The Big Picture
- The image of bees pouring out of Tony Todd’s mouth in the 1992 horror film Candyman has become an iconic moment in horror cinema, and the filmmakers used live bees instead of special effects for authenticity.
- Candyman tells the urban legend of a vengeful spirit who kills those who say his name five times in the mirror. The film explores themes of violence, poverty, and the coping mechanisms of the community.
- Actor Tony Todd, who played Candyman, had live bees put in his mouth for the film’s infamous scene and was stung almost 30 times. He was paid $1,000 per bee sting, ultimately earning $27,000 for the experience.
Cashing in on the fear of insects has been a staple of the horror genre for many years, but few shots of creepy crawlies have cemented their status in pop culture iconography quite like the bees that pour out of Tony Todd’s mouth in the 1992 horror flick Candyman. The classic movie is filled with striking visuals, from the antagonist’s bloody hook to the charred Helen (Virginia Madsen) crawling out of the burning pyre, but the image of Candyman leaning in to kiss Helen as bees writhe around between his lips is a moment that’s become one of the most iconic in horror cinema. While the scene is disturbing enough as it is, what’s even more horrifying is the fact that the filmmakers opted to forgo the use of special effects, instead filling Todd’s mouth with live bees while the devoted actor was stung almost 30 times in the process.
What Is 1992’s ‘Candyman’ About?
Candyman explores the urban legend of its titular baddie, whose ghostly presence haunts the dilapidated community of Cabrini-Green in Chicago. The legend has it that when Candyman was alive he was named Daniel Robitaille, and was the artistic son of a slave. Following his father’s invention of a successful shoe-making machine after the Civil War, Daniel was raised in high society and went on to pursue a career as a successful painter. After he was hired to paint the portrait of a wealthy white man’s daughter, Daniel and the young woman fell in love, and she soon wound up pregnant. Once her father found out about this, he hired a mob to kill Daniel, and they hacked off his hand with a saw, jamming a hook into his bloody stump and then slathering him with honey from a nearby hive. Daniel was left to die from blood loss and the stings of a thousand angry bees, and thus the malevolent spirit of the Candyman was born. Equipped with his deadly hook and legions of swarming insects, Candyman viciously kills anybody who dares to look in a mirror and utter his name five times.
When Candyman takes place, scholar Helen Lyle and her colleague and close friend Bernadette Walsh (Kasi Lemmons) are working on a thesis about urban legends, and take a particular interest in Candyman. Helen believes that the residents of the poverty-stricken Cabrini-Green use the idea of Candyman as a way to cope with the hardships and violence that they witness in their community, and she becomes obsessed with learning more about the man behind the myth. When Helen flippantly says Candyman’s name five times in her bathroom mirror, she unwittingly unleashes the spirit and her life quickly devolves into ruin.
‘Candyman’ Actor Tony Todd’s Mouth Was Filled With Live Bees for the Iconic Scene
Throughout the movie, rather than just killing Helen, Candyman frames her for numerous grisly murders (including Bernadette’s), causing her to wind up imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital. She eventually escapes but chooses to follow Candyman into his lair in order to rescue a baby that he abducted. Candyman promises to spare baby Anthony’s life if Helen surrenders to him, offering her immortality should she become an urban legend herself (spoiler alert, she does.) Helen gives herself over to Candyman, at which point the spirit shows off a bloody, gaping chest cavity full of bees, which then begin to crawl all over Helen while more bees pour out of Candyman’s mouth.
While having hundreds of bees swarm on, in, and around your stars seems like the perfect time to employ some handy CGI, the creative forces behind the original Candyman instead chose to use 200,000 live bees to achieve the legendary effect. In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Tonight, Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen revealed that while the crew was safely shrouded by safety nets, the movie’s two leads were totally defenseless against the insects that covered them for the duration of the shoot.
Virginia Madsen Is Deathly Allergic to Bees, and Paramedics Were on Standby While Shooting ‘Candyman’
While the stinging scene-stealers (who had their own trailer, by the way) were mostly baby bees and therefore less likely to be aggressive, they apparently got rather feisty during the removal process via bee-vacuum, which could take upwards of half an hour. Fortunately, the filmmakers had the sense to recognize that the only thing worse than having a mouth full of bees is having a throat full of them, and a strategically placed dental dam was used to prevent the bugs from traveling too far into Todd’s mouth. Madsen, who was revealed in the ET interview to be deathly allergic to bees, was not stung while shooting, but paramedics were on standby should things take a turn for the anaphylactic. While the shoot went well enough for Madsen, her costar did not come out unscathed and Todd was stung numerous times.
‘Candyman’s Tony Todd Was Paid $1,000 Per Bee Sting
Although Todd may not have had a good time that day, he did, thankfully, have a good lawyer. Prior to filming the famous Candyman scene, Todd’s lawyer negotiated that he would be awarded $1,000 per bee sting, so the actor came to set ready for a painful but hopefully very lucrative day. In the end, Tony Todd was stung 27 times and was thus awarded an extra $27,000 for his troubles. Although the stunt had deadly potential, it obviously paid off — for both Todd and the production — as it provided one of the most memorable moments in horror movie history.
Through both its unforgettable visuals and its explorations of complex themes like racism and generational trauma, Candyman remains a staple of the genre more than 30 years later, inspiring numerous sequels and reimaginings. While the story evolves with changing times, expanding to explore things like gentrification and police brutality, the bees remain a common thread throughout the series as an unforgettable reminder of the trauma inflicted on Daniel Robitaille that spawned one of horror’s most terrifying but sympathetic villains.
