Wendy Lyon
Wendy Lyon's career has one clear centre of gravity and a long, scattered orbit around it. The Canadian actress began on television in the mid-1980s, in the Anne of Green Gables miniseries and then in a recurring role on the series The Campbells, neither of which is among the credits listed here.
Her feature debut was a leading one: Vicki Carpenter in Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II in 1987, a supernatural horror film that has aged into a genuine cult item. It is a demanding part for a first film, requiring her to carry a possession story that swings between teen melodrama and nastiness, and she does the swinging without visible effort.
What followed is thinner. There is Donna Barnes in Hidden Agenda in 1999, Luanne in the creature feature Kaw in 2007, and small supporting roles in bigger pictures since: Norma in Regression, a secretary in The Shape of Water, a facilitator in Painkiller. Six credits is not much to build a case on, so the honest summary is that the horror lead is what she is remembered for and the record here does not offer a second act to argue about.
Movies (5)
TV (1)
Where to start with Wendy Lyon
There is really only one starting point, and happily it is worth the trip. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is a strange, stylish late-1980s horror film, far less interested in its own franchise than in going somewhere lurid, and Lyon is asked to play two quite different registers inside one part.
After that, expect small appearances rather than showcases. The Shape of Water and Regression are prestige productions where she has a scene or two, useful if you want to spot her in something well made. Painkiller is the most recent of these. Kaw is a straightforward birds-attack B-movie with a decent cast, and Hidden Agenda is the one for people who work through a filmography in order.