Yet for this year’s festival, which kicks off on Thursday, a little under 16,000 films were submitted for consideration. Last year, that number was just under 17,000. Sundance’s curatorial team accepts less than 2% of that list. Clearly, a lot is getting made—and based on last year’s slate, which included newly minted Golden Globe winners A Real Pain and A Different Man, plenty of it is damn good. “The fact that independent artists and storytellers are still working in such a bold way and creating so much work—that there is this much for us to consider—feels almost counter-intuitive to what the broader industry is saying,” says Eugene Hernandez, entering his second year as Sundance’s festival director.One reason why is wider world of the Sundance Institute, the nonprofit founded in 1981 by Robert Redford that mounts the festival—in addition to, increasingly, prestigious labs for filmmakers, satellite showcases around the globe, and programs aimed at bolstering financing and distribution methods in a rapidly transforming landscape. Over decades, the Institute established a feedback loop wherein major new artists are discovered, only to return to mentor and guide the next wave.At last January’s Governors Awards, Black Panther’s Ryan Coogler and Nomadland’s Chloé Zhao presented an honorary Oscar to Michelle Satter, who’s led the Institute’s feature film program for decades. Coogler and Zhao met as participants in the 2012 Sundance Screenwriters Lab, out of which they made their first feature films. They’re now two of Hollywood’s most decorated, in-demand directors. “We are so grateful to you,” Zhao said to Satter on stage. “We wouldn’t be here without you.” Another person in their lab, Marielle Heller, has since directed Oscar nominee Can You Ever Forgive Me? and this year’s Nightbitch. She’s returning this year as a creative advisor.“These communities are long and life-lasting,” Satter tells me. “We’re reading next drafts, giving feedback, introducing them to producers. We’re helping them find the financing to make the movie. We’re working with them on casting, helping them find their editors, DPs. I mean, all of that.”The list of now iconic directors who started in one of these programs, took their debut feature to Sundance, and now give back by providing mentorship is too long of a list, but suffice it to say, some of your favorite directors are surely on it. Just last year, Sean Wang’s autobiographical first feature, Dìdi (弟弟), premiered in Park City after years of development with the Institute, going on to secure distribution from Focus Features, gross nearly $5 million domestically, and earn Wang major nominations from the directors’ guild, Spirit Awards, and more.“At the heart of Sundance is this idea of discovering and being introduced to filmmakers you might not otherwise know,” Hernandez says.Robert Redford with Miles Teller and Damien Chazelle at the world premiere of Whiplash at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
George Pimentel/Getty ImagesThe reality remains, though, that independent film is in a tough place right now. The spotlight on Sundance feels more glaring than ever, to not just continue to platform the next generation of great directors, but to expand access and create resources for them to enjoy lasting success as the breakouts before them did. There’s nothing close to a guarantee anymore. “How do you sustain someone’s career at a time when it’s pretty hard to do that? What does that look like?” Satter says. “With the pandemic and the strikes, it’s become hard. But that doesn’t stop an artist from working. It’s one of the most important moments to support artists.” Amanda Kelso, Sundance’s new acting CEO and an alum of Google and Instagram, suggests that the organization’s role is to affirm Redford’s original Sundance blueprint: “The industry around us is changing. How do we navigate that? Our mission is to focus on elevating voices, elevating artists, putting a spotlight on folks who might not otherwise have the opportunity—and connecting them with audiences.”The festival serves in part as a vibrant market. Famously, buzzy titles up for sale used to get snatched up overnight in heated bidding wars. “Just before the lights came up, I said, ‘I’ve got to get out of here. It’s going to get ugly,’” industry veteran John Sloss once recalled of the rousing premiere for Little Miss Sunshine, which he worked on. “I knew everyone would want it.” (It sold to Fox Searchlight for $10.5 million before grossing more than $100 million and winning two Oscars.) Now, while an obvious breakout like A Real Pain can still scramble a deal together in a day or two—the Jesse Eisenberg film also went to Searchlight—such turnarounds are now the exception, not the rule.“I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but I actually miss the fast pace,” says Kim Yutani, the festival’s director of programming. “You’d go to sleep and then wake up—and there’s news that something has been sold, and somebody’s been signed.” Sitting beside her on a Los Angeles café patio, Hernandez concurs: “The whole ecosystem is different and the pace of it is different. And it’s weird.”Accordingly, Sundance’s leadership emphasizes practicality in how best to move forward. “We’re trying to help people figure out how to think about a career and build a connection to a strong producer who can really help them move their work forward,” Satter says. “A lot of filmmakers don’t think about audience, they just make their movies. But we believe strongly: You have to think about audience early on.” Hernandez adds, “[Filmmakers] are looking for any tools that they can find to keep their budgets in check, and to make the work as efficient—to keep as much time for the creativity—as possible.”Some solutions have been less widely embraced than others. Last year, a Sundance screening of Rashaad Newsome’s Being (The Digital Griot) prodded a walkout in response to the film’s interactive artificial-intelligence component, where audience members were prodded to engage with a chatbot. A few months later, the Tribeca Film Festival sparked controversy by programming shorts made with Sora, the text-to-video AI model, that were helmed by noted directors like Nikyatu Jusu (whose Nanny won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2022). The use of AI in films continues to stir debate as access to the technology expands, and as filmmakers look for budgetary and logistical shortcuts to achieving their visions.“I was kind of surprised that we didn’t see more [AI] this year,” Yutani reveals of 2025’s submissions. “But we follow the artists—we would never want AI to replace the role of a creative.”“It would be way too presumptuous for us to try to make any broad judgments or determinations,” Hernandez says. “As with any technology that continues to evolve, you are pretty bad at predicting how they’re going to impact the world in their nascent stage.” Satter, meanwhile, sees the technology as cautiously, potentially beneficial. “I’m not against people using the tools of AI creatively to help them to support their work,” she says. “I don’t want it to take over the work. But there are opportunities. We have to think somewhat differently going forward.”Harper Steele and Will Ferrell at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival
IndieWire/Getty ImagesThe festival has developed a reputation for launching the best documentaries from around the world. Several of the recent slates of Oscar nominees have featured a majority of Sundance premieres. This year’s could well join that club, with 2024 Park City launches Sugarcane, Black Box Diaries, Porcelain War, and more already shortlisted by the Academy for best documentary.This is where Sundance tends to speak most potently to political and cultural issues, highlighting progressive and inclusive voices. The year Roe v. Wade was overturned, several films explicitly focused on abortion access debuted at Sundance. Last year, several trans-themed films, including the Netflix-acquired, Will Ferrell-led sensation Will & Harper (also Oscar-shortlisted), proved the stars of the program.For audiences, though, right-leaning media driven by religious and conservative themes has started to fully take over the documentary box office. Given the trendline, would an inflammatory movie like, say, Matt Walsh’s Am I Racist? be welcomed at the festival? “I don’t know that necessarily Sundance is the target for some of these films,” Yutani demurs. “We’re open to films that are expressing a point of view. We hold in our heart the notion of conversation at the festival—and healthy conversation.”In September, Will & Harper’s other titular subject, the trans comedy writer Harper Steele, described for me her struggles in simply experiencing the festival. “I can’t go to the bathroom in Utah right now,” she said, referencing the state law requiring people to go by their sex assigned at birth when using government-owned buildings’ bathrooms. “So it’s like, I’m not going back to Sundance. Do something about it, guys!”They just might, as Sundance may soon move the festival to a new city. Three locations have been finalized: Boulder, Colorado; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Salt Lake City/Park City, Utah, a hybrid option that would keep most of the event’s existing infrastructure in place (including navigating those conservative state laws). The new location will be officially announced in March. “Part of the challenge that we have with where we are currently is the accessibility of the festival,” Kelso, Sundance’s CEO, tells me. “You’re asked to come to the festival to bring your crew and the cast and basically show up. It is tens of thousands of dollars investment for many of these folks.”The Sundance spirit, to look forward and defy conventional wisdom, informs why some of its leaders sound excited by the prospect of uncharted territory. After all, for various reasons, labs and satellite festivals have already moved out of Utah to great success. The pandemic pushed Sundance to lead the way in digital festival access, with some of its 2025 program again available online for ticket buyers who can’t be on the ground. “This is me personally—I love to shake it up a little bit and see what’s possible,” says Satter, who is not involved in the relocation decision. “Change is a good thing, and it forces you to really take a very clear look at what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and the impact it’s having.”For now, though, the festival is still in Park City, where it’s made its name for nearly 50 years. (Its new location will bow in 2027.) Satter will be honored over the weekend as part of the gala fundraiser, Celebrating Sundance Institute, and the festival lineup will again feature a promising group of movies coming from veterans and newcomers alike. There’s Sorry, Baby, which Yutani highlights for me: The directorial debut of Eva Victor, backed by Oscar winners Barry Jenkins and Adele Romanski (Moonlight, Aftersun). There’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, the musical adaptation starring Jennifer Lopez; it’s directed by Bill Condon, who took his Oscar-winning Gods and Monsters to Sundance way back in 1998. Again, there’s that feedback loop.Seemingly as ever with Sundance these days, there’s also a profound disruption. The horrific Los Angeles wildfires broke out just weeks before opening night, hurting so much of the industry and directly impacting members of the festival’s community. (Satter revealed that she lost her Pacific Palisades home in the devastation; our interview took place before the fires began.) Kelso and Hernandez announced last week in a joint letter that the festival would go on, standing strong and in solidarity with those affected. It’s Sundance’s way, after all—to bring the community together in times of great struggle, and figure out what’s next, one step at a time.“The conversation I had with Michelle was, ‘Should we pause this?’” Kelso says. “She said: Absolutely not. In a time of crisis. People need to come together, people need to convene, people need to have this opportunity to heal—and people heal through the work and the purpose of our mission.”Listen to Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men podcast now.More Great Stories From Vanity Fair

The Best MLK Jr. Movies Streaming Right Now

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a day to reflect on the legacy of one of the most important leaders the world has ever seen, and for those who want a deeper dive into the life and impact of MLK Jr., there are a number of films worth checking out. On this national holiday, we’ve rounded up a list of some of the best MLK Jr. movies to watch and where to stream them. They range from narrative films that take some liberties to dramatize the civil rights leader’s life, to deep-dive documentaries.

Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

“Selma”

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s 2014 film “Selma” offers a wonderfully complex portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. that chronicles the man’s inspiring impact, but also doesn’t neglect his personal challenges. The film covers the events surrounding the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches, with David Oyelowo playing the role of Martin Luther King Jr., Carmen Ejogo playing Coretta Scott King and Tom Wilkinson playing Lyndon B. Johnson. It’s an impactful and emotional film that serves as a great window into the human side of MLK.

Where It’s Streaming: Paramount+, FuboTV

Photo credit: IFC Films

“MLK/FBI”

The 2020 documentary “MLK/FBI” offers a look into the relationship between Martin Luther King Jr. and the FBI, including the harassment MLK received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Directed by Sam Pollard, the film covers J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI’s attempts to discredit MLK and goes up through his assassination, using archival footage to tell the story.

Where It’s Streaming: AMC+

Photo credit: HBO

“Boycott”

The 2001 HBO drama “Boycott” tells the story of the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott, with Jeffrey Wright filling the role of Martin Luther King Jr. Directed by Clark Johnson, the made-for-TV movie also stars Terrence Howard as Ralph Abernathy, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King (again) and Reg E. Cathey as E.D. Nixon.

Where It’s Streaming: Max

Photo credit: HBO

“King in the Wilderness”

The 2018 documentary “King in the Wilderness” zeroes in on the final two years of MLK’s life, leading up to his assassination in 1968. The documentary boasts interviews with those closest to Martin Luther King Jr., as well as archival footage.

Where It’s Streaming: Max

Photo credit: PBS

“Eyes on the Prize”

“Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement” was a 14-part documentary series that aired on PBS from 1987 to 1990, but six installments are currently streaming on HBO Max that cover the years 1954 to 1965 – including much of MLK’s actions.

Where It’s Streaming: Max

‘One of Them Days’ Team Hopes the Film Opens Doors for More Black Stories in Hollywood

As “One of Them Days” finally hit theaters this weekend, its creative team, including writer Syreeta Singleton, director Lawrence Lamont and producers Issa Rae and Deniese Davis, hope the Black duo comedy encourages Hollywood studios to support more Black stories — especially given the long and challenging road it took to get their film made.

“There’s constantly things that we have to overcome to make a movie theatrical and to ensure that, by the studio standards, people will go to see it,” Rae told TheWrap, sharing the same sentiments as Davis, her producing and business partner, who urged film lovers to head to theaters for the film. “That’s why Deniese is saying it is so important for people to buy these tickets, because it’ll prove that there is a demand for these type of movies. And then the onus, of course, being Black filmmakers and also having Black female leads is that, if it doesn’t do well, they’ll be, like, ‘We tried X’ and so that’s the unfair part of it.”

The film earned $11.6 million over the three-day weekend box office, scoring the top spot for new releases and glowing reviews from critics and audiences.

“One of Them Days,” starring Emmy-winning actress and musician Keke Palmer and multiple Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter SZA, follows the comical tale of two besties, Dreux (Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA), roommates who embark on a hilarious journey to make up their rent money after Alyssa’s shifty boyfriend (Joshua Neal) misspends it on his own desires.

The project, which began as a pact between Hoorae Media’s ColorCreative and Sony Pictures to source and produce emerging diverse screenwriters to write and develop their first studio features based on original ideas, went through a six to seven-year development process. It was filmed in 20 days.

While the film continues to receive rave reviews and earned a 96% rating from Rotten Tomatoes, Davis said their team faced “all the challenges” trying to get “One of Them Days” to the big screen.”

Issa Rae and Deniese Davis (Getty Images)

“All of them,” Davis said. “It’s like validation because of the duration, and I mean, it’s also still surreal. This whole week has been mind-blowing. To kind of just recognize all the things about this movie that you feel like, ‘this movie should not exist, but it exists,’ and we worked so hard on it. To start to see the love and support, it’s almost like, we knew, but it obviously validates the larger experience. And I’m just hoping it shows people that you can take a chance, you can take a risk on good stories.”

And “One of Them Days” isn’t just another one of them movies, it’s the first Black female-led comedy movie since “Girls Trip” (2017), and the first Black female duo film since “B.A.P.S.” (1997).

Rae chimed in, sharing some of the specific hurdles.

“The development process and the natural things that come with personnel changes. We initially had a champion in Bryan Smiley, who left and went to, I think, Kevin Hart’s company right after,” Rae explained. “Luckily, the other champion on the Sony side, Sarah came to us to work at Hoorae, and she, along with Deniese, were helping to keep the project alive and well at Sony, just through her connections. And even then, once we got Keke attached, they were like, ‘But we need an even bigger star.’ Then once we got SZA attached, it was still like, ‘Well, we’re not going to give you that much money and you’re going to shoot it in 20 days,’ and we made that happen.”

Despite the Black community being the largest consumer group of media, Black audiences still aren’t being served in their call for more and better representation, per a Nielsen report. In addition, there are still racial disparities in the film industry as it relates to funding. Per a 2021 McKinsey study, Black filmmakers receive 40% less financial support compared to films by non-Black filmmakers. Even Cord Jefferson called out the issue during a conversation with TheWrap while promoting his now Oscar-winning film “American Fiction.”

“Ninety-eight percent of the people who saw this and sort of were telling me that it was the greatest thing they’ve ever seen, the second that I asked them — this goes back to what I was saying earlier about bring in marginalized voices, you have to take a risk — the minute that I asked them to take a risk, they were out,” Jefferson said at the time. “The one place that actually took a risk and gave me that money to make this film is run by Alano Mayo, a Black woman. I think that’s worth pointing out.”

“One of Them Days” is both Singleton and Lamont’s feature film directorial debut, and though they’re more than grateful that the film has finally come to fruition, they acknowledge the unique fight Black creatives are faced with.

Lawrence Lamont (Getty Images)

“I think we go through these waves where… I read an article once where Hollywood loses out on $10 billion a year from unmade Black content, Black stories. And that’s a little weird to me, you know. I feel like we’ve always had these waves in cinema,” Lawrence said.

“In the 90s, we had the Black new wave, they were calling it, with Spike Lee, Robert Townsend and John Singleton. And then, kind of like the late 90s, early 2000s another wave, with ‘Brown Sugar’ and ‘Love & Basketball.’ I think the challenges are always there. I don’t know where it stems from. I’m not about to be like, ‘Everybody’s racist,’ but historically, it is harder for us to tell our stories for some reason. And it’s like, even reading ‘One of Them Days,’ when I first read the first draft of the script, I was just like, ‘How is it still rare that a story like this is original and I haven’t seen before?’ So yes, I think the challenges are there because of us being Black filmmakers. But hopefully this film can open the door and allow more stories like ours to be told.”

“One of Them Days” comes from the mind of Singleton and her personal experiences growing up as a Los Angeles native. Sharing the same sentiments as her team, she said potential buyers looked to find a successful film they could compare “One of Them Days” to in order to for them to feel more comfortable their financial support.

Syreeta Singleton (Getty Images)

“Some of the conversations around this movie, like, they start looking for comps (comparable films),” Singleton explained. “What other movies were like it? How did they perform? And when they’re struggling to find a comp for our movie … and so it’s being compared to things that are way outside of what we’re trying to do. And it’s like, ‘Okay, well, there’s nothing like this. But could it be like this?’ And it’s just like, ‘No.’ You know what I mean? It’s kind of crazy. If anything, I hope that this is the beginning…the success of our movie, not just for Lawrence and I, but just for other filmmakers, so that these moments, these conversations with studios, are just a little bit easier going forward, and we can get more stuff made.”

“One of Them Days” is now in theaters.

Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999) – What Happened to This Horror Movie?

The What Happened to This Horror Movie series digs into the third Candyman film, Candyman: Day of the Dead

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You’ve seen Candyman haunt Cabrini Green. You’ve seen Candyman terrorize his ancestors in New Orleans. Now, see Candyman as you’ve never seen him before… on the direct-to-video shelf. Though the previous iteration Farewell to the Flesh had made nearly $14 million on a rumored $6 million budget, the reviews weren’t great, and the powers that be decided the franchise was no longer sticky nor sweet enough for the big screen. Candyman was banished to the direct-to-video bin with a razor-thin budget. The result would be a movie that Tony Todd was disappointed with and Clive Barker chose not to put his name on; A movie that would bury the Candyman franchise for the next quarter century. This is what happened to Candyman 3: Day of the Dead. 

After the events of Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, series creator and legend Clive Barker seemed ready to jump back into the franchise. He told AOL at the time, ”I am very proud of both the Candyman pictures, but I haven’t been approached by Polygram for a third picture. Of course, it took almost ten years for Hollywood to make a sequel to “Alien”, so anything is possible.” Barker inexplicably wouldn’t be contacted again until after the film was made. The production screened the final product for him after it was already complete and asked him to unceremoniously put his name on it anyway. Barker declined, saying, “I declined to put my name on it. I really don’t think I contributed anything to its creation and it seems entirely phony to plunk your name on it, take the money, and run. I didn’t think it was a badly created movie, I just didn’t think it had anything to do with the mythology I originally created. I would have felt like a big old fake.”

Those who did create Candyman 3 included Director Turi Meyer who had previously directed the also direct to video horror film Sleepstalker. Meyer also wrote the script after previously working on Leprechaun 2 and Carrot Top’s Chairman of the Board. Meyer’s frequent collaborator and fellow Chairman of the Board writer Alfredo Septien was also brought on board and Candyman 3: The Skinemax sequel was born.

The story the writers would conjure found us a shocking twenty-five years after the events of Farewell to the Flesh. Meaning this 1999 sequel would take place in 2020. There were so many red flags. So many red flags. It centered around Daniel Robitaille/Candyman’s great, great, great-granddaughter Caroline. Though you wouldn’t know it by all the sexual interactions the film puts the two in. Caroline (who is the little girl seen at the end of Farewell to the Flesh) is haunted by her family’s past and the seeming inability to ever find pants. Her mother (who was very clearly a recast actress) went through all the things we witnessed her go through in the last film only to succumb to Candyman after all, having her throat slit by him in her bathtub. Which, was of course deemed a suicide. But hey, Caroline did get some sweet paintings out of the deal. Paintings that her friend Miguel is trying to use to promote his art gallery in a trashy, true-crime-esque type of way. Caroline judges him but attends the event anyway and is naturally goaded into saying “Candyman” into the mirror five times because we aren’t here for a TED talk. And you know what happens next…

Candyman arrives on an actually pretty kick-ass bee train and starts hooking folks through their stomachs while asking his great, great-granddaughter to be his victim. Again, in an all too sexual fashion. The story is different than previous iterations by way of its unique supporting characters. After Candyman slaughters some friends halfway through a softcore porn scene that involves eating a honeycomb naked, the cops set their sights on Caroline’s new friend David. This is because he’s not white and these cops are as racist as the day is long. It’s a specific point the film makes repeatedly. Seriously. These dreadful detectives remind you they are racist more times than an infomercial tries to fit their 1–800 number in before the ad ends. 

David and Caroline take a bunch of sexy tequila shots together and a romance ensues, but not before she meets his abuela. A psychic healer, who is kind of scary and has a penchant for the dramatic. She has Caroline whisper her troubles into an egg, which she cracks. Inside the yolk blood begins to pour out, followed by a bee. Which everyone knows means she has to find and destroy Candyman’s paintings to stop him once and for all. Inconveniently, the paintings have already been stolen by a gang of roided-out Good Charlotte super-fans. They tie Caroline up and put her in a questionable ball gag allowing Candyman to murder the shit out of everyone. Afterward, Candyman one more time tries to put his fingers in his great, great, great Granddaughter’s mouth and makes out with her a little before she breaks free of his trance. She then fights off a few bees and destroys his painting, causing him to explode into a terribly filmed special effects sequence. Finally, the bad cop shows up just in time to be shot by good cop Ernie Hudson Jr and take the fall for the Candyman murders. Getting Caroline and David quite literally off the hook and destroying the myth of Candyman in the process. 

While most of this was indeed the type of horror movie that reinforced the worst stereotypes of the genre, Tony Todd was once again fantastic in the role. He had some great lines and even better kills in spots. Specifically, the murder of a prickish cop who was in, what he thought, was the safety of his vehicle. While you knew you could always count on Tony Todd to bring the goods; The rest of the cast also wasn’t nearly as bad as you might expect. The character of David was played by the more than capable Jsu Garcia who you’ll likely remember as Rod from A Nightmare on Elm Street. Garcia has a surprising amount of range and likeability that no doubt contributed to his long career in acting. The leading role of Caroline went to September of 1995’s Playboy Playmate of the Month, wife of Nikki Sixx, and Baywatch actress Donna D’Errico. D’Errico held her own in a role that asked her to do quite a bit and at times a bit too much. Director Turi Meyer was also impressed with her performance saying that the studio felt that “Not since Jamie Lee Curtis has an actress reacted so persuasively to emotional and tangible torment.” While that’s an unfair comparison, the faults of Candyman 3 don’t by any means rest on D’Errico’s shoulders. 

Day of the Dead was filmed in eighteen days in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. The production was so rushed that the actors allegedly had a maximum of two takes before they were required to move on to the next shot. The audio commentary for the film also claims the budget was closer to $1 million than the $3 million the studio previously boasted. The production assumed it wouldn’t be able to even rehire bee handler Norman Gary for the production. Thankfully, Gary reduced his fee to stay with the franchise and complete what he had started. You know it’s bad when even the bee handler knows you’re on a budget. And thank God. I’m sure the actors didn’t want a guy you found on Craig’s List and paid in 7/11 gift cards to be handling thousands of bees. Which, in many late 90s straight-to-video situations would have been the case. Yes, we’re looking at you, Dimension Films.

Though it’s clear Candyman 3 was working on a budget, necessity can truly be the mother of all invention. While on set one day in Eastside Los Angeles, a group of crew members caught some graffiti artists tagging some local spots in the area and paid them each $100 to do the same to their set, giving it a touch of realism. Of the many things missing from the previous films (such as a budget or a purpose) the lack of Philip Glass’ iconic score is also missing. Candyman 3 composer Adam Gorgoni had planned to use at least themes from it but was banned from doing so as they owned none of the rights and likely couldn’t afford them.

If you haven’t yet gotten the hook that this was a film on a budget, well, they ran out of money before filming the opening credits. While the Studio wanted them to simply lay credits overtop of the opening scene, the director and cinematographer were not to be denied. They instead found some equipment, blacked out the windows of a garage, and filmed the opening sequence themselves using Candyman’s prop hook. Which you just know was a creepy shoot. That location screams one of the urban avant-garde settings where Candyman would have shown and started gutting folks. 

Finally, Candyman 3: Day of the Dead was released directly to DVD with little fanfare and even less of a response from critics. The film currently sits on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes with a 21% “rotten” rating from critics and a 30% rating from fans. There aren’t a lot of nice things said about the film. Even these days. Tony Todd famously wasn’t a fan of the film himself, letting fans know at Fangoria’s Weekend of Horror’s Convention he was disappointed with the outcome. The craziest part of Day of the Dead’s legacy, however, is what it meant for the future of the franchise. Or rather lack thereof. 

In 2004, it was reported by Fangoria that both Tony Todd and Clive Barker were working on a big-budget stand-alone Candyman film that wouldn’t have anything to do with its predecessor. Todd and Clive met multiple times and even storyboarded some of the film that Todd said would be set in New England. The movie would have featured an image of Candyman in a blizzard and had the slasher terrorizing an all-girls school and more specifically a professor who was a descendant of Candyman. It was also reported that Clive Barker was working on… hold on to your boots… a Freddy vs Jason style team-up film between Hellraiser’s Pinhead and Candyman. We never saw either of these films for whatever reason, and the franchise would lay dormant for over twenty years after Day of the Dead, when Nia DaCosta and Jordan Peele resurrected the property in 2021. 

And that, my friends, is what happened to Candyman 3: Day of the Dead. 

A couple of the previous episodes of the show can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!

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