13 Horror Movie Heroines That Kick Butt

Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) in Candyman (Image via TriStar Pictures)

3.) Helen Lyle (Candyman)

Helen Lyle is a bit of a special case. She actually dies at the end of her film, the 1992 movie Candyman, and arguably becomes the next folkloric villain in the common imagination of her world. Depending on your point of view, that’s either a terrifying fate or a lasting (if dark) legacy.

Helen (Virginia Madsen) begins Candyman as an eager graduate student. She specializes in the study of folklore and urban legends and has recently become interested in the Chicago tale of the Candyman. She ventures into inner-city Chicago and, specifically, into the grim Cabrini-Green apartments.

Cabrini-Green, by the way, was a real public housing project in inner-city Chicago. Due to years of neglect and increasing crime, the housing project became infamous for deplorable living conditions. The last of the Cabrini-Green buildings was torn down in 2011.

Candyman (played by Tony Todd) is the manifestation of a former slave. After fathering a child with a local white woman, a mob lynches him. Candyman is not afraid to confront some of the more horrifying periods in American racial history; it is certainly more direct than other films in this list.

In the film, people summon Candyman by repeating his name five times in front of a mirror. They then meet a horrific fate at the end of Candyman’s hook hand.

Despite her earnestness and sometimes-awkward interactions with people of color, Helen eventually defeats the Candyman and earns her place as a horror movie heroine of great intelligence and bravery. Despite the fact that she dies as a result of confronting evil and becomes a similarly murderous ghost, there’s still quite a lot to admire about the living Helen’s efforts.