Plot

A sequel to the horror film Candyman (1992) that returns to the now-gentrified Chicago neighborhood where the legend began.

In present day, many years after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, Anthony and his partner move into a loft in the now gentrified Cabrini. A chance encounter with an old-timer exposes Anthony to the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to use these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, he unknowingly opens a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifying wave of violence.

Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a visual artist living in Chicago with his girlfriend, art gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris). One night, Brianna's brother Troy (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) shares the urban legend of Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen), a white graduate student who went on a killing spree in the early 1990s. The story goes that her rampage culminated in a bonfire outside the Cabrini-Green projects, at which point she attempted to sacrifice an infant child. The residents were able to rescue the child from Helen before she perished in the fire in an apparent act of self-immolation.

Desperate for a creative spark to turn his career around, Anthony latches on to this story and roams around Cabrini-Green looking for inspiration. He eventually has a chance encounter with William Burke (Colman Domingo), a launderette owner who introduces him to the story of Candyman. When Burke was a child, he had a frightening encounter with Sherman Fields (Michael Hargrove), a hook-handed man whom the police believed was responsible for putting a razor blade in a piece of candy that ended up in the hands of a white girl. Burke inadvertently alerted the police to his presence in the walls of one of the tower blocks, leading them to beat Sherman to death. Sherman was later exonerated when more children received candy with razor blades. The legend goes that repeating the name "Candyman" five times in front of a mirror invokes Sherman's spirit, at which point he appears in the reflection and kills whoever spoke his name.

Inspired by this, Anthony develops an art exhibit around the legend of Candyman and showcases it at Brianna's gallery but is dismayed when he does not get the kind of reaction he was hoping for. That night, one of Brianna's co-workers and his girlfriend are slaughtered by Candyman after saying his name five times in front of a mirror. Their bodies are discovered in the morning by Brianna. More people are killed after repeating Candyman's name including an art critic and a group of teenage girls.

Meanwhile, Anthony begins to undergo a physical transformation stemming from a bee sting he suffered on his hand while walking around Cabrini-Green. The sting develops into a scab that begins to spread and cover his whole body. Anthony later goes to a hospital to get checked out, where he learns that his mother lied about where he was born. Anthony soon pays a visit to his mother (Vanessa Williams), who reveals he was the baby Helen Lyle saved from the fire the night she died. Though the truth is that Helen saved him from Candyman, who abducted him and planned to sacrifice him in the fire, she never told him about it because she wanted Anthony to have a chance at a normal life. The community had vowed never to repeat the legend of Candyman after that night and his mother fears what will happen to Anthony now that someone has broken their pact. Anthony leaves resigned to his fate and wanders the row houses of Cabrini-Green.

Concerned about Anthony, Brianna recalls him mentioning that he first heard about Candyman from Burke, so she heads to Cabrini-Green in hopes of finding him. Once there, Burke subdues Brianna and takes her to an abandoned church, where Anthony has entered a fugue state as his body continues to deteriorate.

Burke reveals that not only did he witness the police beat Sherman to death but he also saw Sherman return later as the Candyman after which he butchered his older sister when she summoned him in the bathroom mirror of their apartment. He plans to have Anthony gunned down by the police, creating a new legend in which Candyman is an instrument of vengeance rather than a symbol of Black pain and suffering. To complete Anthony's transformation into Candyman, he saws off his right hand and replaces it with a hook.

Brianna manages to escape the church and is chased into the Cabrini Green row houses by Burke, whom she viciously stabs to death. Anthony appears and collapses into her arms as the police, lured to the scene by Burke, show up and shoot Anthony to death. Brianna is handcuffed and placed in the back of a police SUV, where an officer attempts to intimidate her into agreeing that Anthony provoked the other officer into shooting him. Brianna uses the car's rearview mirror to summon Anthony, now Candyman, and he massacres every police officer at the scene. As more police arrive, Candyman takes on the appearance of Daniel Robitaille (Tony Todd) and gives Brianna a single instruction: "Tell everyone."