Candyman 2021: Every Kill, Ranked By Gruesomeness

Warning: This article includes spoilers for Candyman.

Nia DaCosta’s Candyman, which functions as both a direct sequel to Bernard Rose’s 1992 original and a reboot of the iconic slasher movie franchise, has been praised by critics for its relevant themes and breathtaking visual style. While the movie has been noted for its sharp social commentary, it’s still a slasher first and foremost with inventive kills that the audience looks forward to seeing.

Throughout the movie, the Candyman – and various other incarnations of the mirror-dwelling boogeyman – brutally kill a handful of characters who dare to say his name five times to their own reflection. All of the movie’s death scenes are gruesome, but there are some that are more violent and memorable than others.

7 Anthony McCoy

William Burke’s plan comes together perfectly in the final moments of Candyman (although getting stabbed to death wasn’t a part of his plan). The cops he called show up right on time and, as expected, they instantly shoot Anthony on sight. Unbeknownst to the corrupt police, this shooting completes his transformation into the new Candyman.

Anthony’s death scene isn’t anywhere near as gruesome as some of the movie’s Candyman kills – the shooting happens in the dark and it’s initially unclear who’s been shot – but the ease with which the cop pulls the trigger and his complete lack of remorse after the shooting ensure it’s a disturbing moment (and one with ominous parallels to real-life events). One of the reasons why fans were excited about Candyman was the promise that writer Jordan Peele would deliver social commentary as well as a high kill count like he did with his previous films. With Anthony’s preventable death by the police, he succeeds.

6 Finley Stephens

After Anthony dares art critic Finley Stephens to say Candyman’s name five times in the mirror, she goes to the bathroom and for a moment, it’s left ambiguous as to whether or not she said his name. The audience soon gets their answer when Anthony leaves the apartment and an invisible assailant slits Finley’s throat.

DaCosta shoots this kill in an unsettlingly silent and unbroken long take. As Finley’s severed throat is smeared across the window of her apartment, her neighbors can all be seen in their apartments, oblivious to the horrors going on next door. Finley’s graphic death is made all the more disturbing by these shots of the outside world, which continues to carry along even as she draws her last breath.

5 Clive And Jerrica

The first major on-screen killing takes place after the gallery opening when everybody’s gone home and Brianna’s co-worker Clive and his girlfriend Jerrica are locking up. They start having sex in front of the mirror from Anthony’s piece and Jerrica seductively says “Candyman” five times. In a slasher, sex equals death, and in a Candyman movie, saying Candyman’s name five times equals death, so they’re in double jeopardy here.

Jerrica’s blood-soaked throat-slashing is a terrifying moment, but at least it’s a quick death. When Clive tries to escape, the Candyman hooks his ankle and drags him all the way back to the mirror before finishing the deed, elongating his agonizing final moments. These kills effectively showcase the brutality of the new Candyman’s modus operandi. The villain can quickly eliminate one of his targets like Jerrica or decide to prolong their agony before finishing them off as he does with Clive.

4 Sherman Fields

William Burke recounts that the candy-offering stranger who approached him in the laundry room in the opening flashback was Sherman Fields. After Burke’s scream caught the attention of some nearby cops, the officers all flooded into the room and beat Fields to death.

This death happens off-screen, as the cops are seen swarming into the laundry room and Burke tells the rest in voiceover, but much like the other Candymen’s deaths, the whole scenario has haunting parallels with true events. The attack itself remains unseen, but its effects are shown in the horrific scarring of Fields’ incarnation of Candyman.

3 William Burke

One of the most shocking kills in Candyman isn’t perpetrated by the Candyman himself or crooked cops; it’s perpetrated by Brianna, the movie’s “final girl,” after she’s chased into an abandoned Cabrini-Green house by the unhinged William Burke. When Burke confronts Brianna, she stabs him repeatedly. She keeps jamming the knife into his body long after he dies.

Brianna killed Burke in self-defense, but the stabbing came pretty easily and brutally. In one of the many hidden meanings in Jordan Peele’s last horror movie Us, the most terrifying monster is the monster within a seemingly “normal” individual. Brianna had been portrayed as relatively sympathetic and caring at this point so seeing her turn so easily into a killer is shocking.

2 All The Cops In The Final Scene

In the final scene of 2021’s Candyman, a trigger-happy cop shoots Anthony and his partner pressures her to make up a witness statement claiming he provoked the shooting. At this point, Brianna looks in the rearview mirror, says “Candyman” five times, and summons the new incarnation of the Candyman.

Thankfully, the Candyman – now possessed by Anthony – is no longer a straightforward (albeit likable) slasher villain who slays anyone who says his name five times; he fights injustice. Instead of killing Brianna, Anthony’s Candyman saves her from the crooked cops. All around the car, the Candyman is seen doling out brutal vigilante justice against the cops who condoned his shooting. It’s a very cathartic ending, and one with lots of torso-slicing.

1 Haley And Her Friends

Having been dragged to the art show exhibiting Anthony’s Candyman-inspired project by her mom, high schooler Haley knows how to summon Candyman and, bored one day at school, she goads her friends into trying it in the girls’ bathroom. The group gets picked off one by one, each more shockingly than the last, as the floating Candyman turns each of the girls into a pool of blood within seconds.

It’s clear from DaCosta’s direction of Candyman that she has a perfect command of what to show on-screen and what to leave to the audience’s imagination. Throughout the movie – and particularly in the bathroom massacre – DaCosta shows just enough in the fringes of each frame and in reflective surfaces like a makeup mirror to imply the goriness of the girls’ deaths without devolving into “torture porn” like Hostel or the Saw films.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3465 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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