Monster Scholar

Today I graduate with a masters in English and to celebrate I'm presenting a video smorgasbord from the 80s Slasher flick Graduation Day (1981). After the success of slashers like Halloween and Friday the 13th, Hollywood cranked out a slasher film for just about every holiday and milestone there was, including Mother's Day (1980) and birthdays (Happy Birthday to Me). Graduation Day follows this trend and chronicles the grisly murders of a high school track team by a killer in a fencing mask. The list of suspects is long and with only seven days until graduation, will they discover the killer in time? Graduating from high school has never been so deadly... Graduation Day also features the lovely Vana White , who played a frightened teenage victim years before she would turn letters on Wheel of Fortune.

Mountain Dew just released a commercial for their new drink, Diet Mountain Dew, featuring a psycho ferret that stalks his victims in a mask while wielding a chainsaw. This ferret obviously had two of the great horror icons, Jason and Leatherface, in mind when he put together this get up. The commercial also makes use of the kind of subjective camera work that would make slasher films like John Carpenter's Halloween so unique, as we see the ferret pursuing the frightened teen victims in the woods from his point of view. Enjoy.

Jamie Lee Curtis was on today’s Bonnie Hunt Show to hype the release of her 8 th children’s book "Big Words for Little People" and it looks like she’s doing her best to dissociate herself from her horror roots. “As you know I got my start in horror,” she began before launching into a discussion about the content of her new book, and how it encourages family values by teaching kids the meaning of big words like “respect” and “ consequences ”. She then told a story of how a parent at a book signing told her that his little girl loved Halloween . Curtis’s reaction was complete shock as she dubbed the film “not at all appropriate” for kids that age. Jamie ended the interview with the statement that “now I can make films that make people smile” as Bonnie mentioned Curtis’s latest film Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008) is now available on DVD. Though Jamie Lee has come a long way since her horror days, she is just one of dozens of actors that got their start in show business by star...