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
The Unnamable
›R1988 · Horror · 87m · Charles Klausmeyer, Mark Kinsey Stephenson, Alexandra Durrell
Students from Miskatonic University decide to spend the night in the Winthrop house, a spot widely believed to have been haunted for the past 300 years, ever since Joshua Winthrop was horribly murdered and mutilated by the hideous creature born of his wife.
Night of the Demon
›R1980 · Horror · 96m · Michael Cutt, Paul Kelleher, Melanie Graham
An anthropology professor and his students attempt to track down a Bigfoot responsible for a rash of violent murders, only to uncover something even more sinister.
The Terror Within
›1989 · Horror, Science Fiction · 90m · George Kennedy, Andrew Stevens, Starr Andreeff
Experiments in biological warfare have destroyed all but a few remnants of the human race. Alone in a lab, eight students work feverishly to create a vaccine before they are forced outside in search for food. It is then that the surviving scientists discover creatures mutated by the plague. Now they prepare to do battle against their worst fear: The Terror Within.
Mountaintop Motel Massacre
›R1983 · Horror, Thriller · 96m · Anna Chappell, Bill Thurman, Will Mitchel
After several years in an insane asylum, Evelyn, the keeper of the Mountaintop Motel, is released and resumes doing business. She kills her young charge out of anger, but convinces the police it was an accident - and pushed into insanity, she then proceeds to target her guests, first by releasing vermin into their rooms, but then by using her trusty sickle.
Blood Harvest
›1987 · Horror · 88m · Tiny Tim, Itonia Salchek, Dean West
A college student returns home to find her parents missing, and their home vandalized. Soon, matters take a turn for the worse, when she finds herself stalked, and her friends disappearing one by one.
Frightmare
›1983 · Horror, Comedy · 86m · Ferdy Mayne, Luca Bercovici, Nita Talbot
Drama students decide to pay tribute to their favorite horror star by stealing his body from his crypt for a farewell party. They fail to realize their violation of the tomb has triggered powerful black magic, and Conrad hasn't taken his final bows yet.
The Aftermath
›NR1982 · Action, Adventure, Science Fiction · 95m · Steve Barkett, Lynne Margulies, Sid Haig
After a lengthy space mission, two astronauts return to an Earth transformed by nuclear war. As renegade gangs and mutants rule Los Angeles, the astronauts join two pretty women and a couple of kids in a growing resistance movement.
Fear No Evil
›R1981 · Horror · 99m · Stefan Arngrim, Elizabeth Hoffman, Kathleen Rowe McAllen
Brilliant and aloof teenager Andrew is always the butt of his classmates' jokes — but little do they know that he is actually the demon Lucifer. As the evil wells up within him, he avenges himself in acts of demonic murder and destruction. But his foe, the archangel Gabriel, has assumed the form of 18 year old student Julie.
Berserker
›R1987 · Horror · 85m · Joseph Alan Johnson, Greg Dawson, Valerie Sheldon
Six young adults in the woods run afoul of a berserker, a viking warrior who dons the fur and snout of a bear, and are slain in turn by him.
Girls School Screamers
›R1986 · Horror, Mystery · 86m · Mollie O'Mara, Sharon Christopher, Beth O'Malley
Seven girls from the local Catholic school are chosen to go inventory the Wells estate. It sounds like a fun weekend until the girls hold a séance to try and contact Jennifer Wells, a 20-year-old who died mysteriously on the grounds in 1939. Their weekend gets even stranger when it is revealed one of the girls, Jackie, is a dead ringer for the deceased.
My Mom's a Werewolf
›PG1989 · Comedy, Horror · 88m · Susan Blakely, John Saxon, Tina Caspary
The frustrated housewife Leslie visits an animal shop to purchase a flea-collar. Unknowing that the owner is a werewolf, she accepts his invitation to lunch and later in his apartment. Through a bite in her toe he starts her slow transformation in a werewolf. Home again, she desperately tries to hide the often disgusting process from her family, but her daughter Jennifer and her - from horror magazines well educated - friend recognize what's going on, and help to kill the non-human.
The House Where Evil Dwells
›R1982 · Horror · 88m · Edward Albert, Susan George, Doug McClure
At the prompting of his diplomat friend, Alex, writer Ted Fletcher takes his wife, Laura, and daughter, Amy, on an extended working holiday. Alex finds a house for them in Kyoto, Japan, and the Fletchers move in, laughing off rumors that the place is haunted. But the ghost of 19th-century samurai Shigero turns out to be very real, and is intent on making the family re-enact an ancient murder-suicide.
Death Screams
›1982 · Horror · 88m · Susan Kiger, Martin Tucker, William T. Hicks
Late one night, a young couple are brutally murdered at a make-out spot by an unseen assailant, their bodies tossed into the nearby river. As the lifeless lovers drift slowly downstream, the residents of the town excitedly prepare themselves for their annual carnival, unaware that a machete-wielding maniac with a twisted grudge is lurking in their midst. When a group of teen revellers plan a late-night after party down in the local cemetery, they unwittingly set the stage for a bloodbath.
Spasms
›R1983 · Horror, Science Fiction · 90m · Peter Fonda, Oliver Reed, Kerrie Keane
A gigantic serpent is captured on a remote island and shipped to an American college for experimentation.
Ghost Chase
›PG1987 · Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction · 90m · Jason Lively, Tim McDaniel, Jill Whitlow
In an old Hollywood mansion, the spirit of an old family retainer inhabits an old grandfather clock. When a movie company uses the mansion for a film, the spirit inhabits the body of an alien and persuades the two filmmakers to track down an old house that will resolve a family scandal.
Blood Tracks
›1985 · Horror · 89m · Jeff Harding, Michael Fitzpatrick, Naomi Kaneda
A film crew producing a rock music video decides to shoot at an abandoned factory above the snow line. When an avalanche strands them, a murderous family living in the factory attacks and kills many of them.
Dracula's Widow
›R1988 · Horror, Thriller · 86m · Sylvia Kristel, Josef Sommer, Lenny Von Dohlen
Dracula's wife, Vanessa, comes back to life and attacks Raymond who has a waxworks museum, where he displays notorious monsters and murderers.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child
›R1989 · Horror, Thriller · 89m · Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Erika Anderson
The pregnant Alice finds Freddy Krueger striking through the sleeping mind of her unborn child, hoping to be reborn into the real world.
Maximum Overdrive
›R1986 · Horror, Action, Science Fiction · 98m · Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington
When a comet passes close to the earth, machines all over the world come alive and go on homicidal rampages. A group of people at a desolate truck stop are held hostage by a gang of murderous 18-wheelers. The frightened people set out to defeat the killer machines…Or be killed by them.
The Fly II
›R1989 · Horror, Science Fiction · 105m · Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga, Lee Richardson
Martin Brundle, born of the human/fly, is adopted by his father's place of employment (Bartok Inc.) while the employees simply wait for his mutant chromosomes to come out of their dormant state.
DeepStar Six
›R1989 · Action, Horror, Thriller · 99m · Taurean Blacque, Nancy Everhard, Greg Evigan
The crew of an experimental underwater nuclear base are forced to struggle for their lives when their explorations disturb a creature who threatens to destroy their base.
Galaxy of Terror
›R1981 · Action, Adventure, Horror · 81m · Edward Albert, Erin Moran, Ray Walston
As a lone spaceship proceeds on its long voyage across space, the crew are surprised to encounter a strange pyramid form. Surprise turns to horror as one by one, they discover that their darkest nightmares are all starting to become real. The pyramid has to be behind it all somehow, but how can they save themselves from its influence?
TerrorVision
›R1986 · Horror, Science Fiction, Comedy · 85m · Diane Franklin, Gerrit Graham, Mary Woronov
After Stanley Putterman installs a state-of-the-art satellite dish in his backyard, a strange monster leaps off the screen and needs to feed on humans for survival. The Putterman children Sherman and Suzy—along with Suzy's metalhead boyfriend O.D.—are left to figure out what to do.
Madman
›R1981 · Horror, Thriller · 89m · Gaylen Ross, Tony Nunziata, Harriet Bass
Madman Marz, an old folklore legend who murdered his family before escaping into the woods, is inadvertently summoned to a campsite to finish the spree he started decades ago.
