
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

Blood Sisters
›R1987 · Horror, Thriller · 86m · Amy Brentano, Shannon McMahon Lichte, Daniel Erickson
Seven girls must spend the night in an old house, which once was a brothel, as part of an initiation.

I Was a Teenage Zombie
›1987 · Comedy, Horror · 91m · Michael Rubin, Steve McCoy, George Seminara
A high-school student and a drug pusher land in a nuclear-wasted river and come out zombies.

A Return to Salem's Lot
›R1987 · Horror, Comedy · 100m · Michael Moriarty, Samuel Fuller, Andrew Duggan
Anthropologist Joe Weber takes his son on a trip to the New England town of Salem's Lot, unaware of its vampire population. When the inhabitants reveal their secret, they seek Weber to write a bible for them.

Return of the Killer Tomatoes!
›PG1988 · Comedy, Horror, Science Fiction · 98m · Anthony Starke, George Clooney, Karen M. Waldron
Crazy old Professor Gangreen has developed a way to make tomatoes look human for a second invasion.

Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland
›R1989 · Comedy, Horror · 79m · Pamela Springsteen, Tracy Griffith, Michael J. Pollard
Psychotic Angela is itching to do what she does best: slaughter dozens of teenage campers. As luck would have it, the previous site of her murders has been renamed and converted into an experimental summer camp meant to bring together privileged and lower-class teens. On the day the youths are boarding the buses to camp, Angela runs over a potential camper with a garbage truck and assumes her identity. Once she has infiltrated the camp, the real terror begins.

Slaughter High
›R1986 · Horror · 91m · Caroline Munro, Simon Scuddamore, Carmine Iannaccone
Eight different people are invited to their 10-year high school reunion at their now-closed down high school where a former student, disfigured from a prank gone wrong, is there to seek revenge.

The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie
›R1989 · Action, Comedy, Horror · 102m · Ron Fazio, John Altamura, Phoebe Legere
Desperate to raise money for the experimental surgery that could restore his blind fiancee's eyesight, Toxie accepts a lucrative job with the evil multinational conglomerate Apocalypse Inc.

976-EVIL
›R1988 · Horror · 92m · Stephen Geoffreys, Patrick O'Bryan, Sandy Dennis
A bullied unpopular high school student named Hoax finds an ad for 976-EVIL, a number that provides daily 'horrorscopes'. But when he calls the number he gains demonic powers, which he uses to seek vengeance against those who bullied him.

The Boogey Man
›R1980 · Horror · 82m · Suzanna Love, Ron James, John Carradine
A young girl witnesses the brutal murder of her stepfather at the hands of her brother, by mirror reflection. Years later, when the mirror is accidentally shattered, a dark and vengeful curse is unleashed on the family, and anyone unlucky enough to come into contact with its shards falls victim to heinous murder.

Creature
›R1985 · Science Fiction, Horror · 97m · Stan Ivar, Wendy Schaal, Lyman Ward
A crew of scientists arrives on a far, cold planet to examine archaic artifacts of unknown origin. They discover that their German enemies already have a ship there. When they seek their help after a failed landing, they only find the Germans’ bodies, obviously slaughtered by one of the archaic creatures, awoken to new life. Now the alien is after them.

Nightbeast
›R1982 · Horror, Science Fiction · 81m · Tom Griffith, Jamie Zemarel, Karin Kardian
A creature from outer space, nightbeast, crash lands in Baltimore and starts a killing spree that quickly escelates.

Redneck Zombies
›NR1987 · Horror, Comedy · 90m · Lisa M. DeHaven, William E. Benson, William Decker
A barrel of radioactive waste is lost out in the woods. Some demented rednecks find it and use it as part of their still. Everybody who drinks from the liquor they produced turns into a zombie.

Night Game
›R1989 · Horror, Drama, Thriller · 95m · Roy Scheider, Karen Young, Richard Bradford
A police detective tracks a serial killer who is stalking young women on a beach front after each game that a baseball pitcher wins.

Bloodeaters
›R1980 · Horror · 89m · Charles McCrann, Beverly Shapiro, Dennis Helfend
After drug crops are sprayed with a chemical by a passing airplane, the growers of the crop are poisoned by the chemical and turn into zombie-like mutants.

Dawn of the Mummy
›1981 · Horror · 93m · Brenda Siemer Scheider, Barry Sattels, George Peck
A group of fashion models disturb the tomb of a mummy and revive an ancient curse. Along with the mummy rising, slaves who were buried in the desert thousands of years before, also rise, with a craving for human flesh.

The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu
›PG1980 · Comedy, Horror, Crime · 108m · Peter Sellers, Helen Mirren, David Tomlinson
Fu Manchu's 168th birthday celebration is dampened when a hapless flunky spills Fu's age-regressing elixir vitae. Fu sends his lackeys to round up ingredients for a new batch of elixir, starting with the Star of Leningrad diamond, nabbed from a Soviet exhibition in Washington. The FBI sends agents Capone and Williams to England to confer with Nayland Smith, an expert on Fu.

Chopper Chicks in Zombietown
›R1989 · Comedy, Horror · 86m · Jamie Rose, Catherine Carlen, Lycia Naff
Riding around on their motorbikes, a gang of tough women bikers are the only thing that stands between a crowd of zombies, which have been accidentally let out of their secure cave, and those still alive in the town.

Boardinghouse
›R1982 · Horror · 88m · John Wintergate, Kalassu, Alexandra Day
A boarding house is reopened years after gruesome murders were committed there. Suddenly, the body count begins once more!

A Night to Dismember
›NR1983 · Horror · 69m · Samantha Fox, Diane Cummins, Saul Meth
A woman from a "cursed" family is released from a mental facility, and soon dismembered corpses start turning up.

The Tomb
›1986 · Fantasy, Horror · 84m · Cameron Mitchell, John Carradine, Sybil Danning
An Egyptian princess rises from the dead and goes to California for the amulets she needs.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
›R1989 · Horror · 98m · Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell
After lying in a coma for a year, Michael Myers awakens and stalks his way back to his small hometown in Illinois, intent on killing his niece, Jamie, who has been confined to a mental institution since his last attempt to slay her.

Transylvania 6-5000
›PG1985 · Comedy, Horror, Fantasy · 93m · Jeff Goldblum, Joseph Bologna, Ed Begley Jr.
Two reporters travel to a strange castle in Transylvania to investigate the apparent reappearance of Frankenstein, and encounter the sensitive Wolfman, the Vampiress Odette and a whole cast of other weirdos.

Death Ship
›R1980 · Horror, Mystery, Thriller · 91m · George Kennedy, Richard Crenna, Nick Mancuso
Survivors of a tragic shipping collision are rescued by a mysterious black ship which appears out of the fog. Little do they realise that the ship is actually a Nazi torture ship which has sailed the seas for years, luring unsuspecting sailors aboard and killing them off one by one.

Amityville: The Evil Escapes
›R1989 · Horror, TV Movie · 95m · Patty Duke, Jane Wyatt, Fredric Lehne
After moving into their matriarch's gothic seaside mansion, the Evans family soon becomes host to an uninvited demonic force in the form of a mysterious lamp that once resided in the Amityville house.
