The following contains spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods, now playing in theaters.
In Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Billy Batson (Zachary Levi/Asher Angel) tries to rally the siblings, hoping he can form the perfect magical team. Part of it is due to his love for the Justice League, but also, Billy just wants them to stick together because he has abandonment issues. It's why he adopts the "all or none" approach to fighting crime, creating a fun dynamic with lots of banter in what's essentially a coming-of-age story.
It shapes natural conflict, though, as the teens want different lives. Freddy wants to pursue love, while Grace Caroline Currey's Mary wants to go to college, leaving Billy worried. This creates a true family film, but as the Daughters of Atlas come to take magic back, it gets harrowing. This leads to Shazam! 2 unfurling quite a few horrific deaths that really aren't for kids to view.
6. The Daughters Shatter the Museum Curator
The first kill comes in the opening sequence when the Daughters head to a Greek museum to steal Shazam's staff. Using the Wizard's staff, they can suck the magic back from Team Batson. This sequence allows Lucy Liu's sinister Kalypso to deploy her chaos magic, whispering in people's ears to attack each other under her mind-control.
Helen Mirren's Hespera then crushes the statues and turns everyone to stone, nodding to the Medusa lore. Sadly, Kalypso saunters over and drops the kind curator down to the ground, smashing him to bits and pieces. It's macabre as he's a gentle soul, who was begging to go back home to his family. However, this is a sign Kalypso is indeed the most merciless in the bunch and a bully.
5. Atlas' Cyclops Gets Gutted
When the sisters steal the Golden Apple from the Rock of Eternity, Kalypso is able to plant this "seed," allowing a magical tree to rise up and unleash monsters all across Philadelphia. It results in minotaurs, harpies and a ton of other medieval creatures attacking people, but the Shazam family concocts their own countermeasures. Using the Wizard's help, Darla gets a pack of killer unicorns on their side.
They ride them into battle, with Darla's unicorn using its horn to impale a cyclops. This instant murder is in full view of the audience, coming off as brutal as a Mortal Kombat fatality. To top it off, seeing as she used Skittles to win the unicorns over, Darla yells, "Taste the rainbow, motherf--!" with the movie cutting away from the expletive. It proves the teens are willing to use adult, extreme means of stopping the tyrants.
4. Hespera Is Impaled by Kalypso's Dragon
Kalypso and Hespera argue a lot, with Hespera wanting the tree planted back in their Realm of Gods. However, Kalypso doesn't mind the tree being warped, as long as she gets to punish mankind on Earth. It leads to Kalypso using her dragon to impale Hespera with its tail, lifting her up and dumping the body.
It's effective because it shows how some families can be corrupt and evil, but the graphic nature of the kill is disturbing. Shazam! 2 holds nothing back as the creature drops Hespera to the ground, reiterating Kalypso will kill anyone once she can have some fun as this judge, jury and executioner. Granted, Hespera lowers her dome and then takes some time to pass. But it doesn't change the fact Kalypso brutalized her and left her motionless in pain to die a slow, agonizing death.
3. Kalypso and Her Dragon Are Roasted
Shazam! 2's electrifying finale has Billy locking Kalypso into the dome, using the staff as a battery. He charges it up and turns it into a lightning bomb. Billy then flies full speed into Kalypso and the dragon, creating a gigantic explosion. This results in them falling to the baseball field, then turning to leaves as the spell is over -- ashing away akin to Thanos' Snap in the MCU.
Of course, this isn't as gory as it could have been, sticking to the PG-13 rating, but seeing their bodies lifeless on the ground is pretty dark. Still, it does feel like karma because both entities caused a lot of death and destruction, absorbing their might and flexing that ego that Billy hates.
2. Billy Gets Burnt Up
The bomb also fries Billy, unveiling a terrifying shot of him on the ground. His face is charred, and he's not moving, which makes him one of the most tragic sequences in the DC movie-verse. It's even more gruesome than when Superman died fighting Doomsday in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
After all, a child laying on the ground like this leaves a lasting impression. It's made even more heartbreaking by Freddy pounding and crying, cradling his brother after the sacrifice. He's mad he took Billy for granted, and that they won't get to carve out the epic superhero career they dreamed of. The fact they bury Billy right after adds to the tragedy, although it's quickly healed when Wonder Woman arrives to resurrect him, teasing the Marvel family might have a Fury of the Gods sequel.
1. Kalypso Effects a Squeamish Suicide
Shazam! 2's scariest death comes in the opening act when Kalypso and Hespera ambush Freddy atop his high-school roof. He thinks he and Anthea (played by Rachel Zegler) have something, not realizing she's with the enemy. When a teacher arrives to see what's going on, Kalypso uses her mind control to get him to walk off the building. He jumps off, and we hear the thud, leaving Freddy screaming.
Kalypso rubs salt in the wounds, joking about how humans squash and burst easily. While Anthea is horrified, Hespera soaks it in with a smile, intimidating Freddy more. The suicide was uncalled for as she could have sent him back to class, but it's a massive show of power. Still, forcing a suicide like this is not something fans would expect in a family film, but it has the intended effect: turning stomachs in a squeamish scene.
To see these deaths play out, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in theaters now.