Aerobi-Cide, Blood Spattered Satin Aerobic Outfits

Ahhhh, the 1980s.  Aerobics replaced Disco as the trend. Who can forget those tight, shiny, satin aerobic outfits that graced many spas?  Any actress or beauty who looked good in one of these outfits came out with a VHS aerobic-workout tape.  1987's "Aerobi-Cide" (aka "Killer Workout") capitalized on this trend, sending a slasher into one of these spas to inflict gory carnage on very fit damsels.

 Cosmo's newest cover girl is cooked during a tanning bed malfunction I hate when that happens). The tanning salon is then sold and converted to an aerobic/ workout spa, owned by the lovely Rhonda (Marcia Karr).  Rhonda is serious about the spa's bottom line and rides her primary fitness instructor, Jaimy (Teresa Van der Woude), hard.  Everyone in the spa is a perfect 10, hunks and babes.  Every woman is clad in a very form fitting leotard.  Uh oh....girls start dying in horrible ways.  Stabbed in the shower, hung, knifed, etc. Double uh oh....hunks start assuming room temperature as well.  Now Rhonda is faced with cash flow problems.

The suspects are numerous. A new employee, hunk Chuck (Ted Prior) arrived just before most of the carnage and he snoops around a lot.  Diane (Laurel Mack), a member, who just doesn't fit in with the other beauties. Jimmy (Fritz Matthews), the often rejected trainer who drools over every female he sees.  Oh yes, the severely burned supermodel from the opening scene....where is she?  As gratuitous and bouncy workouts continue, director David A. Prior also throws in gratuitous shower and locker room scenes.  As the death toll mounts, a grouchy detective (David James Campbell) must work with an equally grouchy and elusive Rhonda.

Titillating to the max, "AerobiCide" is gory and has a high body count.  The bouncier the aerobic woman, the gorier the death.  Perhaps a social commentary of the deadliness of unrealistic expectations imposed on woman by a male-dominated fashion industry, "Aerobi-Cide" may be a deeper film than a mere slasher film. (I know....I'm trying too hard here).  This film is one of the best slasher movies from the 1980s. These outfits, which could not have been comfortable, did not survive the early 1990s, but did give way to ESPN's morning programming, "Kiana's Flex-Appeal."