1980’s = Eeking Out Over The Extravagant Eighties
Eek!! Are you r-r-r-eady for the 80s’ Extravaganza? This will probably be the decade where I list the most films. (Edit: I see have more films in other decades.)(Then why not just remove that sentence?)(Because I got to write “edit” and “edit” begins with “e”) That doesn’t mean they are better than previous or forthcoming films. Some eighties horror films were just plain stink-a-roo! So much was so much going on and I want to cover as much as I can.
So, what’s so extravagant about the 80s? Answer – the style. Among other things. (What other things?)(Oh I don’t know, just shut up.) Everything was colorful, over-the-top, kitsch with a lot of flair. Maybe MTV and music videos had something to do with this. Nevertheless, this trend leaked into the cinematic world of horror. This resulted in several campy horror films. Horror with the Ha Ha’s! Horror movies with one-liners.
The decade didn’t begin this way. It’s like the early 80s thought they were still in the late 70s. I guess that’s true with the beginnings of all decades. Oh well. Early 80s gives us more movies from John Carpenter. It shows us movies with a serious tone. As the decade progresses, horror becomes more silly. Sometimes in a fun way, sometimes in a stupid way.
Wasn’t it Stevie Wonder who sang, “Slashers! Keep on slashing”? Okay, I got a word mixed up, but the sharp, bladelike point of the slasher remains. If we accept a “slasher” to describe a movie with a killer or killers taking the lives of several people throughout the film, running up a huge body count, then we can say they were born in the 70s, but grew up in the 80s. Some of these 80s slashers turned out to be unintentionally comical. We will see a few on this list.
Then there was the VCR. While the VCR was around in the 1970s, the 1980s saw its rise in popularity. By the mid-late 80s, for most Americans the VCR was a living room staple as much as the TV itself. Whoopie! We can watch movies at home now. Thus, a new phenomenon was born; direct-to-video movies This means some movies skipped the theater all together and ended up in small rectangular boxes on video store shelves.
At most video rental stores, there was a wall displaying horror movies. Scary, gruesome monsters stared at customers from video boxes. It was as if they were speaking. “Rent me! Rent me!” In many “cases”, this worked (See,the case the movie came in did the selling). The more wild and attention-getting the box was, the more chance it had of being rented. This was true also for movies that had a limited theater release. If the films couldn’t pull people into the theater, they might at least go home with them on “movie nights” (a sometimes planned phenomenon where people went out into the world just to forage for movies and bring them home.) Weird-ass box covers went home with the oh-so-normal American populace. I remember my friend Joey, at the video store his mom worked at, pointed to a video box cover. It showed a man, full-faced, grimacing with camouflaged paint stripes on his cheeks, popping his head up from some field of long grass holding a bloody military knife. He be like, “YEAH! Let’s rent this!!” Henceforth, I poked fun at him, saying he only liked movies with mean-ass army dudes. Anyway, several “Video store movies” appear on this list.
Well, that’s all I have to say about this. Let’s get to the movies!
Friday the 13th – 1980
See what I mean? The blades used in Seventies’ slashers are piercing their way into the eighties. And they just happened to do so on one particular Friday the 13th.
I’m sure I don’t have to explain this series to you, do I? What’s that? There’s someone out there who’s been living under a rock since the 70s? They just crawled out and somehow know all about getting Internet access and finding my blog, but they don’t know about the Friday the 13th movies? Fine.
Camp Crystal Lake is opening again after spending many years on hiatus due to some murders that took place twenty odd years ago. Several teenaged camp counselors and perhaps some early twentysomething folks are there early to set things up. But they are partying, smoking Gods’ green stuff and having sex for the sake of pleasure rather than to procreate.. One by one they are picked off. Murdered. Stabbed. Axed. Hung. Choked. Spoiler: A woman is doing all this. She’s sore because back when the camp was open, her little boy drowned on account of the counselors that were partying, smoking Gods’ green stuff and having sex for the selfish reason of pleasure. All that fun and no one was watching her poor little Jason.
More spoilers. After Jason rises from the water at the end of this flick, he comes back as the killer in part 2, part 3, and so on.
FACT – we don’t see the iconic image of Jason wearing the hockey mask until Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3D. I saw that film in the theater. It might be my favorite of all the films in this series. ( I don’t know why I put “fact” in all-caps. I just wanted to.)
Are these good movies? Most critics say “no”. I guess I agree though I like to bring Jason back into my life now and then for nostalgia sake.
P.S. Kevin Bacon stars in this film.
The Shining – 1980
This is not my favorite haunted house movie, but it is my favorite haunted house book. It’s a great movie though, despite what the haters tell you. One such hater is Stephen King. He has good reasons. As its author, he has a right to despise a film that strays heavily from his work.
Director Stanley Kubrick incorporated his own vision of this story into the film. Likewise, he has good reasons for making some changes. A two-hour film just cannot capture all that is involved in a somewhat lengthy novel.
The most debated difference has to do with the main character, Jack Torrence. Jack, a recovering alcoholic, is a writer/former school teacher with anger issues. He accepts a job as a caretaker for the gigantic hotel up in the snowy mountains during the height of the winter. He and his family are snowed in. The Hotel – The Overlook, is supernaturally charged and reflects all the horrors that have happened on its premise to those sensitive to paranormal activity (called “The Shining”) and the psychologically vulnerable. His little boy Danny has The Shining. Jack is psychologically vulnerable.
In the book, Jack experiences a slow descent into madness. In the film, Jack (played also by a “Jack”, Jack Nicholson) seems a bit off the moment the camera captures him. We all know that’s just how Nicholson the performer is. As Mad Magazine once said, “Jack Nicholson doesn’t mean to make horror movies. His romantic comedies just turn out that way.”
Ah, but Nicholson gave us the famous one-liner. After he chops his way into a locked room with an axe, he pushes his head through the hole in the door to say “Heeeere’s Johnny!”
The general public loved this film though, including yours truly. Camera shots such as area and wide and distorted angels set an eerie tone. Scenes that show a vast amount of space contrasted with a lone person create an effect of hopelessness, as if vast forces have it in for isolated individuals, which in fact, in this movie, they do.
One of the best horror films out there.
By the way, this is the second Stephen King book turned film on this list. I’m skipping most of the rest.
Except for two.
Sorry, Children of the Corn is not among them.
Be prepared to wait a while.
The Fog – 1980
Hello John Carpenter, welcome back! See everyone, I told you he’d stick his head in here a couple of more times. You could barely see it with all that “fog”
We’re still in serious horror mode. So many people love this film. “It’s a classic!” they will say. They’re not wrong. It’s just that this isn’t one of my favorite horror films. The overall atmosphere is awesome, very creepy with the fog that comes off the bay and into the town, carrying with it the ghosts of killer lepers. They seek revenge on the town for the sins committed against them by the founders. But the plot involving the characters and how they all come together at the end is convoluted.
What else to say? Adrienne Barbeau stars in this film. She was in several other famous sci-fi/horror films. She was once married to John Carpenter. Sadly, this is her first and final appearance on this list.
American Werewolf In London – 1981
Okay, the zero year is over and we have finally entered the “ones” of the 80s, which means we can allow for some humor, right?
This isn’t the flamboyant kind of humor I mentioned in the introduction but it is billed as a horror comedy. The name of the film is a spoof on the title of the first popular werewolf film: Werewolf of London from the 1930s (sorry, I didn’t have it on the list). See, we’re already rolling in laughter and the film hasn’t even started yet.
Two American backpackers are hiking at night. One is killed by a werewolf, the other is mauled but survives. Guess what? Now he is a werewolf.
Some funny moments; undead victims of werewolves tend to pop up out of nowhere to warn our hero about his infliction. This one time (little kids love that phrase) he loses his clothes in the transformation. When he’s human again, he has to use a bunch of balloons to cover his naked body. Also, all these upbeat songs are used in the film simply because the lyrics are about the moon.
Not so funny moment – his first transition into a werewolf. The special effects were pretty good.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this. I wish I could remember more of it. I meant to revisit it before making the list, but I ran out of time. Drat!
Below is the transformation scene. I swear, I remember CCR’s “Bad Moon Rising” playing during this scene. Guess they edited it out for this piece.. Damn musical copyright laws!
The Evil Dead – 1981
What we have here is one of those films marketed for the drive-in theater crowd. Made by amateurs, acted by amateurs, low budget, little expectations, and then…? (Then what?) Oh, then it went on to be one of the most loved horror films of all time!
A group of people are staying in a cabin in the woods. They read from “The Book of the Dead” and all hell breaks loose. Literally. One by one they become possessed by demons.
I’m not going to say too much because I said it all before. Right here: Evil Dead 2
Poltergeist 1982
“They’re heeeeere!” Another horror-film catch phrase, said by a little girl, who knows the spirits have entered the house.
We know we’re in the 80s now. It’s not a haunted house in some isolated manor; it’s a haunted house right smack dab in the middle of suburbia. Gothic tropes are left far behind. The most haunted object in the house is a TV set.
Colorful, scary film with a lot of state of the art effects.
Since I’ve written great detail on this film, why reinvent my own wheel?
Read more here: Poltergeist
Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3D – 1982
I have this on the list because we need at least one movie where Jason is the killer. As noted before, this is the first movie where he dons his iconic hockey mask. I believe he steals it from one of his victims. Why the victim brought a hockey mask to the cottages he and his friends rented on Crystal Lake for summer-fun-turned-terror, I can’t remember.
I saw this in the theater with my mom, my mom’s friend Karen, and Karen’s son Larry. I was twelve and Larry was maybe thirteen. Funny that I remember this because I only saw the Karen/Larry team like twice in my life.
Back to the film. A slew of teenagers go to the aforementioned lake and die one by one. Three members of a motorcycle gang join in the fun, harassing the teens, but they meet their fate too. One poor guy, Jason either had the dude in a vice or he used his strong hands in a vice-like manner on either side of his head. His head squished, then squished some more. A little bit more……finally, his eyeball popped out in 3D! I think it landed in my bag of popcorn.
The Thing – 1982
Well hello again, John Carpenter! I see you have done the unthinkable. They say “don’t mess with the classics. And what did you do? You messed. Thank God you did because you made a film that is better than the original.
Yes folks, this is a remake of A Thing from Another World. You remember reading about earlier on the list. (Yes you do!!). I don’t mean to disrespect the original, but this is more terrifying. It features grotesque shape-shifting and lots of gore. I’m not saying “gore is more,” but in this case, it works beautifully.
Kurt Russell and his science team buddies are at one of the freezing poles trying their best to survive the continuous onslaught of an alien that can slip into bodies and duplicate the cell structure and turn itself into part human/part Blech Abominations
Nightmare on Elm Street – 1983
“Finally Freddy”. No, that’s not a rock band. I mean to say at last we meet everyone’s favorite 80’s horror icon – Freddy Krueger.
Like with other successful firsts, this movie spawned many spinoffs and sequels. We won’t get into all those.. But the original is considered by most critics to be the best of them all.
Freddy haunts your dreams. Well, he haunts the Elm Street teenagers’ dreams anyway. With his signature dirty brown hat, burned face, and razorblade fingernails, he chases them and kills them while they are fast asleep. If they die in the dream, they die in real life. Bystanders watching the sleeping person struggle will see bloody blade marks streaking across their skin and not know where they are coming from.
This first in the franchise is the most serious of the films. They grow more comedic as the series progresses. Freddy will have funny one liners. Here are some from Nightmare on Elm Street 3 – Dream Warriors (My second favorite Freddy film.)
(Scenario 1 – teen girl wants to be a movie star. She falls asleep watching a TV bolted on a high wall. Freddy’s head forms from the TV, the TV grows arms and lifts her into the air.
“Here’s your big break in TV! Fucking prime time, bitch!”
With that, he smashes her head into the picture tube.)
(Scenario 2 – Freddy is disguised as a hot nurse who climbs on top of a mute teenager named Joey as he lies in bed. Her tongue turns snakelike and shoots out of her mouth – four times! The tongues detach from the source and rope around each of Joey’s appendages to tie him to the bed posts. Then the nurse is Freddy and he says:
“What’s the matter, Joey? Feeling tongue-tied?” )
Freddy kills, kills, and kills and the laughs keep on coming!
Fright Night – 1985
I saw this movie in the theater back in 1985, then I saw bits and pieces a year or two later on video. Besides remembering it was about a vampire living next door to a teenage boy, who elicits the help of a TV horror host/fictional vampire killer to rid the block of this fanged menace, I couldn’t remember any of the details. But I knew there was “something” about it; what that something is I wasn’t sure. Something special? Something notorious? A film so bad it’s good? The “somethingness” of this movie was lost on me, but the fact that it reeks of “somethingness” meant it needed to be on this list. Something like that anyway.
So now here we are in 2025 (wow! Forty fucking years since its premiere). I thought to myself, I better rewatch this if it’s to be on this list so I know what the hell I’m yapping about. So watch it I did. I was surprised.
First, I didn’t realize it was a cult film that spawned a sequel, a remake, a video game, and an origin story that’s in the works. Second, I was like “Hey, that’s Marcy Darcy on Married With Children. What’s Al Bundy’s neighbor doing here?” She plays the girlfriend of the teen boy who lives next door to a vampire, even though she was probably in her late twenties. Sorry, but I could only see her as Marcy, and kept waiting for the vampire to mimic a chicken the same way Al Bundy did to make fun of her physique.
Despite my Marcy Darcy hurdle, I found this to be a really good film. Sure it’s dated, has some of that 80s’ cheese melted into its overall production. But the special effects look good, the vampire dude is a good actor, and there are some scary scenes in this movie.
I’m glad I took the time to revisit this film.
Return of the Living Dead – 1985
The soundtrack is almost as good as the movie. Punk rock. Who are the people that are killed by the living dead? Mostly punk rockers, partying in the cemetery with their boombox. They wear mohawks and leather. There’s a girl doing a graveside strip tease. Oh my!
The dead that rise out of their graves to attack the living don’t only chow down on punks. They go for cemetery caretakers, paramedics, and cops as well. What part of the body do they love the most? Brains! This is the movie that specifically added brains to a zombies diet plan.
Though it uses the “Living Dead” phrase, this is not a George Romero film. In fact, somehow Romero lost the rights to that phrase. His next two films after Night of the Living Dead are Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. (sorry, they are not on this list). No “Living”. I believe his former partner won the rights to that phrase and used it for this movie. Something like that.
This is another funny movie with catchphrases such as “Braaaaains!” and “Send more cops” (The living dead have called on the police radio because they want to eat more brains.)
House – 1985
Wait, we already had a “House” on this list. Well, that was Hausu, House is the english version of the Japanese movie. This is something altogether different. No, it’s not as good as the Japanese horror movie from the seventies, but, you know, it’s okay. And it’s funny! How is it funny? I can’t remember. It’s been a while and I really don’t want to revisit it.
Here’s more info about it – House
Stealing from my own writing from within the link above:
This film smacks of the 1980s. It’s colorful, simplistic, goes for appearance over depth, –
it’s a glam punk kind of movie. As mentioned, the things that haunt this place look creepy, insane and ridiculous
A Vietnam War vet suffering from PTSD moves into a house, and the house goes nuts. That’s the best way to describe this film.
I can’t neglect to mention; George Wendt stars in this movie. NORM!!!!
Evil Dead 2 – Dead by Dawn – 1987
This is one of the few times I list a sequel. Many say it’s better than the first. It certainly has a different tone. This one if more, I could say “comedic”, but I think “goofy” is better. It’s like The Three Stooges in a horror film. And it’s not really a sequel, nor is it a remake. It’s a “requel”. What the hell is that, you ask? I wrote about it. Read about it.
Oh, and there is a catchphrase. Ash, the hero, after blowing a “deadite” (that’s what these demonic things are called in this series) apart, he says “Groovy!”
The Lost Boys – 1987
“Say hello to the night! (Lost Boys!)
Lost in the shadows!”
Isn’t that a great song? Came from this here movie, it did. Sung by Lou Gramm, the vocalist of Foreigner. The soundtrack is awesome. Sometimes I think they make certain movies just to sell music. This was certainly true of the 80s.
The vampires in this film resemble rock stars. Long and glammed-up hair, wearing metal bracelets and riding motorcycles along the coast of the ocean. ZOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
This film is fun for many different kinds of people. Teenagers will love the rebellious troupe of vampires that prowl the boardwalk and live in a cave with a cool-ass Jim Morrison portrait on the walls (well, 80s teens did, like I was). Horror fans will love things like vampires dropping from cliffs and disappearing into the mist. And those with a funny bone will love the humor.
Hellraiser – 1987
I’m guessing Cliver Barker is a better director than a writer. I just can’t get into his books. This movie, Hellraiser, is based on his book The Hellbound Heart. I confess, I haven’t read it. I think it’s his signature novel. But some of his other pieces are either okay tor yuck. I do like this film and Barker is at the helm.
The movie involves opening a magic puzzle box and releasing the Cenobites; terrible beings from some other dimension that are skilled in the art of sadomasochism. The alpha being is appropriately named “Pinhead.” Or was this the nickname fans coined after the fact? I don’t know, but he has all these pins stuck in his head and face. There are four Cenobites, one female and three males. Trust me, you don’t want to mess around with this crew..
Also in the film, a woman is trying to resurrect her dead lover by using the blood of victims she lures into her attic. Her lover is in some kind of gelatinous state but gradually takes on proper form with each and every victim they kill
Lots of body horror in this film, body mutilations. Not for the faint of heart.
Child’s Play 1988
I saw this for the first time the other day in preparation for this list. Seriously. The serial killer doll name Chucky just hadn’t slashed his way into my life as he had done for so many people.
I knew the premise of the story. (Criminal dies. Through magical means, he transfers his soul into a “Good Guy doll” named Chucky). I had even seen parts of one of the sequels, but never the original. It was better than I expected.
There have been many evil doll stories before Child’s Play and I’m sure there will be plenty more. What was new, I think, was the doll’s ability to roam the city of Chicago. He takes the train, he chases cars. He’s not confined to the apartment where he is the toy of a little boy, but there are plenty of scary scenes in there.
Examining the credits, I noticed the name Jack Colvin. That’s “Mr. McGee!” I said to myself, excited. He played a reporter who chased after The Incredible Hulk in the 1970s TV show.. I was hoping Chucky would approach him and say the signature line from that show, “Mr McGee, don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like it when I’m angry.” And…that didn’t happen.
Beetlejuice 1988
On Wikipedia,
this film is first listed as American Gothic, then dark fantasy, followed by comedy, and the word “horror” brings up the rear. As such, I almost didn’t list this film. But it was such a huge success, everyone seems to love it, and it is saturated with 80s camp and glam, so therefore, I feared an exclusion would rile someone up, especially a die hard Tim Burton fan.
Director Tim Burton is not my favorite. I view his films as too childlike for adults but too dark for young kids. Always the fanciful one, his films are not my style, or, I should say, it has too much style. There will be no more Tim Burton films on this list. I’m sorry, no The Nightmare Before Christmas, no Corpse’s Bride, no Sleepy Hollow.
Beetlejuice stars Michael Keaton as a Betelgeuse, a sordid ghost who is a”bio-exorcist;” he his hired by other ghosts to rid humans from houses. A young Winonna Ryder stars in the film as well.
The most memorable scene is the dinner party, where ghosts possess the snooty diners and make them dance to Harry Belafonte’s music.
Puppet Master 1989
I promised you a direct to video movie, didn’t I? Well here’s one. It might not be well known, but I didn’t want to toss it in the “Under the Radar” section because I can’t recommend this as a good movie. Some of the films in the “Under the Radar” listings may not be honored in a critical sense, but there is still something offbeat, something unique about them. This movie, however, it’s, well…it’s a bunch of little puppet people running around a house killing its occupants. I guess that can be fun.
Despite its negative reviews, the movie spawned several sequels, so some people adore this franchise.
Basket Case 1982
If Little Red Riding Hood had been carrying the basket from this movie, contents included, the Wolf wouldn’t have bothered her. Had he looked inside, chances are, he wouldn’t be alive to run off to Grandma’s house to do what he did with her.
The main character of Basket Case carries around his twin brother in a basket. Suffice it to say, they aren’t identical. The brother outside the case is a seemingly normal, bipedal human male struggling to make it through life, living in the seediest motel/apartment complex there is. See, being your brother’s keeper is a rough lot in life, especially when having a brother of a certain disposition.
The “basket bro” has no legs, no hair. He does have creeping arms, bulging eyes, a big nose, a giant mouth and sharp teeth. He looks a little like a baby Jabba the Hutt, only, believe it or not, more gruesome. He doesn’t speak. He snarls, and makes all kinds of gross sounds. Oh, and he likes to bite people that open his cage. For a little guy he has a big appetite. He’ll eat you whole.
Basket Case became a cult classic and spawned a few sequels. I saw some of them. In one movie, the Basket Case is sent to a house of “freaks”, So many things with all kinds of grotesque abnormalities. In another, he becomes a father. The doctor removes the children (he has many) from his wife’s, uh,,,,whatever biological mechanism she has for shooting out babies. They are tied together on one umbilical cord. “The doctor shouts One! Two! Three! …..Nine…Ten!
By my description, I’m sure you can tell this movie is way over the top. On gore, on concept, on everything! But it’s so damn fun. And funny.
The film is directed by Frank Hennenloter, known for his horror comedies. He gave us other treasures, such as the Frankenhooker.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space – 1988
This movie is sooo crazy. It hurled down to Earth from some far, unknown galaxy. It landed not in theaters but into video stores across America.
Imagine a circus tent as a spaceship. Picture a clown car getting stopped by a police officer. See with your mind’s eyes several clowns exiting the tiny car. Feel empathy for the poor police officer who gets pied to death, only to be turned into a desert.
Beware of these klowns! They will trap you inside cotton candy cocoons. Or, they will sic their balloon-sculpted dogs on you. See for yourself as one clown on a tricycle frightens an entire motorcycle gang!
I just love the creativity in this movie. Sure it’s silly, but clowns themselves are silly, are they not?
The Books of Daniel 