The Crypt Charts
The Top 13 Horror Movies of 1981
The thirteen horror films of 1981 that the crypt judged worthiest, ranked by the Crypt Score.
Ranked by Crypt Score · Updated weekly · captured Jul 20, 2026
Eligibility: a title needs at least 2 rating sources and 1,000+ votes to chart — no thin-data entries.
The Evil Dead
NC-171981 · Horror · 85m · Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker
In 1979, a group of college students find a Sumerian Book of the Dead in an old wilderness cabin they've rented for a weekend getaway.
Possession
R1981 · Horror · 124m · Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, Heinz Bennent
A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he finds out more and more strange behaviors and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.
Southern Comfort
R1981 · Thriller, War · 106m · Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, Franklyn Seales
A squad of National Guards on an isolated weekend exercise in the Louisiana swamp must fight for their lives when they anger local Cajuns by stealing their canoes. Without live ammunition and in a strange country, their experience begins to mirror the Vietnam experience.
Roadgames
PG1981 · Mystery, Thriller, Horror · 101m · Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marion Edward, Grant Page
A truck driver plays a cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious serial killer in a van who lures young female hitchhiker victims on a desolate Australian highway.
Scanners
R1981 · Science Fiction, Horror · 103m · Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, Patrick McGoohan
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.
The Howling
R1981 · Horror · 91m · Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone
After a bizarre and near fatal encounter with a serial killer, a newswoman is sent to a rehabilitation center whose inhabitants may not be what they seem.
Dead & Buried
R1981 · Horror, Mystery · 94m · James Farentino, Melody Anderson, Jack Albertson, Dennis Redfield
After a series of gory murders commited by mobs of townspeople against visiting tourists, the corpses appear to be coming back to life and living normally as locals in the small town.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow
NR1981 · Horror, TV Movie · 97m · Charles Durning, Larry Drake, Robert F. Lyons, Claude Earl Jones
Bubba, an intellectually disabled man, is falsely accused of attacking a young girl. Disguised as a scarecrow, he hides in a cornfield, only to be hunted down and shot by four vigilante men. After they are acquitted due to lack of evidence, the men find themselves being stalked one by one.
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker
R1981 · Thriller, Horror · 96m · Jimmy McNichol, Susan Tyrrell, Bo Svenson, Julia Duffy
Rejected by her lover, the only man left in Cheryl's life is the orphaned nephew she has raised as her own son. She'll stop at nothing to keep Billy with her. When her plans misfire, she is swept up into an insane frenzy that means death to anyone who comes between her and her obsession. But the investigating detective is convinced that Billy is the real killer - and determined to prove it. Madness and fanaticism work together to drag all concerned into a terrifying vortex of blood-letting that adds a nightmarish twist to the classic Oedipus story.
Wolfen
R1981 · Horror, Thriller · 115m · Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Edward James Olmos, Gregory Hines
A New York City cop and an expert criminologist trying to solve a series of grisly deaths in which the victims have seemingly been maimed by feral animals discover a sinister connection between the crimes and an old legend.
The Burning
R1981 · Horror · 91m · Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua
A caretaker at a summer camp is burned when a prank goes tragically wrong. After several years of intensive treatment at hospital, he is released back into society, albeit missing some social skills. What follows is a bloody killing spree with the caretaker making his way back to his old stomping ground to confront one of the youths that accidentally burned him.
Nighthawks
R1981 · Action, Crime, Thriller · 99m · Sylvester Stallone, Billy Dee Williams, Rutger Hauer, Lindsay Wagner
When one of Europe's most lethal terrorists shows up in New York, an elite undercover cop is assigned to take him down by any means necessary.
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