10 Horror Movie Villains Who Were Recruited For Evil
9. Helen Lyle - Candyman (1992)
Whilst Tony Todd plays the title role in Candyman (1992), he is not the star of the film.
Instead, Virginia Madsen essays the role of Helen Lyle, a graduate student working on a thesis concerning the validity of urban legends whose husband is having an affair with one of his students.
Doubting the legend of Chicago’s Candyman, who has inspired the vicious gangs in the Cabrini-Green housing project, Helen tries to expose him as nothing more than superstition, only for the real thing to appear before her, hell bent on re-establishing his following.
Striking at those closest to Helen, Candyman makes her life a living hell as he seeks to transform her into a murderous legend like himself because she resembles his past lover: the reason why he was transformed into legend himself. However, Candyman's romantic style as he attempts to seduce Helen into his world makes Dracula’s look quite tame by comparison…
Indeed, Candyman is something of an origin story for Helen who, by the time of the film’s climax, has literally become a vicious urban legend in her own right, as her remorseful husband soon learns.
Whilst the sequels to Candyman focused on Todd’s character, Helen’s own downfall could easily have established her own horror spin-off exploring whether she was actually seduced by Candyman's way of thinking or whether she sought to protect the people of Cabrini-Green.