Let’s take a trip north to a land not really associated with horror but with more square miles where it’s acceptable to wear fur for entirely practical reasons: Canada. In terms of its impact in the horror genre, the only thing particularly notable about Deadline is no one is entirely clear on when it was released. But, I’ve got an October 31st deadline to get all the horror movie content I have banked published, so let’s get going.

Deadline – Fur Fashion Stats

• Fur/Feather/Misc Runtime: 7:14 minutes
• Film Runtime:  90 minutes
• On-Screen Ratio: 8.04%

Find-a-Fur: Deadline, 1980

(All times are approximate and are affected by the cut of the film.)

• 05:00 – 06:10 – blue fox coat
• 11:05 – 12:30  – ” reaction shots
• 15:30 – 17:05 – ”
• 18:10 – 18:50 – silver fox stole
• 24:00 – 25:05 – blue fox again
• 27:50 – ” holding
• 40:95 – 42:52 – ”
• 1:03:50 – raccoon coat
• 1:12:03 – 1:13:40 – various
• 1:20:10 – fox
• 1:26:35 – org fox flashback

Deadline – Fur Fashion Review

The movie is about a horror writer who goes a little crazy when the line between reality and his fiction blurs. Of course, it is clearly intellectually distinct from any other notable “writer goes crazy” story. But who cares about the protagonist? We’re here for his wife.

His wife, Elizabeth (Sharon Masters), wears a full-length feathered blue fox coat in various scenes throughout the film. It’s a lovely blue fox and certainly enhances every scene. If I were to quibble about the cinematography, there are a few too many close-ups that cut off way too much of the coat, but I can’t say it does not receive the attention it deserves.

The film includes more fur, though in much smaller doses. A silver fox stole appears on Darlene (Jeannie Elias), an actress in one of the film projects based on the author’s works. She’s clearly wearing a period costume at the time.

As our protagonist goes off the deep end around Act III, he engages the services of a group of “ladies of easy virtue” to have a wild party back at his house. In scared 80s tradition, many of these ladies wear fur, including another blue fox. None of them are on screen for very long or filmed well, but you certainly can’t miss them, either.

Overall, Deadline has about seven minutes of fur fashion, mostly the wife’s blue fox fur coat, which is certainly the appropriate choice. That brings the runtime total to a respectable 8%. I’d likely be harsher on the film were it not a blue fox, but since it is, I’ll recommend it.

Deadline – Fur Fashion Gallery