Victoria Rowell Heads a Sudsy Cast in The Fright Night Files

Girls just wanna have fun — with voodoo potions, satanic séances and good old-fashioned murder! The Fright Night Files (Saturday, Oct. 18,8/7c), a TV One film aimed primarily at African-American women, stars Victoria Rowell (The Young and the Restless), Harry Lennix (The Blacklist), Lynn Whitfield (Without a Trace), Elise Neal (The Hughleys) and Sean Blakemore (General Hospital) in three tales of deadly romance and supernatural vengeance. It's about damn time.

"Scary movies are hugely popular with black audiences even though there usually aren't any black characters in them — except the ones who die first," notes executive producer Susan Banks. Decades ago, campy shockers like Blackenstein and Scream Blacula Scream were all the rageand the Wayans family has had a goofy blast spoofing the genre in recent years. "But nobody takes black horror seriously," says Banks. TV One intends to change that — if Fright Night Files scores well, it'll be back as a weekly series.

And that will mean lots of work for daytime soap stars. Banks, who previously served as director of on-air promotion for CBS Daytime, has a healthy respect for suds talent — in addition to Rowell and Blakemore, the trilogy also features former Y&R stars Eva Marcille and Davetta Sherwood. "If there's one thing black audiences love even more than horror films, it's the soaps!" Banks says with a laugh. "To combine them is killer!"

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