YMMV / Hard Candy

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Both characters are subject to this, more so Hayley.
  • A lot of people seem to think Hayley was molested or otherwise abused, driving her to seek revenge on men like the one who hurt her, which changes things. Page even mentions on the blu-ray commentary that Hayley being raped by her father was one of the backstories fans brought up for her, but gave no confirmation, and has said in interviews that he believes it's important to keep the audience from getting a clear explanation for her behavior.
  • Some people have theorized that Hayley is just a sadistic, budding Serial Killer who fixates on victims few would be willing to defend so that her "handiwork" can be interpreted as vigilantism.
  • Hayley was just in Jeff's head. The fact that she went to such effort to clean up all evidence that she was ever there, and the importance she placed on him killing himself, could be interpreted as a sign of this. Although it's left ambiguous whether she cleaned up after all especially when she claimed she was lying about that at the end and it doesn't explain how Judy Tokuda could have seen her.
  • Hayley isn't a real girl but an Anthropomorphic Personification of all child sexual abuse victims' desire for revenge. This would explain why her dialogue and demeanor sounds so uncharacteristic of a teenage girl, and gives the line "I am every little girl you ever watched, touched, hurt, screwed, killed" a new resonance.
  • Judy Tokuda's role is subject to this. As she's only in one scene and we never hear from her again, it's not clear how she's going to affect the characters. Some believe she will back Hayley up, as noted in the Fridge page. Others believe she will bust Hayley.
• Awesome Music: "Elephant Woman" by Blonde Redhead.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Word of God remarks that there are people who try to shoehorn Jeff and Hayley into the role of "good guy" and "bad guy", with who's the good guy and who's the bad guy varying from person to person, when in reality there is no good guy in the movie, it's Evil Versus Evil.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: The screenwriter confirmed that, in his view, Jeff is innocent of the murder Hayley accuses him of. A lot of viewers seem to prefer either thinking he did do it or that it is unknown (although the film doesn't confirm either way).
• Harsher in Hindsight: The entire premise of the movie once Elliot would later reveal in his memoir that a production member of the movie sexually assaulted him while giving him a ride after the movie's wrap party.
• Just Here for Godzilla: That torture scene.
• Magnificent Bastard: Hayley Stark is an extremely gifted teenage girl who uses her extensive intellect to lure out pedophiles, rapists, and murderers. She gets them into a false sense of security making them believe she is a naive young girl before tearing into to them both physically and emotionally before driving them to suicide. Upon luring out Jeff, she tears into him so bad that she pushes him into the Five Stages of Grief, until finally summoning his ex-girlfriend Janelle and threatening to play the victim card in front of her.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Hayley gets a lot of this with regards to her raison d'etre. A lot of people consider her to be a righteous vigilante. However, she has Jeff at her mercy numerous times, and her plan is to torture and manipulate him into killing himself — rather than going to the police with all the evidence she has. Although this may be another reason people consider Hayley so righteous, as law enforcement doesn't always have the best track record dealing with sexual assault cases, which is even lampshaded in the movie itself when Hayley brings up Roman Polański.
  • On certain corners of the Internet, child porn is referred to as "hard candy" in reference to this film. That is presumably not what the creators intended.
• Moral Event Horizon: Both characters cross it. Jeff crosses it offscreen, in the backstory, by virtue of being a predatory pedophile and either a murderer or accessory to murder, Hayley during either the castration scene or the ending.
• Rooting for the Empire: Though both of the protagonists themselves are established as villains, some fans found it easy to root for Hayley herself because of her undeniable charisma, and her desire to give predators and child molesters what they deserve. Others because Jeff is, quite frankly, a child pornographer.

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