Get it now. Get it later. But...get it!
After the wild success of Halloween in 1978 and then 1980’s ultra-gory Friday the 13th, there was no
denying the box office potential of the low-budget slasher movies. Parents hated them, critics despised
they and teens flocked to them, making the biggest hits from the minor productions. It was a perfect
time to be a movie fan, as video cassettes entered the market and video stores blossomed in every
street corner. Cable television also exploded into households across the country. Film fans, for the first
time, had access to thousands and thousands of titles that were available to them before, and slasher
movies were everywhere. You could go to the theater or the drive-in to see them upon their initial
release, or catch them later on VHS or Betamax, or even wait and watch them on Commander USA’s
Groovie Movie or Elvira’s Movie Macabre. Slasher movies were never more prevalent than in 1981, when
dozens of them saw the theatrical releases, and all of them made money. It Came From Hollywood Book 2
celebrates the slasher era with eight exclusive interviews with the people who made those films as well
as a couple of the purveyors of modern slash. Interviews include Lynn Griffin from Bob Clark’s Black
Christmas (1974) and Curtains (1983), Sandy Johnson from John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), Timothy
Raynor from Final Exam (1981), Katherine Kamhi from Sleepaway Camp (1983), and Silent Madness
(1984), Bud Cooper from The Mutilator (1984), Richard Haines from Splatter University (1984), Mitch
Wilson from Knucklebones (2016) and David Howard Thornton from Terrifier (2017) and Terrifier 2
(2022)! The Slasher coverage continues with Slash-O-Rama: 1981, a look at the Slasher Films of 1981 and
beyond, Maniac (1980) vs. Maniac (2012), The Slasher City Jukebox, Uncle Dan’s 80’s 3-D slasher
reviews of Friday the 13 th Part 3 (1982) and Silent Madness (1984), the VHS Spotlight shines on House of
Death/Death Screams, The Cannon Group Slashers: New Year’s Evil (1980), Schizoid (1981), and X-Ray
(1981), Forgotten Slashers, Slasher Novelizations, and a reprint of the My Bloody Valentine (1981)
pressbook. And in the same book, Dave Fusaro’s account of infiltrating one of the most heavily guarded
sets in Hollywood history- The Blues Brothers (1980), Paul Mcvay goes Beyond the Screen at the Dixie
Square Mall with The Blues Brothers, George Seminara likes Streets of Fire (1984), JE Smith covers the
Home Grown Horrors of Beyond Dreams Door (1988), Winterbeast (1992) and Fatal Exam (1990), Tim
Ferrante opens a cold case file on a missing 35mm print of Jaws (1975), movie, book, soundtrack
reviews and much, much more!
The book will be available on Amazon and online retailers like Barnes & Noble in just a few weeks.