Virginia Madsen

In Candyman (1992), Virginia Madsen's Helen Lyle approaches an urban legend as something a doctoral student can investigate. She makes Helen's interest in the stories easy to understand, giving us a reason to follow the investigation. Bernard Rose gives that inquiry an uncomfortable edge: Helen can study other people's fears without having to share their lives. Madsen keeps us interested in her without asking us to approve of that distance.

Her early career offered steady employment, though many parts were supporting or glamorous. She gained notice as Princess Irulan in David Lynch's Dune (1984), and worked across teen films, thrillers and horror through the 1980s and 1990s. That history helps explain why Candyman is such a useful place to start: it gives her time to sustain our concern, rather than requiring us to wait for another appearance from the monster.

Tony Todd has the more immediately striking role, but Madsen does much of the work that makes Helen's investigation matter. We were worried for Helen because Madsen kept her curiosity recognisable even when the story began to strain belief. Rose's writing occasionally asks her to make a doubtful development look inevitable; she holds our attention without quite managing that impossible task. The film's dread and sexual unease have more force because there is somebody there we remain concerned about.

Sideways (2004) brought renewed prominence with Maya Randall, and made different use of that understatement. Her natural delivery in the wine monologue lets a dialogue-heavy scene remain conversational. She does not sound as though she has been waiting all evening for her speech. Maya offers a quieter example of the empathy that makes Helen worth following. Start with Candyman if horror is yours, but take its capacity for a gory shock seriously.