ANCHORWOMEN IN PERIL!

    One of the more popular tropes of the early 80's slasher film heyday was the always-dependable anchorwoman in peril thrillers. It made perfect sense churning these things out as the plots basically wrote themselves- a perky, usually opinionated protagonist finds herself squaring off against either a crazed stalker or a deranged chauvinist which always culminates in an oh-so-satisfying wham-banger of a climax. And boy were there some goodies in that bunch, too.

     THE SEDUCTION, from 1982, is probably the most well-known of the AIP slashers. Starring the white-hot Morgan Fairchild as popular anchorwoman Jaime Douglas alongside hunky Andrew Stevens as her mad stalker Derek, THE SEDUCTION is endlessly entertaining on many levels.

      For one, it's actually a solid little thriller. A slasher-lite, if you will, but still oddly creepy thanks to Steven's go-for-broke performance as Derek. Say what you will about the acting chops of La Morgan, but one cannot deny that when she's on the screen, you simply can't take your eyes off her. The film is also a bona-fide camp classic, even blessing us with Dionne Warwick warbling the title tune, Lord help us.

     Morgan's actually pretty good in the film, tbh, and holds her own against the creeper Derek. 80's icon Colleen Camp appears as Jamie's bff, and she's always a delight. A true cult classic, THE SEDUCTION made enough of an impact to be featured in the delicious 1984 frightfest TERROR IN THE AISLES.

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HUNKS OF HORROR- Seth (HELL NIGHT)

    Pretty Peter Barton was cast as the lead hunk in the 1981 slasher HELL NIGHT, but it was blond and sexy Vincent Van Patten (son of Dick...) who caught my eye instead. Spending half the movie shirtless doesn't help matters either, as Vincent's perfect southern California body is splendidly on display.

      Interestingly enough, although many slashers were known for boobs and blood, hunky Seth is the one who shows the most skin here. What's even more fun is that Vincent is married to 80's icon and star of the 80's slasher THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW Eileen Davidson and is as hunky as ever.

HALLOWEEN- BEHIND THE SCENES

     John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN is one of my all-time favorite films- it's not even a movie to me, since I first saw it way back when, it's always been presented to me as myth, legend, if you guys know what I mean. A tale to be passed down, told to huddled children to frighten them to death if you will. Very much like FRIDAY THE 13TH was, while we're yapping about it. It was always hard for me to imagine a man directing actors playing residents of Haddonfield, IL being stalked by a creepy killer, and it's even more surreal today seeing all these amazing behind-the-scenes pics you have before you, thanks to that nifty ole' internetz. I don't know about you kids but I've never seen 90% of these photos before and it's rocking my face off.

VHS HALL OF FAME- SLASHERS of the 1970's and 80's