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Soaps’ Biggest Stars in Halloween’s Scariest Movies, From Friday the 13th to… Well, You’ll See — If You Dare!
Thursday, October 20th, 2022
That’s not a rash, folks — we have actual goosebumps.
Oh, we know. You don’t need to tell us — we know: You tune in to The Young and the Restless, General Hospital, Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful for the frightfully complicated romances, not the actual… you know… frights. But Halloween is just around the corner, so we thought that we’d take a step to the left and shine a spotlight unbidden on some of your favorite stars’ scariest movies.
More: Soaps’ scariest storylines of all time [PHOTOS]
Again, we know — you thought that The Young and the Restless’ Victor Newman in a pissy mood was disturbing enough. But it turns out that Ol’ Crankypants isn’t the surest-fire thing to induce palpitations in the name of entertainment. In fact, included in our list of thrillers featuring daytime all-stars are horror classics whose titles alone strike terror into the hearts of cineastes. There are B-movies giving a break to A-list talents, sci-fi films that put the “extra” in “extraterrestrial” and slasher flicks that gave a whole new meaning to the word “Cut!” There are even a few classics in there that are more suspenseful than scream-inducing — a treat, not a trick, for our more squeamish readers.
More: Forget slashers, it’s soaps’ best slappers [PHOTOS]
Among the actors featured are a pair of Emmy winners from The Young and the Restless, a Days of Our Lives heartthrob on whom we’ve always had an eye — yes, just the one — and a heroine from The Bold and the Beautiful for whom the journey actually wasn’t nearly as important as the destination — her character’s (gulp) final one.
To check out your Netflix-and-thrill playlist, click on the photo gallery below. But by all means, be forewarned: Some of the images that you’re about to see are… not even not pretty, downright “Ack!”-causing. Are you brave enough to continue? Sure ya are, if you survived Marlena Evans’ possession, Ryan Chamberlain’s murder spree and Sheila Carter’s reign(s) of terror — and we know you did!
Image: Doane Gregory/Warner Bros./Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>We’ll admit that we didn’t visit the optometrist for a few years after seeing <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em> Emmy winner — whom we all know and love as Steffy — in 2011’s <em>Final Destination 5</em>, the (duh) fifth and (really) final movie in the franchise.</p>
Image: New Line Cinema/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Years away from <em>Days of Our Lives</em> and the role of Eric, the eventual Emmy winner appeared opposite <em>Mom</em>’s Jaime Pressly in 1997’s <em>Poison Ivy: The New Seduction</em> as… let’s put it this way: a fellow who suffers more than a rash from his involvement with the title character.</p>
Image: Lions Gate/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Greg Vaughan wasn’t the only one of <em>Days of Our Lives</em>’ Erics to see if he could not only give us chills but get them multiplying: His predecessor, <em>Supernatural</em> leading man Ackles, starred in 2009’s <em>My Bloody Valentine 3D</em>, in which a murderous miner is a major problem for all of the characters hoping to maintain a pulse. Oh, and in 3D!</p>
Image: Sony Pictures Releasing screenshot
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<p>Before joining <em>General Hospital</em> as Sam — heck, before even joining <em>Port Charles</em> as vampire bait Livvie — the actress was shook, so to speak, by <em>Idle Hands</em>, a 1999 horror comedy in which a stoner’s severed appendage, as you can see, has its own ideas about what constitutes “necking.”</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>What a fine mess <em>The Young and the Restless</em> legend got herself into in 1963’s <em>Black Zoo</em>! The future Katherine Chancellor is unhappily hitched to a cult leader who uses the big cats in his care to… well, scratch off names from his horrific hit list. Fun fact: Cooper’s “better” half in the picture is played by Michael Gough, the Hammer Horror Films vet who played Alfred the Butler in four Batman movies.</p>
Image: Dimension Films/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Arguably, the scariest thing about <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em> leading lady’s appearance in 2003’s <em>Scary Movie 3</em> was the fact that she acted opposite her future ex-husband, scandal magnet Charlie Sheen; even <em>Shauna</em> might have to shudder at <em>that</em> thought! (Suddenly, the bugs in her 1997 movie, <em>Starship Troopers</em>, don’t seem so creepy, do they?)</p>
Image: Universal Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Few and far between are the instances in which the late actor — beloved for his long and celebrated run as <em>Days of Our Lives</em> supervillain Stefano — wasn’t the most fearsome thing on screen. But one such instance was 1978’s <em>Jaws 2,</em> in which his sleazy character — a foil for Roy Scheider’s sea-sick Chief Brody — was overshadowed by a Great White on an all-teenager diet.</p>
Image: 20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Believe it or not, that’s the actor who brings to life <em>General Hospital</em> heavy Cyrus under all that makeup (on the left with Terence Stamp). In the 1988 sci-fi movie that launched the <em>Alien Nation</em> franchise, he played an E.T. whose involvement in an earthbound murder investigation led to… Hey, you don’t want us to tell you, do you? (Spoiler alert: His fate is more trick than treat!) </p>
Image: Columbia Pictures screenshot
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<p>If you watch 1981’s <em>Happy Birthday to Me</em>, trust us: Even the <em>extra</em>-nasty teenage version of <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Lauren won’t seem so bad by comparison. In the slasher flick, the actress embodies the rich-bitch cliché to the point that we’re pretty sure when the “friend” played by <em>Little House On the Prairie</em>’s Melissa Sue Anderson blew out her candles, she wished the bad seed would just go away!</p>
Image: New World Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>In 1984’s<em> The Initiation</em>, the eventual soap legend — owing to her long run as <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em> shrink Taylor — plays a college co-ed who… Oh, come <em>on</em>. Just look at the picture. She meets exactly the same fate that most college co-eds do in horror movies. That’s not a spoiler, it’s a given!</p>
Image: Cinema Group/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>A year after joining <em>Days of Our Lives</em> as Steve, the soap-hopper starred opposite Tawny “the chick in the Whitesnake videos” Kitaen in <em>Witchboard</em>, in witch… sorry, in <em>which</em> everyone really should’ve looked on the other side of an especially dangerous Ouija board to see if checkers was an option. Of note: That’s not Kitaen (briefly Lisa on <em>Santa Barbara</em>) with whom Nichols is pictured, that’s Todd Allen, who played her boyfriend.</p>
Image: Palisades Entertainment screenshot
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<p>In just a year or so, Hearst would begin a long and memorable daytime career encompassing roles on all four remaining soaps (arguably most notably Ric on <em>General Hospital</em>). But back in 1988, the up-and-comer was still paying his dues by starring in<em> Brain Damage</em>, a wackadoo creepshow in which he becomes hooked on a hallucinogenic secreted into his noggin by a parasite named Elmer. What, <em>that’s</em> the part that seems crazy to you? What would you name <em>your</em> carnivorous parasite — Jeff? Larry?</p>
Image: United International Pictures screenshot
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<p><em>Grey’s Anatomy</em>, <em>Scalpel</em> wasn’t! The 1977 Southern gothic starred <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ future Gloria as a disfigured stripper remade by an unsavory plastic surgeon into the spitting image of his daughter for — dun-dun-<em>dunnn</em> — reasons of his own.</p>
Image: 20th Century Fox/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>The totally-tubular sci-fi/horror mash-up <em>Night of the Comet</em>, released in 1984, cast <em>Ryan’s Hope</em> vixen Kimberly and <em>Days of Our Lives</em>’ original Kayla as post-apocalyptic Valley girls — with, like, oh my God!<em> The Young and the Restless</em>’ Sharon Farrell (ex-Flo) as their wicked stepmother.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Speaking of Nina’s mom on <em>The Young and the Restless</em>… in the 1974 classic <em>It’s Alive</em>, she gives birth to a child who is… how to put it delicately. Hmm. We’ll go with “even more challenging than Nina.” As in, the tot has superhuman strength and an urge to kill that’s second only to that of <em>Family Guy</em>’s matricidal Stewie Griffin.</p>
Image: Universal Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Some would have called the Daytime Emmy winner crazy for taking on the role(s) of <em>Another World</em> twins Vicky and Marley. But what was <em>really</em> nuts was her rolling the dice and appearing in 1998’s <em>Psycho</em> remake in the role for which Janet Leigh was, um, “showered” with praise. Fun fact: The redo also stars future <em>Hannibal</em> dinner guest Julianne Moore (Frannie/Sabrina, <em>As the World Turns</em>) as Heche’s sister.</p>
Image: Fox Atomic/20th Century Fox/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>A few years after leaving <em>All My Children</em> and his role of Leo, the <em>Transformers</em> star took a vacation from hell, winding up in the clutches of organ harvesters in 2006’s grisly <em>Turistas</em>. Of note: There remains no way to harvest someone’s abs; we’ve… uh… tried.</p>
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures screenshot
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<p>In the 1962 classic <em>What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?</em>, the veteran actress, beloved as “Quartermaitriarch” Lila on <em>General Hospital</em>, was a nosy neighbor less interested in getting that question answered than finding out what had become of the psycho’s shut-in sister. Need we mention that the movie starred Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as the twisted Hudson sisters? No? Excellent. No rats in <em>your</em> lunch, then.</p>
Image: Universal Pictures screenshot
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<p>The soap legend-to-be, owing to her epic run as <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Nikki, made her silver-screen debut in the suspenseful 1964 Alfred Hitchcock feature <em>Marnie</em> — as the traumatized young version of Tippi Hedren’s title character, no less. Fun fact: Hedren also has soap in her veins; decades after <em>Marnie</em>, she visited <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em> as Jake Maclaine’s mother, Helen.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p><em>One Life to Live</em>’s Dorian never would have put up with an unfaithful fiancé. But the psycho that her portrayer walks down the aisle in 1973’s<em> The Bride</em> (aka <em>The House That Cried Murder</em> and<em> Last House on Massacre Street</em>) takes her displeasure several steps further than Dorian would have… and then keeps right on walking over the deep end! (Maybe the picture was kinda a tip-off!)</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Goofing off? Smoking dope? Having sex? Oh, it was never going to go well for the future big-screen big deal’s camp counselor in 1980’s very first <em>Friday the 13th</em> movie. That said, the slasher flick — one of the earliest movies in which <em>Guiding Light</em>’s Tim ever appeared — still packs into the carnage a major surprise that puts it (severed) head and shoulders above the zillion sequels that followed.</p>
Image: Paramount Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>And <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Scott thought wife Sheila Carter was scary! His portrayer learned what it <em>truly</em> meant to be frightened when he and hockey-mask enthusiast Jason Voorhees put their own spin on <em>Psycho</em>’s shower scene in 1984’s <em>Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter</em>. Spoiler alert: It was <em>not</em> the final chapter.</p>
Image: Paramount Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Hug? Maybe not. <em>Days of Our Lives</em>’ Craig (with <em>Knots Landing</em>’s Lar Park Lincoln) did their best not to become the “new blood” hinted at by the title of 1988’s <em>Friday the 13th: The New Blood</em>. Busy Spirtas also appeared in two <em>Subspecies</em> movies and the sequel to <em>The Hills Have Eyes.</em></p>
Image: Columbia Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>What would’ve happened if <em>All My Children</em>’s manipulative Kendall had traveled in the same social circles as <em>One Life to Live</em>’s trailblazing gay teen, Billy? According to 1997’s slasher classic <em>I Know What You Did Last Summer</em>, they’d have run afoul of the Gorton’s fisherman, to gory results!</p>
Image: Columbia Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>After Sarah Michelle Gellar’s on-screen alter ego made the mistake of holding <em>The Grudge</em> in 2004 — or was <em>The Grudge</em> holding <em>her</em>? — this former <em>General Hospital</em> ingenue (who’d originated the role of Emily) entered the fray as her kid sister in 2006’s creatively-titled <em>The Grudge 2</em>. As you might expect, the curse that gave the franchise its name was not keen on saying, “Bygones.”</p>
Image: 20th Century Fox/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>In 2003 — the same year that he joined the cast of <em>The Young and the Restless</em> as Kevin — the future Emmy winner also appeared in the mutant-filled <em>X2</em> (aka <em>X2: X-Men United</em>). Mind you, that’s not exactly the spookiest movie on this list, nor is his role in it the biggest. If memory serves, you’ve already looked at this picture for longer than Rikaart is on screen with Oscar winner Anna Paquin.</p>
Image: Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Though as <em>One Life to Live</em>’s rascally Asa, the late daytime icon was usually on the wrong side of the law, he was cast opposite Peter Graves as the sheriff in 1974’s<em> Scream of the Wolf</em>, in which <em>Dark Shadows</em> mastermind Dan Curtis makes a group of antsy townspeople suspect that a murderer’s cry is actually the… well, the title kinda tells ya, doesn’t it?</p>
Image: Universal Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>Think of this image as a kinda <em>Where’s Waldo?</em> test: Can you spot the actress who plays <em>Days of our Lives</em>’ Abigail? She’s fourth from the right. And in 2017’s <em>Death Race 2050</em>, a sequel to the 1975 cult classic <em>Death Race 2000</em>, she’s a mad, mad motorist who secretly hopes to put to an end the titular contest and its twisted blending of NASCAR and population control.</p>
Image: Full Moon Pictures screenshot
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<p>We thought that nothing could be more terrifying than <em>General Hospital</em> madman Faison; we were wrong. So. Very. Wrong. Portrayer Anders Hove is <em>way</em> creepier in the 1991-98 series of <em>Subspecies</em> movies, which found him playing a lovesick vampire with nails that were deadlier than Lois Cerullo’s and, obviously, a complete disinterest in whether cutlery might Ginsu his tongue.</p>
Image: 20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>In 1971’s <em>Escape From the Planet of the Apes</em>, the soap icon — still nearly a decade away from being tapped to play <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Victor — monkeyed around as a human (in name only!) villain who went ape when he discovered that Kim Hunter’s Zira was, ahem, “with chimp.” (Bonus tidbit: Hunter would later appear on <em>The Edge of Night</em> as fading movie star Nola.) </p>
Image: Empire Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>No wonder<em> The Young and the Restless</em>’ Leanna launched an “I hate men” campaign. Just <em>look</em> at this photo from 1985’s <em>Re-Animator</em> and what is <em>clearly</em> the worst date ever. Kidding aside, Crampton’s done enough horror movies to host her own film festival. If you want to make a night of it, you could also check out, among others, <em>Chopping Mall</em>, <em>From Beyond</em>, <em>Castle Freak</em> and 2015’s <em>We Are Still Here</em>.</p>
Image: Universal Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p><em>One Life to Live</em>’s former Joey faced something far more intimidating than even mom Viki’s disapproval in 2006’s <em>Slither</em>: outer-space parasites that looked like slugs and took control of everyone but their host’s wife, played by <em>The Hunger Games</em>’ Elizabeth Banks (who we bet you didn’t know <a href="https://soaps.sheknows.com/soaps/news/569015/leonardo-dicaprio-stars-who-did-soap-operas/" target="_blank">got her start on soaps</a>).</p>
Image: Paramount Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>The run-in that <em>Days of Our Lives</em>’ Eve has with some possessed trees in 1987’s bonkers <em>The Evil Dead II</em> just about put us off “roughing it” forever. Well, that and the ticks. And the mosquitoes. And the general outdoorsiness of the outdoors.</p>
Image: Drafthouse Films screenshot
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<p>Stream 2015’s <em>The Invitation</em> for <em>The Young and the Restless</em>’ Rey, who RSVPs yes to a dinner party he should probably have turned down, then stay to see <em>Guiding Light</em> powerhouse Tammy Blanchard (Drew) tear it up as a hostess with way bigger problems than burnt hors d’oeuvres.</p>
Image: 20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p>We all remember what it looked like when <em>The Bold and the Beautiful</em>’s Stephanie had smoke coming out of her ears. But how many of you recall what it looked like when her Emmy-winning portrayer went up in flames — literally?!? None of you? Then perhaps it’s time you rented 1974’s revered disaster film <em>The Towering Inferno</em>, in which <em>Hart to Hart</em> star Robert Wagner assures side piece Flannery that there’s no reason to get all fired up… except that holy crap! There is! There <em>is</em>!</p>
Image: Paramount Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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