80s horror flicks
by delbeto | created - 04 Mar 2014 | updated - 09 Apr 2015 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. From Beyond (1986)
R | 85 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A group of scientists have developed the Resonator, a machine which allows whoever is within range to see beyond normal perceptible reality. But when the experiment succeeds, they are immediately attacked by terrible life forms.
Director: Stuart Gordon | Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ted Sorel, Ken Foree
Votes: 30,736 | Gross: $1.26M
2. Scanners (1981)
R | 103 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A scientist trains a man with an advanced telepathic ability called "scanning" to stop a dangerous Scanner with extraordinary psychic powers from waging war against non scanners.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan, Lawrence Dane
Votes: 61,730 | Gross: $14.23M
3. Prince of Darkness (1987)
R | 102 min | Horror
A group of graduate students and scientists uncover an ancient canister in an abandoned church, but when they open the container, they inadvertently unleash a strange liquid and an evil force on all humanity.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Lisa Blount, Jameson Parker, Victor Wong
Votes: 49,945 | Gross: $14.18M
4. Opera (1987)
R | 107 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
A young opera singer is stalked by a deranged fan bent on killing the people associated with her to claim her for himself.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleson, Urbano Barberini, Daria Nicolodi
Votes: 19,478
5. Intruder (1989)
R | 83 min | Horror, Thriller
The overnight stock crew of a local supermarket find themselves being stalked and slashed by a mysterious maniac.
Director: Scott Spiegel | Stars: Liz Kern, Renée Estevez, Dan Hicks, David Byrnes
Votes: 11,145
6. The Burning (1981)
R | 91 min | Horror
A former summer camp caretaker, horribly burned from a prank gone wrong, lurks around an upstate New York summer camp bent on killing the teenagers responsible for his disfigurement.
Director: Tony Maylam | Stars: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua
Votes: 22,273
7. The Funhouse (1981)
R | 96 min | Horror
Four teenagers visit a local carnival for a night of innocent amusement, but soon discover that nothing there is innocent or amusing.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Elizabeth Berridge, Shawn Carson, Jeanne Austin, Jack McDermott
Votes: 16,276 | Gross: $7.89M
8. Mortuary (1982)
R | 93 min | Horror
Convinced that her father's death was not accidental, a beautiful girl decides to investigate to find out the truth, aided by her boyfriend. Her sleuthing draws her to a local mortuary, where many secrets will be revealed.
Director: Howard Avedis | Stars: Mary Beth McDonough, David Wysocki, Bill Paxton, Lynda Day George
Votes: 2,852 | Gross: $4.32M
9. Brain Damage (1988)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Horror
One morning, a young man wakes to find that a small, disgusting creature has attached itself to the base of his brain stem. The creature gives him a euphoric state of happiness but demands human victims in return.
Director: Frank Henenlotter | Stars: Rick Hearst, Gordon MacDonald, Jennifer Lowry, Theo Barnes
Votes: 13,160
10. Dolls (1986)
R | 77 min | Horror
A dysfunctional family of three stop by a mansion during a storm -- father, stepmother, and child. The child discovers that the elderly owners are magical toy makers and have a haunted collection of dolls.
Director: Stuart Gordon | Stars: Ian Patrick Williams, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Carrie Lorraine, Guy Rolfe
Votes: 12,839
11. Clownhouse (1989)
R | 81 min | Horror
Just before Halloween, three young brothers alone in a big house are menaced by three escaped mental patients who have murdered some traveling circus clowns and taken their identities.
Director: Victor Salva | Stars: Nathan Forrest Winters, Brian McHugh, Sam Rockwell, Michael Jerome West
Votes: 5,119
12. Retribution (1987)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery
A Manic depressive artist survives a suicidal fall only to be possessed by a murdered gangster, who uses the artist to seek vengeance on those that ended his life.
Director: Guy Magar | Stars: Dennis Lipscomb, Leslie Wing, Suzanne Snyder, Jeff Pomerantz
Votes: 1,200
13. Curtains (1983)
R | 89 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Six young actresses auditioning for a movie role at a remote mansion are targeted by a mysterious masked murderer.
Director: Richard Ciupka | Stars: John Vernon, Samantha Eggar, Linda Thorson, Anne Ditchburn
Votes: 5,728
14. Superstition (1982)
Unrated | 85 min | Horror
A witch put to death in 1692 swears vengeance on her persecutors and returns to the present day to punish their descendants.
Director: James W. Roberson | Stars: James Houghton, Albert Salmi, Lynn Carlin, Larry Pennell
Votes: 3,317
15. A Blade in the Dark (1983)
Unrated | 108 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A killer stalks a composer staying at a posh Tuscany villa while writing the score to a horror film which has an incriminating clue to the killer's identity.
Director: Lamberto Bava | Stars: Andrea Occhipinti, Anny Papa, Fabiola Toledo, Michele Soavi
Votes: 4,015
16. Motel Hell (1980)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Horror, Thriller
A seemingly friendly farmer and his sister kidnap unsuspecting travelers and bury them alive, using them to create the "special meat" they are famous for.
Director: Kevin Connor | Stars: Rory Calhoun, Paul Linke, Nancy Parsons, Nina Axelrod
Votes: 13,606 | Gross: $6.34M
17. I, Madman (1989)
R | 89 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A bookshop clerk and wannabe actress starts seeing the disfigured killer from her 1950s pulp novels come to life and start killing people around her. She tries to convince her cop boyfriend, but to no avail.
Director: Tibor Takács | Stars: Jenny Wright, Clayton Rohner, Randall William Cook, Stephanie Hodge
Votes: 3,730 | Gross: $0.15M
18. The Changeling (1980)
R | 107 min | Horror, Mystery
After the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, a music professor staying at a long-vacant Seattle mansion is dragged into a decades-old mystery by an inexplicable presence in the mansion's attic.
Director: Peter Medak | Stars: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, Jean Marsh
Votes: 39,993
19. Bloody Birthday (1981)
R | 85 min | Horror, Thriller
Three children are born at the height of an eclipse of the sun. Ten years later, they begin to murder the people around them - even their family members.
Director: Ed Hunt | Stars: Lori Lethin, Melinda Cordell, Julie Brown, Joe Penny
Votes: 5,664
20. Fright Night (1985)
R | 106 min | Horror
"Fright Night" sees a teenager believing that the newcomer in his neighborhood is a vampire. He turns to an actor in a television hosted horror movie show for help to deal with the undead.
Director: Tom Holland | Stars: Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall
Votes: 78,622 | Gross: $24.92M
21. The Beast Within (1982)
R | 98 min | Horror
A young woman gets raped by a mysterious man-creature, and years later her son begins a horrific transformation into a similar beast.
Director: Philippe Mora | Stars: Ronny Cox, Bibi Besch, Paul Clemens, Don Gordon
Votes: 4,545 | Gross: $7.74M
22. The House by the Cemetery (1981)
Not Rated | 86 min | Horror
A New England home is terrorized by a series of murders, unbeknownst to the guests that a gruesome secret is hiding in the basement.
Director: Lucio Fulci | Stars: Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Ania Pieroni, Giovanni Frezza
Votes: 16,246
23. Night Life (1989)
R | 89 min | Horror
Archie is a "brain" at a small town high school who works part-time at his uncle's mortuary and is harassed by a few of the popular kids because of it. His harassers die in an automobile ... See full summary »
Director: David Acomba | Stars: Scott Grimes, John Astin, Cheryl Pollak, Anthony Geary
Votes: 897
24. Scream for Help (1984)
R | 89 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A teenaged girl discovers that her stepfather is trying to murder her and her mother, but when she tells people, no one will believe her.
Director: Michael Winner | Stars: Rachael Kelly, David Allen Brooks, Marie Masters, Rocco Sisto
Votes: 1,271
25. Angel Heart (1987)
X | 113 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A private investigator is hired by a man who calls himself Louis Cyphre to track down a singer named Johnny Favorite. But the investigation takes an unexpected and somber turn.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling
Votes: 95,794 | Gross: $17.19M
26. Hell Night (1981)
R | 101 min | Horror, Thriller
Four college pledges are forced to spend the night in a deserted old mansion, where they are stalked by the monstrous survivor of a family massacre years earlier.
Director: Tom DeSimone | Stars: Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Peter Barton, Kevin Brophy
Votes: 8,765
27. The Sender (1982)
R | 91 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A disturbed telepathic man is unable to fully control his ability to transmit his dreams and visions into the minds of the people around him, or even influence reality. A female therapist tries to help him, but his mother gets in the way.
Director: Roger Christian | Stars: Kathryn Harrold, Zeljko Ivanek, Shirley Knight, Paul Freeman
Votes: 2,207 | Gross: $1.05M
28. Possession (1981)
R | 124 min | Drama, Horror
A woman starts exhibiting increasingly disturbing behavior after asking her husband for a divorce. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.
Director: Andrzej Zulawski | Stars: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, Heinz Bennent
Votes: 42,811 | Gross: $1.11M
29. Videodrome (1983)
R | 87 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A programmer at a Toronto TV station that specializes in adult entertainment searches for the producers of a dangerous and bizarre broadcast.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky
Votes: 102,942 | Gross: $2.12M
30. Inferno (1980)
R | 106 min | Horror
An American student investigates the disappearance of his sister and the death of a friend, both connected from New York to Rome by an old alchemy book.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Leigh McCloskey, Irene Miracle, Eleonora Giorgi, Daria Nicolodi
Votes: 24,005
31. Just Before Dawn (1981)
R | 90 min | Horror, Thriller
Five young people venture into the backwoods of Oregon to claim a property, and find themselves being stalked by a hulking, machete-wielding psychopath.
Director: Jeff Lieberman | Stars: George Kennedy, Mike Kellin, Chris Lemmon, Gregg Henry
Votes: 7,135
32. TerrorVision (1986)
R | 85 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
"TerrorVision" is a 1986 horror / science fiction movie; telling the tale of when a family's new satellite television system starts receiving signals from another planet, and soon it becomes the passageway to an alien world.
Director: Ted Nicolaou | Stars: Diane Franklin, Mary Woronov, Gerrit Graham, Chad Allen
Votes: 7,765 | Gross: $0.32M
33. Near Dark (1987)
R | 94 min | Horror
A small-town farmer's son reluctantly joins a traveling group of vampires after he is bitten by a beautiful drifter.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton
Votes: 44,720 | Gross: $3.37M
34. Alone in the Dark (1982)
R | 92 min | Horror, Thriller
A few dangerous and delusional mental patients break out of a mental asylum during a power blackout, and lay siege to their new doctor's house, who, they believe, killed their previous doctor.
Director: Jack Sholder | Stars: Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, Martin Landau, Dwight Schultz
Votes: 6,992
35. The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
R | 98 min | Fantasy, Horror
An anthropologist goes to Haiti after hearing rumors about a drug used by black magic practitioners to turn people into zombies.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae, Paul Winfield
Votes: 27,643 | Gross: $19.60M
36. Tenebrae (1982)
R | 101 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An American novelist visiting Rome to promote his latest book is stalked and harassed by an obsessed fan who is committing a string of murders that appear to be tributes to his work.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Anthony Franciosa, Giuliano Gemma, John Saxon, Daria Nicolodi
Votes: 27,409
37. Maniac (1980)
18+ | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A psychopathic man goes on a killing and mutilation spree in New York City.
Director: William Lustig | Stars: Joe Spinell, Caroline Munro, Abigail Clayton, Kelly Piper
Votes: 20,201
38. The Beyond (1981)
R | 87 min | Horror
A young woman inherits an old hotel in Louisiana where, following a series of supernatural "accidents", she learns that the building was built over one of the entrances to Hell.
Director: Lucio Fulci | Stars: Catriona MacColl, David Warbeck, Cinzia Monreale, Antoine Saint-John
Votes: 25,298 | Gross: $0.12M
39. The Dead Zone (1983)
R | 103 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A man awakens from a coma to discover he has a psychic ability to foresee future events.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom
Votes: 77,295 | Gross: $20.77M
40. The Church (1989)
R | 102 min | Horror
An old Gothic cathedral built over a mass grave develops strange powers that trap a number of people inside with ghosts from a 12th Century massacre seeking to resurrect an ancient demon from the bowels of the Earth.
Director: Michele Soavi | Stars: Hugh Quarshie, Tomas Arana, Feodor Chaliapin Jr., Barbara Cupisti
Votes: 8,882
41. House (1985)
R | 93 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A troubled writer moves into a haunted house after inheriting it from his aunt.
Director: Steve Miner | Stars: William Katt, Kay Lenz, George Wendt, Richard Moll
Votes: 29,969 | Gross: $19.44M
42. The Gate (1987)
PG-13 | 85 min | Fantasy, Horror
Kids left home alone accidentally unleash a horde of malevolent demons from a mysterious hole in their suburban backyard.
Director: Tibor Takács | Stars: Stephen Dorff, Christa Denton, Louis Tripp, Kelly Rowan
Votes: 19,588 | Gross: $13.54M
43. He Knows You're Alone (1980)
R | 94 min | Horror, Thriller
A young bride-to-be is being stalked upon by a serial killer in Staten Island. She gets help from a former lover, but will they manage to escape?
Director: Armand Mastroianni | Stars: Don Scardino, Caitlin O'Heaney, Elizabeth Kemp, Tom Rolfing
Votes: 4,238
44. Pin (1988)
R | 103 min | Horror, Thriller
Isolated by his strange parents, Leon finds solace in an imaginary friend, which happens to be an anatomy doll from his father's doctor office. Unfortunately, the doll begins to take over Leon's life, and his sister's life as well.
Director: Sandor Stern | Stars: David Hewlett, Cynthia Preston, Terry O'Quinn, Bronwen Mantel
Votes: 5,281
45. Dead of Winter (1987)
R | 100 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A fledgling actress is lured to a remote mansion for a screen-test, soon discovering she is actually a prisoner in the middle of a blackmail plot.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Mary Steenburgen, Roddy McDowall, Jan Rubes, William Russ
Votes: 4,676 | Gross: $2.41M
46. Scarecrows (1988)
R | 83 min | Action, Crime, Horror
Criminals hijack a plane and force the pilot and his daughter to fly them to Mexico. However, an unexpected landing finds them in a cemetery inhabited by killer scarecrows.
Director: William Wesley | Stars: Ted Vernon, Michael David Simms, Richard Vidan, Kristina Sanborn
Votes: 5,647
47. Crawlspace (1986)
R | 80 min | Horror, Thriller
A man who runs an apartment house for women is the demented son of a Nazi surgeon who has the house equipped with secret passageways, hidden rooms and torture and murder devices.
Director: David Schmoeller | Stars: Klaus Kinski, Talia Balsam, Barbara Whinnery, Carole Francis
Votes: 3,843
48. Bad Dreams (1988)
R | 80 min | Horror, Thriller
The lone survivor of a suicide cult wakes from a thirteen-year coma in a psychiatric ward, where other patients suddenly start dying under mysterious and gruesome circumstances.
Director: Andrew Fleming | Stars: Jennifer Rubin, Bruce Abbott, Richard Lynch, Dean Cameron
Votes: 4,352 | Gross: $9.80M
49. The Kindred (1987)
R | 93 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A geneticist takes his assistants to his old family home to locate the deadly product of his late mother's revolutionary research into rapid human evolution--his monstrous, tentacled baby brother--before a mad scientist gets to him first.
Directors: Stephen Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow | Stars: Rod Steiger, Kim Hunter, David Allen Brooks, Amanda Pays
Votes: 2,500 | Gross: $2.41M
50. Lifeforce (1985)
R | 101 min | Action, Horror, Mystery
A race of space vampires arrives in London and infects the populace, beginning an apocalyptic descent into chaos.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Steve Railsback, Mathilda May, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay
Votes: 29,461 | Gross: $11.60M
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