Helen Lyle is the main character aside from Candyman in Candyman (1992 Film). In the film, she is portrayed by Virginia Madsen.
Early Life
Helen is a grad student from Chicago, who had taken up researching urban legends and came across the legend of the Candyman. She had interviewed Freshmen about said legend; with one of the students telling her of a story about a babysitter who called to him. Eventually she finds out that the building block where she lives in is the exact same as the ones on Cabrini Green. With this in mind, she has doubts about the Myth being true.
Helen and Bernadette Chanting Candyman
Nevertheless, her curiosity gets the better of her, and alongside her friend and colleague Bernadette Walsh, the two women say Candyman's name five time into a nearby mirror. Although nothing happens, she finds herself having flashbacks. Helen is then greeted by the Hookman killer in a car park after she receives the printed versions of her picture that she had taken at Cabrini Green. As she is continues researching into the Candyman, she find out in one of her visits that the Cabrini Green estate is where The Candyman was supposedly last seen. She comes to the revelation that a woman and a local boy were killed there in his name sometime earlier.
Her Death
Eventually, her curiosity and need to know more about the Candyman becomes her achille's heel. Helen ends up getting caught up in a pile of objects in the center of the Cabrini Green Estate. She was there to rescue the baby for Anne-Marie after promising her life to Candyman. However, Candyman did not keep his promise of saving the baby, so she takes the baby and tries to escape the hookman.
Before her death
After giving the baby to Anne-Marie, she dies from the burns that she sustained in the aforementioned fire she tried so desperately to escape.
The Afterlife
Helen reveals herself to Trever to be the next Candyman
After her death, it is revealed that she has been granted immortality, along with the right to be a medium like Candyman. The myth of Helen is similar, in that a person says her name five times in the mirror and she would appear behind the person and kill them with a hook. However, the hook she uses isn't embedded in to her arm like her predecessor.
Her first victim is her husband Trever, who doesn't directly call out to her, but he grieves in front of the mirror and ends up repeating the words "Oh Helen" five times. She appears and murders him.
Appearences
- Candyman
- Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh (Mentioned)
Trivia
- During the first film, Virginia was placed under hypnosis, however, this had to stop because she began to lose her memory.