EVA BIRTHISTLE is a scream queen. Now, why did nobody think of that before? The gifted Irish actor has been on our screens and in our magazines for a good 14 years, writes Donald Clarke.

A graduate of the Gaiety School of Acting, Birthistle first attracted attention as Regina Crosbie - posh farming totty - in the hugely popular soap, Glenroe .

After leaving the series in 1998, she took on more serious roles in such films as Bloody Sundayand Timbuktubefore winning acclaim and awards in Ken Loach's characteristically raw Ae Fond Kiss .. .

Now, however, she appears to be developing a sideline as Ireland's own Jamie Lee Curtis (or, if you prefer, Fay Wray). Two years ago, she appeared in the fine Middletown , which, though not quite a horror film, certainly tended towards the Gothic. This month she turns up in a fully fledged, blood-drenched shocker called The Children . Next year we will see her in David Keating's The Wake Wood , the first horror feature to be released by Hammer studios in three decades.

"I do watch horror films quite a bit," she says. "And, for whatever reason, the last two years I have received a spate of horror scripts. They are cheap to make, of course, and you can make money on them quite easily, but most of the scripts were dire. The Children  and The Wake Wood did stand out though. The ideas were clever and the characters were strong."

It makes sense. Though Birthistle displayed serious acting chops in Ae Fond Kiss. . ., she also has the look of a classic, plucky horror heroine.

Blond and energetic with wide eyes, she would seem right at home jamming screwdrivers into zombies' foreheads or flinging holy water at hurtling vampires.

The Children might be described as The Birds with, well, children.

Birthistle plays one of several middle-class chatterers spending Christmas at (what else?) a remote cottage in some snowy part of England. Before the turkey has had its second basting, the children have gone barmy and have launched efforts to annihilate their seniors.

Malevolent kids do crop up a lot in horror. What's that all about? "They do. That's right," she says. "That gets people on the edge of their seat. The innocence of youth being twisted is always a little frightening. When I read the script I thought: What is going on here? Initially, the writer had some idea that it was a virus that caused this behaviour. But now it's not really explained why it happens. And that makes it scarier, I think."

The Wake Wood , written by David Keating and respected producer Brendan McCarthy, finished filming in Donegal a month ago. The deliciously creepy scenario has a couple being allowed the opportunity to spend three days with their dead daughter. It sounds like a combination of The Monkey's Paw and The Wicker Man .

"Yes. It's a really good script," she says. "But it was wet and remote and difficult. Of course we had lovely weather - crisp and dry with blue skies - when we were shooting our interiors. The moment we moved outdoors the weather turned horrible. It was raining all the time and we just had to shoot when we could."

Birthustle is a chatty sort who rarely gets through a sentence without chuckling, but she doesn't come across as being a show-off. I wonder if this is always the case. Children who drift into acting often begin their careers by demanding attention in the nursery. Was she that sort of theatre brat?

"I don't think I was a show-off," she says convincingly. "All my early reports did say I was a bit giddy and easily distracted though. Acting was at first just something to fill the void for a while. But I did have a very good drama teacher who encouraged me and I ended up going to the Gaiety and then eventually moving to London."

Born in Wicklow, Birthistle moved with her family to Derry when she was in her early teens and she admits that she can never quite decide if she is a northerner or a southerner.

"Yes. That's right," she says. "I was saying just the other day that I don't know where my roots are. I left Bray when I was young, but I don't really feel like I am from there. I spent my teenage years in Derry, but I feel like a visitor there too. And Mum and Dad have lived there for ages. But London is now my home."

I imagine being unsure of your identity might by useful to a young actor. Following her graduation from the Gaiety School, she did not have to wait long before being cast in Glenroe. It is only eight years since the show was cancelled, but it is already difficult to recall quite how popular it was. Securing a role in the soap officially made you a big fish.

"When I was at the Gaiety, in my ignorance and naivety, I could be a real snob," she laughs. "I remember walking down Thomas Street one day with a friend and saying: 'Well, whatever I do, I won't do soaps.' Then my first job was Glenroe. I had real delusions of grandeur that were shattered when I hit the real world."

She goes on to explain how that job introduced her to screen acting and gave her a new degree of confidence. A brave actor, Eva was happy to appear in such pioneering, low-budget productions as Owen McPolin's Drinking Crude and Alan Gilsenan's All Soul's Day . Cineastes will recall her bravely rolling around in icy surf in Gilsenan's fascinating experimental piece.

"Oh God, yeah, I remember that so well. When we were shooting in the rain in a cemetery during The Wake WoodI began to wonder if I'd ever been so cold in my life and then I remembered that." And I guess Alan wouldn't even have had a nice caravan in which she might warm up.

"Not at all. Not at all. We had an old car parked on a dune somewhere." Whatever does not kill you makes you stronger.

Birthistle has built on those early experiences to develop into a sought-after leading actor. But there were lean periods along the way. Indeed, she admits that, on the very weekend that Ae Fond Kiss. . .opened in 2004, she was still working as a waitress. "Somebody came in with a copy of the Sunday Times Culturesection and there we were. They said: 'I guess you won't be working here next weekend.'"

Having picked up a few prestigious gongs for Ae Fond Kiss. . .and secured mainstream success in the BBC series The State Within , Birthistle is unlikely to be reading out the specials or refreshing your water glass any time soon. Now resident in posh Notting Hill with her husband Raife Burchell, a session musician, she almost feels able to say that she has made it. Almost.

"Oh this bloody business!" she laughs. "You think it's all going very well and then you start to worry when you have a day off. Still, I have been working hard and I am going to take a few months off now and chill out."

I don't think she needs to worry. You never see Jamie Lee Curtis in the dole office. Or Fay Wray, for that matter.

• The Childrenopens of Friday