The banshee in "Scream of the Banshee." Photo courtesy of SyFy.

Lance Henriksen, like so many actors prior and after, has found his way onto the SyFy channel for the new original movie – Scream of the Banshee.

He stars in the pic as a university professor who has been fired due to mental problems.

“He’s suicidal, has dropped out and is living in a plantation house,” Henriksen explains. “He gets involved with this banshee who has been boxed in something of a prison in these tunnels underneath the university. I make the mistake of opening it and if you hear the scream of the banshee – you die. So, it’s a real get-the-popcorn-out movie.”

While he won’t call his character a bad guy, he confesses that he will pay a price for releasing the demonic entity. But, those are the breaks in a sci-fi creature feature.

“All science fiction and horror films are certainly morality plays,” the actor points out. “People get what they’re due. The old slasher movies – every time a teenager got sexual with another teenager, then they would kill them.”

And Henriksen is happy to be adding his talents to a thriller like this. After all, it’s not like he’s the only high-profile star to appear in the genre or on the channel.

“Even Jim Cameron (Avatar) started out doing Piranha 2,” he says. “There is an arena there that is really fun to do and to be creative in because you’re dealing with the imagination rather than opposed to reality. It’s really exciting.”

Scream of the Banshee airs tonight, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on SyFy.