Top 80's Horror
by aoife_read | created - 12 Oct 2014 | updated - 12 Oct 2014 | PublicIn no particular order, my favourite horror movies of the 80's
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1. The Thing (1982)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur
Votes: 464,426 | Gross: $13.78M
2. Re-Animator (1985)
Unrated | 84 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
After an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue.
Director: Stuart Gordon | Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale
Votes: 71,217 | Gross: $2.02M
3. 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: 30,549 | Gross: $1.26M
4. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
R | 91 min | Horror
Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, John Saxon
Votes: 261,361 | Gross: $25.50M
5. 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: 29,325 | Gross: $11.60M
6. The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
R | 91 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
When two bumbling employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air, the vapors cause the dead to rise again as zombies.
Director: Dan O'Bannon | Stars: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews
Votes: 68,584 | Gross: $14.24M
7. Hellraiser (1987)
R | 94 min | Horror, Thriller
A woman discovers the newly resurrected, partially formed, body of her brother-in-law and lover. She starts killing for him to revitalize his body and escape the demonic beings that are pursuing him after he escaped their underworld.
Director: Clive Barker | Stars: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapman
Votes: 139,918 | Gross: $14.56M
8. The Horror Show (1989)
R | 95 min | Horror
Detective McCarthy finally catches "Meat Cleaver Max", a serial killer, who promises revenge during his execution. Nonetheless, a parapsychologist tells the detective that the only hope of stopping Max for good is to destroy his spirit.
Directors: James Isaac, David Blyth | Stars: Lance Henriksen, Brion James, Rita Taggart, Dedee Pfeiffer
Votes: 4,610 | Gross: $1.74M
9. Pet Sematary (1989)
R | 103 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
After tragedy strikes, a grieving father discovers an ancient burial ground behind his home with the power to raise the dead.
Director: Mary Lambert | Stars: Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne, Brad Greenquist
Votes: 114,594 | Gross: $57.47M
10. The Entity (1982)
R | 125 min | Drama, Horror
A woman is tormented by an invisible being.
Director: Sidney J. Furie | Stars: Barbara Hershey, Ron Silver, David Labiosa, George Coe
Votes: 18,182 | Gross: $13.28M
11. Of Unknown Origin (1983)
R | 88 min | Horror, Thriller
A man becomes destructively obsessed with killing a dangerous rat, which has taken residence in his recently renovated house.
Director: George P. Cosmatos | Stars: Peter Weller, Jennifer Dale, Lawrence Dane, Kenneth Welsh
Votes: 3,759 | Gross: $1.08M
12. Night of the Creeps (1986)
R | 88 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Alien brain parasites, entering humans through the mouth, turn their host into a killing zombie. Some teenagers start to fight against them.
Director: Fred Dekker | Stars: Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow
Votes: 25,979 | Gross: $0.59M
13. Maniac Cop (1988)
R | 85 min | Action, Crime, Horror
A killer dressed in a police uniform begins murdering innocent people on the streets of New York City.
Director: William Lustig | Stars: Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree
Votes: 20,050 | Gross: $0.67M
14. The Howling (1981)
R | 91 min | Horror
After a bizarre and near deadly encounter with a serial killer, a television newswoman is sent to a remote mountain resort whose residents may not be what they seem.
Director: Joe Dante | Stars: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone
Votes: 40,016 | Gross: $17.99M
15. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Horror
Two American college students on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists.
Director: John Landis | Stars: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Joe Belcher, Griffin Dunne
Votes: 119,896 | Gross: $30.57M
16. Poltergeist (1982)
PG | 114 min | Horror, Thriller
A family's home is haunted by a host of demonic ghosts.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: JoBeth Williams, Heather O'Rourke, Craig T. Nelson, Beatrice Straight
Votes: 178,940 | Gross: $76.61M
17. Pumpkinhead (1988)
R | 86 min | Fantasy, Horror
After a tragic accident, a man conjures up a towering, vengeful demon called Pumpkinhead to destroy a group of unsuspecting teenagers.
Director: Stan Winston | Stars: Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, John D'Aquino, Kimberly Ross
Votes: 27,587 | Gross: $4.39M
18. 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: 27,575 | Gross: $19.60M
19. 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: 39,808
20. The Fog (1980)
R | 89 min | Horror, Thriller
An unearthly fog rolls into a small coastal town exactly 100 years after a ship mysteriously sank in its waters.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, John Houseman
Votes: 82,649 | Gross: $21.38M
21. 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: 20,101
22. Prom Night (1980)
R | 92 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
At a high-school senior prom, a masked killer stalks four teenagers who were responsible for the accidental death of a classmate six years previously.
Director: Paul Lynch | Stars: Leslie Nielsen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Casey Stevens, Anne-Marie Martin
Votes: 20,815 | Gross: $14.80M
23. Terror Train (1980)
R | 97 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Three years after a prank went terribly awry, the six college students responsible are targeted by a masked killer at a New Year's Eve party aboard a moving train.
Director: Roger Spottiswoode | Stars: Ben Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Hart Bochner, David Copperfield
Votes: 13,790
24. 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: 22,162
25. 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: 16,200 | Gross: $7.89M
26. Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
R | 110 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
At the snobby Crawford Academy, Virginia's group of friends start to go missing years after horrible events that happened to her as a child around her birthday.
Director: J. Lee Thompson | Stars: Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Lawrence Dane, Sharon Acker
Votes: 11,155
27. 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: 8,714
28. My Bloody Valentine (1981)
R | 90 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A decades-old folk tale surrounding a deranged murderer killing those who celebrate Valentine's Day turns out to be true to legend when a group defies the killer's order and people start turning up dead.
Director: George Mihalka | Stars: Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, Neil Affleck, Keith Knight
Votes: 25,013 | Gross: $5.67M
29. The Prowler (1981)
R | 89 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An unknown killer, clad in World War II U.S. Army fatigues, stalks a small California town, bent on reliving a 35 year-old double murder by focusing on a group of college kids holding an annual graduation dance.
Director: Joseph Zito | Stars: Vicky Dawson, Christopher Goutman, Lawrence Tierney, Farley Granger
Votes: 12,918
30. 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: 61,494 | Gross: $14.23M
31. 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: 6,967
32. White Dog (1982)
PG | 90 min | Drama, Horror
A trainer attempts to retrain a vicious dog that's been raised to attack black people.
Director: Samuel Fuller | Stars: Kristy McNichol, Christa Lang, Vernon Weddle, Jameson Parker
Votes: 10,758
33. 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: 102,536 | Gross: $2.12M
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