
Decade
1980s Horror
The horror that defined the 1980s — ranked by Crypt Score, from era-defining classics to the deep cuts worth resurrecting.
625 titles

Raw Force
›R1982 · Action, Adventure, Horror · 86m · Geoffrey Binney, Hope Holiday, Jillian Kesner
A group of martial arts students are en route to an island that supposedly is home to the ghosts of martial artists who have lost their honor. A Hitler lookalike and his gang are running a female slavery operation on the island as well. Soon, the two groups meet and all sorts of crazy things happen which include cannibal monks, piranhas, zombies, and more!

The Fan
›R1981 · Drama, Horror, Thriller · 95m · Lauren Bacall, James Garner, Maureen Stapleton
A record store clerk is an obsessed fan of an actress of stage and screen. However, when faced with rejection, the fan strikes out in increasingly violent ways.

The Kiss
›R1988 · Thriller, Horror, Drama · 101m · Meredith Salenger, Joanna Pacula, Mimi Kuzyk
After the death of her mother, a teenage girl is faced with bizarre supernatural occurrences when her mother's estranged sister arrives and begins to infiltrate her and her father's lives.

Heart of Midnight
›R1988 · Thriller, Drama, Horror · 93m · Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brenda Vaccaro, Jack Hallett
A young woman who is getting back on her feet after a mental breakdown, Carol Rivers discovers that her late uncle has left her a rundown nightclub. Carol decides to renovate the venue, but, in the process, uncovers dark secrets about the club and her dead relative. After a series of disturbing events, Carol becomes increasingly unstable, but she finds some measure of comfort in Sharpe, an enigmatic older detective.

Out of the Dark
›R1988 · Comedy, Horror, Thriller · 89m · Cameron Dye, Karen Black, Bud Cort
A deranged killer wearing a clown mask begins preying on a group of young women working at a phone-sex company.

Primal Rage
›R1988 · Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller · 92m · Patrick Lowe, Cheryl Arutt, Sarah Buxton
A scientist at a Florida university inadvertently creates a "rage virus" while performing experiments intended to restore dead brain tissue in baboons. When a journalist for the college paper breaks into the campus lab, he's bitten by one of the infected baboons; the virus soon spreads to a trio of rapists and a valley girl, all of whom go on killing sprees.

The Godsend
›R1980 · Horror, Thriller · 90m · Malcolm Stoddard, Cyd Hayman, Angela Pleasence
An English family of six takes in a pregnant woman who disappears shortly after giving birth. They raise the baby girl as their own, but over the years the strange deaths of their children make them consider whether the little girl is more than she appears.

The Dead Come Home
›NR1989 · Horror · 94m · Mark Zobain, Victor Verhaeghe, Sarah Newhouse
A group of friends decide to renovate an old house located in the middle of nowhere, in the hope of turning it into their crash pad, but shortly after arriving, a strange and seemingly senile old woman is found to be lurking around the premises.

Olivia
›1983 · Crime, Horror, Drama · 85m · Suzanna Love, Robert Walker Jr., Bibbe Hansen
Nightmares of the past haunt the beautiful, mysterious Olivia, a London resident who begins a passionate affair with American businessman Mike. Trapped in a loveless marriage and traumatized by memories of her mother's brutal murder, Olivia hopes her lover will offer a chance at a new life. However, ghostly voices and brutal murders ignite a fiendish, twist-filled story of double identities, deception, and erotic terror.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
›R1988 · Horror, Thriller · 88m · Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris
Ten years after his original massacre, the invalid Michael Myers awakens on Halloween Eve and returns to Haddonfield to kill his seven-year-old niece.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
›R1984 · Horror · 91m · Judie Aronson, Kimberly Beck, Joan Freeman
After his revival in a hospital morgue, Jason fixes his vengeful attention on the Jarvis family and a group of hitherto carefree teenagers.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
›R1986 · Horror, Comedy · 100m · Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow
A radio host is victimised by the notorious cannibal family while a former Texas Marshal hunts them.

Leviathan
›R1989 · Adventure, Horror, Thriller · 98m · Peter Weller, Richard Crenna, Amanda Pays
Underwater deep-sea miners encounter a Soviet wreck and bring back a dangerous cargo to their base on the ocean floor with horrifying results. The crew of the mining base must fight to survive against a genetic mutation that hunts them down one by one.

The Slumber Party Massacre
›R1982 · Horror, Comedy · 76m · Michele Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villella
Trish invites her high school basketball teammates over for a night they'll never forget when an unexpected guest crashes the party: an escaped psychopath with a portable power drill.

C.H.U.D.
›R1984 · Horror, Science Fiction · 96m · John Heard, Daniel Stern, Christopher Curry
A rash of bizarre murders in New York City seems to point to a group of grotesquely deformed vagrants living in the sewers. A courageous policeman, a photojournalist and his girlfriend, and a nutty bum, who seems to know a lot about the creatures, band together to try and determine what the creatures are and how to stop them.

Xtro
›R1982 · Science Fiction, Horror · 86m · Philip Sayer, Bernice Stegers, Danny Brainin
Tony's father Sam, abducted by aliens three years earlier, returns to earth and seeks out his wife and son, but Rachel has since been living with Joe and the reunion is awkward. Joe doesn't trust Sam, and Rachel can't quite decide what her feelings are for her two men. Sam is not the same as when he left, and he begins affecting Tony in frightening ways.

High Spirits
›PG-131988 · Fantasy, Comedy, Horror · 99m · Peter O'Toole, Daryl Hannah, Steve Guttenberg
When a hotelier attempts to fill the chronic vacancies at his castle by launching an advertising campaign that falsely portrays the property as haunted, two actual ghosts show up and end up falling for two guests.

Happy Birthday to Me
›R1981 · Horror, Mystery · 110m · Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Lawrence Dane
Virginia is proud that she belongs to a clique. The best students at a private school. But before her 18th birthday, a gruesome set of murders take place and her friends are the ones who are falling prey. Could it be her? She suffers from blackouts due to a freak accident one year earlier. We soon learn the truth behind her accident and what is going on.

Deadly Blessing
›R1981 · Horror, Thriller · 104m · Maren Jensen, Sharon Stone, Susan Buckner
When a former member of a religious cult dies in a mysterious accident, Martha, who now lives alone and close to the cult's church, begins to fear for her life and the lives of her visiting friends.

Hell Night
›R1981 · Horror, Thriller · 101m · Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Peter Barton
As an initiation rite into Alpha Sigma Rho fraternity, four pledges must spend a night in Garth Manor, twelve years to the day after the previous resident murdered his entire family.

Crimewave
›PG-131985 · Comedy, Crime, Horror · 83m · Reed Birney, Louise Lasser, Sheree J. Wilson
A pair of whacked-out cartoon-like exterminator/hitmen kill the owner of a burglar-alarm company, and stalk the partner who hired them, his wife, and a nerd framed for the murder, who tells the story in flashback from the electric chair.

The Exterminator
›R1980 · Action, Crime, Drama · 98m · Robert Ginty, Christopher George, Samantha Eggar
When a man's best friend is killed on the streets of New York, he transforms into a violent killer, turning New York into a war zone.

The Sword and the Sorcerer
›R1982 · Action, Adventure, Fantasy · 100m · Lee Horsley, Kathleen Beller, Simon MacCorkindale
A mercenary with a three-bladed sword rediscovers his royal heritage when he is recruited to help a princess foil a brutal tyrant and a powerful sorcerer's plans to conquer the land.

Nightmare Beach
›R1989 · Horror, Thriller · 90m · Nicolas De Toth, Sarah Buxton, Rawley Valverde
In Miami, Florida, biker gang leader Edward "Diablo" Santer is about to be executed for murder when he proclaims his innocence and vows revenge from the grave. When a mysterious biker comes to town during Spring Break festivities, leaving several teenagers electrocuted to death, some begin to suspect that Santer has made good on his promise.
