The ‘80s–a decade in human history that’s become synonymous with vibrance, energy, and danger. Those 10 years witnessed waves of pain and celebration including the crack and AIDS epidemics, the start of the war on drugs, and the beginning of the fall of the Soviet Union. It was the era of hair metal and heavy metal; the era of A-ha and ABBA, Eddie Money, and Ricky Springfield–he’s a buddy of mine. As time sees all things change, cinema gradually changed too. The grindhouse ’70s birthed the video nasties of the next generation. Advancements in special effects, filming techniques, and film development crafted a period of breathtaking production design and visual splendor.
Horror saw a renaissance thanks to would-be masters of their craft like David Cronenberg, James Cameron, John Carpenter, Stuart Gordon, and Wes Craven. Slashers, monster movies, and sci-fi movies proliferated popular culture thanks to the combination of artists and the technology of their era. Sci-fi horror of the 1980s stood on the backs of those same men, though there are plenty of other artists whose works have stood the test of time and helped build the era into the monolith of explosions and practical effects that it is. For plenty of blood, boobs, explosions, and film grain, check out these old favorites and cult classic science fiction horror movies from the 1980s.
Aliens
The ‘80s is littered with action horror sci-fi fair, and no one contributed more to the subgenre than James Cameron. The man followed up The Terminator with the long-awaited sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien, titled–you guessed it–Aliens. Sigourney Weaver returned as Ripley in this action skewing of Scott’s cabin fever sci-fi classic. Ripley tries desperately to save a squad of colonial marines sent in to investigate a possible Alien outbreak on a human colony established on LV. 426–the same planet Ripley and the crew of the USCS Nostromo visited in Alien. Cameron’s third turn in the director’s chair elevated this picture beyond a studio sequel into an iconic movie of the era. Aliens was nominated for seven Academy Awards–including best actress in a leading role, best film editing, and best original score–and won best sound effects and best visual effects. It’s mandatory viewing for any action, horror, or science fiction film fan, and expands the world of technological wonder and corporate greed Alien introduced.
The Blob
Remakes aren’t endemic to the 21st century, but the ‘80s saw a few remakes that surpassed their predecessors, including The Blob. The Blob is an updated and brutal version of the 1950s black and white classic about a swelling, gelatinous monster overtaking a small town. Astonishing effects work makes The Blob the star of the show as it slides around town gobbling up unsuspecting citizens. Arborville, California offers a bounty of bodies for The Blob to dissolve as it slinks from sewers to ceilings in its quest to feed. It may be a basic premise, but the expert execution and genuine dread leading up to each pounce make The Blob one of the best horror movies of the 1980s.
Critters
It ain’t just Gremlins with an R-rating, Critters is a different beast entirely. The Crites from space devour without discrimination as they bounce from planet to planet following the only real prime detective–feed. They’re chased to earth by a pair of shape-shifting bounty hunters from space with a reputation for collateral damage. The debut picture by Stephen Herek (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Mighty Ducks) wears the heart of community and family on its sleeve like one of Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi classics, but it openly pokes fun at them in a Crite’s showdown with an E.T. plushie. This creature feature is packed with humor and bursting with blood, and it spawned a franchise that doesn’t cut as deep as the original.
Evilspeak
Some movies on this list are Academy Award winners and nominees, some are cult classics, but only one has Clint Howard flying around chopping heads with a freaking sword. Evilspeak is a campy revenge horror film about a bullied boy at a military school–or university based on the ages–who uses a computer to transcribe a spell from a dead satanic sorcerer and invoke the dark powers to aid him in his pursuit of revenge. The pitiful Stanley Coopersmith (Howard) seems almost righteous in his revenge, and while there’s a tight pull of tension and discomfort through the picture, it’s all about the last 20 minutes. It’s not a perfect film–visible wiring rigging and some sloppy effects work–but patient viewers will be rewarded by a bloody conclusion to an interesting picture.
The Fly
Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly is so good and so gross, it’s the movie everyone thinks of when the title is mentioned despite it being a remake. It’s one of Cronenberg’s last science fiction movies after an incredible run of heady sci-fi horror in the ‘80s. Jeff Goldblum devolves in plain view going from a charming, attractive, genius scientist to a human-sized fly thanks to a teleportation experiment gone wrong. If The Thing or Aliens doesn’t hold the title for best special effects of the decade, it’s because The Fly buzzed off with it. The movie took home the Academy Award for best makeup the same year Aliens took home its two awards. The gut-wrenching gradual transformation from Seth Brundle (Goldblum) to Brundlefly is beyond repulsive, and Goldblum’s excited interest in the metamorphosis makes it so much worse. Cronenberg cemented his legacy as the king of body horror with his final sci-fi picture of the decade.
From Beyond
Only a year after Re-Animator brought Lovecraft into the 1980s, the director, Steward Gordon, co-writer Dennis Paoli, and two of the leading actors–Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton re-teamed to adapt H.P. Lovecraft’s short story From Beyond. Combs and Crampton are joined by Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead) as Bubba Brownlee, and the three prove a less goofy trio than Re-Animator. The movie follows a scientist (Combs) seeking help following a series of discoveries concerning mankind’s physiology and the nature of reality. Gordon demonstrates his mastery of presenting the macabre in dressed-down yet nauseating displays of horror. But From Beyond keeps a tighter cast and more consistent tone than his feature film debut. In fact, a lot of the campy fun of Re-Animator is replaced with suspense and atmosphere. Viewers looking for a cinematic Lovecraft adaptation should look back to the ‘80s for this amalgamation of lighting, effects, and madness.
The Hidden
Aliens, guns, explosions, sex, mystery, vintage heavy metal, and grit, The Hidden has it all. Like The Terminator, the movie is more than the buzzwords associated with the genre; it’s beautifully lit, expertly shot, and bolsters some awesome special effects and stunt work. The scintillating score by Michael Convertino accentuates the tone of each scene, adding to the pulse-pounding action and dread compounded by the unfolding mystery. It feels at home among Cronenberg’s or David Lynch’s stable of sci-fi thanks to its use of color, framing, and comedy. While some plot points seem redone a time or two, the central mystery surrounding the spontaneous and maniacal crime sprees of otherwise normal citizens pushes the plot forward through the first half. It doesn’t hide the alien angle, and the early look at the repugnant parasite is enough to hold the viewer over for the remainder of the picture. Here’s hoping The Hidden doesn’t stay in the shadows of other more popular sci-fi 80s fare.
Humanoids From the Deep
Humanoids From the Deep is campy creature feature fun. It’s horrific, violent, and it has something to say, but it also doubles as a schlocky monster movie. The film is surprisingly layered with commentary knifing at corporate greed, racial injustice, and human hubris. It’s also host to slimy creatures, gratuitous nudity, and blood by the gallon. The political and racial divides in the town of Noyo drive the secondary conflicts of the narrative. Humanoids From the Deep has a grindhouse feel to it, and that’s no fluke. Director Barbara Peeters built a career directing exploitation flicks in the ‘70s, and she brought some of that sleaze into the new decade. Cool creature effects and an all-out final act push the picture from fine to fun, but sensitive viewers beware as there’s an extreme amount of animal and sexual violence littered throughout this horror show.
Predator
Action-horror had a moment in the sun in the late 1970s and 1980s, and thank goodness they did because we live in a world where Predator exists as it does. Predator is perfect. It’s action-sci-fi-horror starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, Bill Duke, Shane Black, and more as a team of commandos trapped venturing through a Central-American jungle. They are hunted for sport by a humanoid alien with awesome weapons and technology. The chemistry between the leading men brings an actual heart to an over-the-top action film. Exploding with guns and muscles, Predator squeezes as much sweat and blood out of its characters as it can. It’s endlessly quotable with respect to the actors’ line deliveries and quippy one-liners. The costume and creature design for the Predator itself is fan-freaking-tastic. Predator may lean more action than horror, but it’s a brutal good time either way, and it’s a nice starting point into the subgenre for the uninitiated.
Prince of Darkness
Zombies, religious fiction, messages from the future; Prince of Darkness is nuts. John Carpenter goes Lovecraftian as he re-teams with cast members from his career including Donald Pleasence (Halloween) and Victor Wong (Big Trouble in Little China Town). In The Prince of Darkness, the antichrist is trapped in a jar in the form of a green liquid, and he’s slowly seeping out into the world, preparing the way for his father. A priest burdened with the secret the Catholic Church chose to hide in a basement consults with a theoretical physicist and his graduate department on how to analyze and react to the antichrist’s new-found directive–and that’s when even stranger things start. Prince of Darkness is the middle act of Carpenter’s doom trilogy, book ended by The Thing and In the Mouth of Madness–which unfortunately doesn’t count for this list due to its ‘90s release. PoD is weighty and theological, but also creepy and wondrous. It would pair well with Stewart Gordon’s Re-Animator; speak of the devil.
Re-Animator
Cheesier and quirkier than Gordon’s adaptation of From Beyond, Re-Animator is at once genuinely unsettling and hilarious. Gordon is a master at fanning the fumes of camp only to douse them out in an instant to leave behind a messy, dark display of the macabre. Re-Animator is about two medical students who live together, and one of them happens to have co-developed a serum that brings the dead back to life–only sometimes dead is better. But seriously, things go all Pet Sematary–cat included–and the students are left fighting against zombie-like humans hopped up on Herbert West’s (Jeffrey Combs) fluorescent concoction. Like Return of the Living Dead, Re-Animator is a horror-comedy that succeeds at both genres expertly. So make it a triple feature then, because here comes Return of the Living Dead.
Return of the Living Dead
From the co-writer of Total Recall, Alien, Dead & Buried, and Heavy Metal, comes a George Romero-esque zombie picture called Return of the Living Dead. It evolves the mindless zombies of Romero’s classic films into swarming, articulate hordes capable of deception and decimation–like The Crazies. Fun, funny, and gross, Return of the Living Dead is one of the best horror-comedies of all time. It dares to be different even from the zombie movies of today's standard in part thanks to a clever and thoughtful script. Sharp writing, hammy performances, and great special effects create a light-hearted horror movie unafraid to kill off its cast. Not all fun and games, gruesome practical effects create disgusting undead monsters, with a specific shoutout to patient zero literally dripping with practical effects. The film is a must-see for zombie lovers.
Scanners
Scanners is the best slow burn on this list. It pulls back the veil on the ConSec corporation as they investigate human beings with extraordinary mental abilities, called Scanners. These Scanners can look into the minds of other human beings and can harm them, or even kill them with their psychic abilities. The corporation investigating Scanners is trying to counter a scanner named Darryl Revok (Michael Ironside) who works on behalf of an organization of Scanners as a recruiter. ConSec recruits a rogue Scanner named Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack) who they convince to sabotage the movement of Scanners spearheaded by Revok. Eccentric physical acting and the wailing score impart the intensity of the psychic power and effort these special human beings exert. Dramatic convulsions and twitching are commonplace in each color-splashed scene. Excellent special effects create unforgettable visuals in Cronenberg’s first sci-fi film of the 1980s.
The Stuff
For sci-fi horror comedy with commentary, check out The Stuff. Michael Moriarty seems natural as David, a corporate sleuth tasked with investigating the secret formula of a hot new yogurt-like food called The Stuff. David doesn’t know that The Stuff bubbles up out of the ground, nor that it seems to rapidly take over the minds of those who ingest it. It’s no accident that writer and director Larry Cohen opens the film with older, blue-collar white men haphazardly slurping The Stuff right out of the ground. The Stuff is full of social commentary regarding corruption, greed, and social and racial injustice. The movie sort of just starts, and it suffers from jarring editing, but for viewers who can look past its imperfections, The Stuff may prove an entertaining, thoughtful picture.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
No movie on this list will feel more insane, more expressive, or more ambitious than Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Repulsive body horror is married to expressionist black and white presentation in this nightmare about humanity’s place in an increasingly industrial and urban environment. Unique and tense, Tetsuo is an assault on the senses. A frantic soundtrack accentuates the anxiety of the terrifying transformation of the leading man, Tomoro Taguchi. Bombastic sound and frightened screaming accompany the hectic score to ensure an unsettled atmosphere accompanies the horrid sights on screen. Genius editing and application of stop-motion photography create a one-of-a-kind visual experience. From the way characters glide through the streets at break-neck speeds to the main character accruing further metallic mass, the techniques are repeated constantly to astounding and grotesque effect. Don’t try and understand Tetsuo, just experience it.
The Terminator
All respect to Piranha 2: The Spawning, but The Terminator was the first of many times James Cameron would blow our minds. This time travel story about killer robots from the future could’ve easily been a messy B-movie lost to ‘80s obscurity or cult status. It could’ve been campy or crappy, but instead, it’s a classic thanks to gritty world building, stellar performances, and incredible filmmaking. Pinpoint perfect casting united Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Michael Biehn on-screen in a long game of chase. Arnold Schwarzenegger is The Terminator, a robot wrapped in human flesh and muscle that is sent back in time to kill a waitress. Future humans send an operative back to hopefully save her before the machines can execute their assassination attempt. Arnold as the antagonist is rare, and he’s genuinely frightening as the hulking killer heartlessly laying waste to all in his way. Like Predator, The Terminator is more action-packed than it is horrific, but it’s an awesome movie that sprawls across several genres, and it should be rewarded for that.
The Thing
The Thing will always exist as one of the best remakes of all time. It’s a cabin fever paranoia nightmare featuring some of the greatest special effects ever seen. Directed by John Carpenter, one of the most prolific filmmakers of the 1980s, The Thing starts fast and uses its foreboding score to keep the atmosphere thick with tension. The tale of a team of scientists and technicians trapped in a research station in Antarctica with a shape-shifting alien capable of imitating any living thing is a spooky enough premise, but the creature design, cast, and music make the movie something special. It isn’t just one of the best remakes or one of the best sci-fi horror movies or one of the best Carpenter pictures–The Thing is one of the greatest horror movies ever made.
They Live
John Carpenter joined the action-horror trend in the late ‘80s with They Live. In this adaptation of Ray Nelson’s short story, Eight O’ Clock in the Morning, Roddy Piper plays the mullet and muscle-strapped leading man who believes in America and the classic American ideals. He noses his way into a conflict between an underground group of revolutionaries and the ruling class dominating the world’s media, governments, and economic systems. The ruling class just so happens to be skinless alien monsters imitating human beings, and somehow people have developed a formula–applied in the form of lenses in glasses and contacts–to dispel the illusion. The movie is an overt cry to overcome consumerism, greed, and the agendas set for the majority of human beings stuck at the mercy of the mindset of the man next to them. The message is wrapped in violence and visual splendor, but beneath the kick-ass action segments is a strong call to question.
Videodrome
Even 40 years later, Videodrome still feels fresh. The visual meditation on mass media and its effect on the human condition is only dated by archaic technology like V/H/S tapes and old-school television sets. James Woods is Max Renn, the president of an extreme TV station pushing the limits on violence and sexuality through its explicit programming. He quickly develops a fascination with a guerilla broadcast that seems to show people brutalized with no context by a masked torturer, and his hunt to uncover the production team and location turns into a bizarre odyssey of practical effects, hallucinations, and deception. In an era that saw exceptional remakes like The Fly, The Thing, and The Blob, Videodrome stands out as remarkably original.