Your Top 10 Horror Movies from the 8o's

[RCMerchant]

The 80's were all about over the top gore! I didn't care if the movie made no sense whatsoever! As long as it was a gory mess!
Here-due to change at any moment) are my favorites!

1 BURIAL GROUND-NIGHTS OF TERROR (1981) Movies don't get no more gross, stupid, and sick all at once! And, most of all, just plain fun!  
2.COMBAT SHOCK (1986) Most folks think this movie is depressing. I beg to differ. I find it to be a very dark comedy! Of course, I'm sick in the head.
3.BRAIN DAMAGE (1988) Alymer!
4. the THING (1982) Much better than the original.
5.NIGHT BEAST (1982) A Big Daddy Roth monster with a laser gun!!!!
6.RE-ANIMATOR (1985) Nuff said. This is a classic. RIP Stuart Gordon.  
7.RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (1985)
8.DAY OF THE DEAD (1985)
9.DEMONS (1985)
10.the EVIL DEAD (1981)

BURIAL GROUND:NIGHTS OF TERROR (1981)

[claws]

phew, for a moment there I thought you meant the 1880s  

1. The Shining (1980)
2. The Thing (1982)
3. Evil Dead II (1987)
4. Santa Sangre (1989)
5. The Fly (1986)
6. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
7. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
8. Possession (1981)
9. The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
10. Poltergeist (1982)

of course my 80s top ten can change any day because there are just too many great 80s horror movies.

[Alex]

In no particular order and going off films that I actually got to see in the 80's.

1. The Thing.
2. The Fog.
3. Re-Animator.
4. Moon Trap.
5. Aliens.
6. Bad Taste.
7. A Nightmare on Elm Street.
8. Galaxy of Terror.
9. Mutant.
10. The Basket Case

[Ticonderoga 64]

In no particular order:

The Howling(1981)
Spookies(1985)
Return Of the Living Dead(1985)
Re-Animator(1985)
Night Of the Demons(1988)
Humanoids From the Deep(1980)
Without Warning(1980)
From Beyond(1986)
Near Dark(1987)
The Fog(1980)

[Rev. Powell]

1. The Shining
2, Videodrome
3. Day of the Dead
4. The Evil Dead 2
5. Santa Sangre
6. The Return of the Living Dead
7. Re-Animator
8. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
9. Angel Heart
10. The Howling

[bob]

1 The Shining
2 The Thing
3 A Nightmare on Elm Street
4 Poltergeist
5 Friday the 13th
6 The Evil Dead
7 Scanners
8 The Fly
9 Hellraiser
10 Puppet Master

[indianasmith]

No love for FRIGHT NIGHT?

[Allhallowsday]

No love for FRIGHT NIGHT?

I like it. 

What is the film where the psychic dies, is entombed in a mausoleum, young people are trapped and locked in the mausoleum, psychic sort-of comes to life, and one girl has the habit of keeping a toothbrush in her mouth...???

[RCMerchant]

^ Hmmm...not sure...


I can easily list 10 more....!

11. the SHINING (1980)
12. DEADLY SPAWN (1983) aka RETURN OF THE ALIEN'S DEADLY SPAWN -Multi toothed and multi headed monster from space.
13. VIDEODROME (1983)
14. NEAR DARK (1987) Vampires in Texas!
14. the BURNING (1981) This epitomizes the 80's slasher for me.
15. DR.BUTCHER MD (1980) aka ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST
16. GATES OF HELL (1980) aka CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD
17. HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1986)
18. the BEAST WITHIN (1982)- A teenager turns into a ciccada bug monster!
19. EVIL SPAWN (1987) A bloody re-make of the WASP WOMAN, with John Carradine in a cameo!
20. SCANNERS (1981)

[retrorussell]

4. Santa Sangre (1989)

Nice!  Really weird flick and I'm not a fan of Jodorowsky in general but I kind of enjoyed that one.

My list for now-- I'll probably regret some omissions later:

1. EVIL DEAD
2. NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST. 3
3. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES
4. POLTERGEIST
5. HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER
6. THE HOWLING
7. AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON
8. HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP
9. FRIGHT NIGHT
10. THE BOOGENS

[Ticonderoga 64]

I can list another 10 also:

1)DAY OF THE DEAD(1985)
2)BRAIN DAMAGE(1988)
3)PUMPKINHEAD(1989)
4)THE FOG(1980)
5)NIGHT OF THE CREEPS(1986)
6)LIFEFORCE(1985)
7)THEY LIVE(1988)
8)BLOOD BEACH(1981)
9)SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-A-RAMA(1987)
10)THE FUNHOUSE(1981)

[Allhallowsday]

^ Hmmm...not sure...

I poked around here; I'd remembered 13 years ago that this site had helped me identify the film as ONE DARK NIGHT (1983) 

ONE DARK NIGHT (1983)
THE HUNGER (1983) 
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
RE-ANIMATOR
THE EVIL DEAD
NIGHT OF THE DEMONS
CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD
THE THING
THE BLOB

[Alex]

No love for FRIGHT NIGHT?

I like it.  

What is the film where the psychic dies, is entombed in a mausoleum, young people are trapped and locked in the mausoleum, psychic sort-of comes to life, and one girl has the habit of keeping a toothbrush in her mouth...???

I can't remember the title, but I think I've seen this one. If it is the one I am thinking of, the psychic is a psychic vampire and reanimates the dead. I think on person is sufficated by just being buried under a pile of dead bodies, and someone punches one of the bodies only to find their fist going through the body. Does any of that sound familair? I am going to try and find the title anyway.

EDIT: Possibly 'One Dark Night'?

2nd EDIT: Damn, just noticed that AHD beat me to it lol.

[zelmo73]

14. NEAR DARK (1987) Vampires in Texas!

I love how the word "vampire" was never said once in the entire film. Katheryn Bigelow, who directed the movie, intentionally did that because she wanted to make a vampire movie that wasn't confined to traditional vampire movie tropes (no wooden stakes to the heart, garlic, holy water, etc.).

[zelmo73]

Here are my Top 10 from best best to least best:

1. The Shining (1980) - For one reason, Jack Nicholson. I have yet to see another actor that realistically portrays a descent into madness better than Jack does. Stanley Kubrick is also at his best in this movie in terms of getting the most out of his actors, the cinematography, and use of audio and music cues to heighten the horror.

2. The Thing (1982) - This would have been my #1 pick but Jack Nicholson wasn't in this one, though I wonder how much improved that this movie would have been if it had starred Jack Nicholson instead of Kurt Russell. John Carpenter's best film, hands down! Anyone who has ever read H.P. Lovecraft's "At The Mountains Of Madness" will certainly see the inspiration here. Rob Bottin's special effects work is the best that he has ever done in this film. The Thing itself is essentially a complex viral infection that completely and literally takes over other life forms, which makes the movie all the more terrifying when coupled with today's COVID-19 hysteria. A true classic!

3. An American Werewolf in London (1981) - This movie straddles the fine line between horror and comedy better than any other horror film, including the Evil Dead movies which dealt largely in slapstick humor. This movie injects its goofiness in strategic points in the film, like in David's conversations with his undead friend Jack who fell victim to the werewolf that started that whole mess as a prime example. John Landis also helped Stanley Kubrick prove that directors that cross genres into horror film are capable of doing a better job at horror than most horror movie directors can do, because John Landis went directly from The Blues Brothers (1980) to directing this masterpiece.

4. Fright Night (1985) - On the surface, this movie looks silly, but the "vampire next door" idea is sold really well by the excellent acting performances in this one. Chris Sarandon is great as the head vampire, and puts out a fantastic performance despite initially not wanting to perform the part saying "I could never do a horror movie" until he read the script and was impressed by how well-written it was; his vampire bat is part fruit bat, which explains his fondness for apples in the movie. I think the reason that this movie holds up so well today is because the pacing of the film, the dialogue, and the perfect balance between campy fun and horror is thanks to the screenplay. Plus the level of disgusting gore rivals The Thing (1982) in some areas, and the Evil Ed wolf-to-human transformation is comparable to the classic werewolf transformation scene in An American Werewolf in London (1981).  

5. City of the Living Dead (1980) released in the U.S. as Gates of Hell (1983) - Initially receiving an X-rating due to the graphic violence (the drill scene), this movie is now rated R and available for streaming now on Amazon Prime Video. While this is the first of a trilogy; The Beyond (1981) and The House by the Cemetery (1981) were its sequels; this film's theme song shares a nearly identical twin in another Lucio Fulci movie Zombi 2 (1978) though the two movies are unrelated in terms of their plot. Lucio Fulci's zombies have always been my favorites because they stumble around with no expressions on their faces and look very dead, as opposed to other zombie movies where the zombies often convey very alive-looking facial expressions and emotions. I love the level of gore in this movie and the fact that the zombies can teleport!

6. Poltergeist (1982) - The Spielberg effects in this movie almost ruin it for me, but there are enough horrifying visuals that save it from being just another Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) light show. I'm a big fan of silly ghost hunting shows, and I like to think that the ghost hunting team that sets up camp in the Freeling home to help them with their ghost problem in the movie helped to inspire the many ghost-hunting "reality" TV shows of today! I'm a big fan of Tobe Hooper, and this is still one of his all-time best directing jobs. He is a master of the "perfect shot" which helps this movie still look "new" by today's standards.

7. The Fly (1986) - When I first saw this on pay-per-view as a kid in 1987, I thought that it was the grossest movie that I had ever seen. It's still pretty gross, but over the years I grew to admire the acting performances over the special effects. Among one of Jeff Goldblum's first leading roles, his performance here is perfect as the mad scientist that slowly deteriorates into his own mad creation. Geena Davis also puts out a convincing performance as the scared girlfriend and coins the movie's classic tagline ("Be afraid, be very afraid!") My favorite character is still the Brundlefly, because you simultaneously feel terrified, disgusted, and sorry for the creature as it descends into madness and nearly takes Geena Davis with it. The final scene between Geena Davis and Brundlefly is tragic and it sticks with you long after you are done watching it.

8. Friday the 13th Part 4, The Final Chapter (1984) - Technically, this is the last movie that we get to see Jason Voorhees while he is still alive, since he is dead and impersonated by an imposter in Part 5 and returns as a zombie in Part 6, so the "Final Chapter" tag is correct in that sense. It is also the last of the Friday the 13th movies that still takes itself seriously with very little comedy tropes save for one very funny quote toward the beginning of the movie ("I don't want to scare anyone, but Jason is still out there"), and while it feels incredibly cheesy nowadays, it still attempts to invoke doom and scariness out of its audience. By this point in the franchise, it's budget was large enough to have a slick quality to it, and the acting was actually pretty decent for this type of film. We get to see a young Crispin Glover who did Back to the Future (1985) immediately following this movie, and an even younger Corey Feldman who holds the honor of being the only movie character to actually *kill* Jason Voorhees in all of film history.

9. Evil Dead II, Dead By Dawn (1987) - This movie would be higher up my list if it wasn't also one of my favorite comedy films. As a horror movie, it doesn't scare me at all, even though it has plenty of horrifying scenes. But all of the actors can't hide the fact that they are having a great time making this movie; if you can find it, watch the Making Of... documentary on the blu ray release, which clocks in even longer than the movie itself, and interviews with all of the actors shows just how much fun that they were having on the set; for example, the actress that plays Bobbi Joe in the movie is very proud of the fact that she was also one of the couch cushions in the scene where all of the furniture in the cabin starts laughing at Ash which causes him to go temporarily insane. The fantastic special effects are only surpassed by Sam Raimi's excellent and creative camera work and the hilarious script!  

10. Day of the Dead (1985) - The third movie in George Romero's "Living Dead" trilogy, and my personal favorite of all of them. Tom Savini's gore effects are at his career best in this movie, and some truly disturbing audio and visual effects that stick with you long after the movie has ended, particularly during the film's climax where one poor bastard gets his head slowly ripped off while he is still screaming in agony; screams that turn into a high-pitched squeal as his vocal cords are severed. Truly classic stuff!

I could have listed so many more, but these were the ones that stood out the most for me in the 1980s and that I still watch today.