Actor Charles Bronson and Cape Fear director J. Lee Thompson collaborated on numerous films over the years, and while it seems unlikely that anyone would cite 1983's 10 to Midnight as the best work the duo ever did, it does have the distinction of becoming one of my personal favorites. (So there.) A bizarre mixture of police procedural and slasher flick, this seedy little movie typifies Cannon Films' output in the '80s -- low budget and exploitative, but still competently made and entertaining.

This time out Bronson plays grizzled Lieutenant Leo Kessler, who teams up with Detective Paul McAnn (Andrew Stevens) to hunt down a sexual psychopath who's been slashing local women. The cops know their perp is Warren Stacy (Gene Davis), but Stacy is smart enough to have an alibi and kill his victims while naked so as not to leave any evidence behind. In his all-consuming quest to get his man, Kessler winds up making one major mistake and it could cost him dearly.

10 to Midnight was the second film of the early '80s that attempted to merge action and horror (the other being 1982's Chuck Norris vehicle, Silent Rage), but that's hardly the only memorable thing about this film. Killer Warren Stacy is oddly reminiscent of Bret Easton Ellis' Patrick Bateman, which is interesting since the film predates Ellis' novel by roughly eight years. Stacy is a movie buff (Bateman loved music), a fitness fanatic, and a ladies man who worked in an office and liked to kill while buck naked. Makes you wonder if Ellis ever saw this film.

Davis' portrayal of Stacy isn't quite on the Christian Bale level, but the actor does deserve some credit for making the smarmy character more memorable than Bronson's cop. Bronson, meanwhile, glowers his way through the film vacillating between looking pissed off and incredulous (a scene where he wields one of Stacy's sex toys is frakkin' hilarious). It may not be vintage Charlie Bronson, but it's still a trip. Additionally, the title boasts a sequence that seems to have been inspired by the real-life Richard Speck murders and is surprisingly intense.

No one will ever mistake 10 to Midnight for high art, but that doesn't mean it's not worth watching. It's filled with entertaining 80's fashions, synthtastical music and haircuts that hipsters pay lots of money for nowadays -- and it's also a sleazy and violent good time. Plus one for team Cannon!

Get your Bronson on for free over at SlashControl.