Top 50 Horror Movies Of The 1980's
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1.
The Evil Dead
(1981)
Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons. (85 mins.)
Director: Sam Raimi
2.
An American Werewolf in London
(1981)
Two American tourists in Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists. (97 mins.)
Director: John Landis
3.
The Thing
(1982)
Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people that it kills. (109 mins.)
Director: John Carpenter
4.
The Fog
(1980)
A Northern California fishing town, built 100 years ago over an old leper colony, is the target for revenge by a killer fog containing zombie-like ghosts seeking revenge for their deaths. (89 mins.)
Director: John Carpenter
5.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
(1984)
In the dreams of his victims, a spectral child murderer stalks the children of the members of the lynch mob that killed him. (91 mins.)
Director: Wes Craven
6.
The Return of the Living Dead
(1985)
When a bumbling pair of employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a deadly gas into the air... (91 mins.)
Director: Dan O'Bannon
7.
Demons
(1985)
A group of people are trapped in a large West Berlin movie theater infected by ravenous demons whom proceed to kill and posses the humans one-by-one thereby multiplying their numbers. (88 mins.)
Director: Lamberto Bava
8.
Evil Dead II
(1987)
The lone survivor of an onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits holds up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack. (84 mins.)
Director: Sam Raimi
9.
Hellraiser
(1987)
An unfaithful wife encounters the zombie of her dead lover, who's being chased by demons after he escaped from their sado-masochistic Hell. (94 mins.)
Director: Clive Barker
10.
Videodrome
(1983)
A sleazy cable-TV programmer begins to see his life and the future of media spin out of control in a very unusual fashion when he acquires a new kind of programming for his station. (87 mins.)
Director: David Cronenberg
11.
The Burning
(1981)
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. (91 mins.)
Director: Tony Maylam
12.
The Howling
(1981)
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. (91 mins.)
Director: Joe Dante
13.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
(1984)
After being mortally wounded and taken to the morgue, murderer Jason Voorhees spontaneously revives and embarks on a killing spree as he makes his way back to his home at Crystal Lake. (91 mins.)
Director: Joseph Zito
14.
The Shining
(1980)
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
15.
Society
(1989)
Bill is worried that he is 'different' to his sister and parents. They mix with other 'upper class' people while Bill is more down to earth... (99 mins.)
Director: Brian Yuzna
16.
The Hitcher
(1986)
A young man who escaped the clutches of a murderous hitch-hiker is subsequently stalked, framed for the hitcher's crimes, and has his life made into hell by the same man he escaped. (97 mins.)
Director: Robert Harmon
17.
Aliens
(1986)
The planet from Alien has been colonized, but contact is lost. This time, the rescue team has impressive firepower, but will it be enough? (137 mins.)
Director: James Cameron
18.
Pumpkinhead
(1988)
A man conjures up a gigantic vengeance demon called Pumpkinhead to destroy the teenagers who accidentally killed his son. (86 mins.)
Director: Stan Winston
19.
Gremlins
(1984)
A boy inadvertantly breaks 3 important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town. (106 mins.)
Director: Joe Dante
20.
Just Before Dawn
(1981)
Five campers arrive in the mountains to examine some property they have bought, but are warned by the... (90 mins.)
Director: Jeff Lieberman
21.
The Dead Zone
(1983)
A man awakens from a coma to discover he has a psychic detective ability. (103 mins.)
Director: David Cronenberg
22.
Bad Taste
(1987)
The population of a small town disappears and is replaced by aliens that chase human flesh for their intergalactic fast-food chain. (91 mins.)
Director: Peter Jackson
23.
Night of the Creeps
(1986)
Alien brain parasites, entering humans through the mouth, turn their host into a killing zombie. Some teenagers start to fight against them. (88 mins.)
Director: Fred Dekker
24.
Near Dark
(1987)
A young man reluctantly joins a travelling "family" of evil vampires, when the girl he'd tried to seduce is part of that group. (94 mins.)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
25.
Scanners
(1981)
A scientist sends a man with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him. (103 mins.)
Director: David Cronenberg
26.
Re-Animator
(1985)
A dedicated student at a medical college and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue when an odd new student arrives on campus.
Director: Stuart Gordon
27.
Fright Night
(1985)
When a teenager learns that his next door neighbour is a vampire, no one will believe him. (106 mins.)
Director: Tom Holland
28.
The Fly
(1986)
A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong. (96 mins.)
Director: David Cronenberg
29.
Poltergeist
(1982)
A family's home is haunted by a host of ghosts. (114 mins.)
Director: Tobe Hooper
30.
The Prowler
(1981)
A masked killer, wearing World War II U.S. Army fatigues, stalks a small New Jersey town bent on reliving a 35-year-old double murder by focusing on a group of college kids holding an annual Spring Dance. (89 mins.)
Director: Joseph Zito
31.
Demons 2
(1986)
A group of tenants and visitors are trapped in a 10-story high-rise apartment building infested with demons who proceed to hunt the dwindling humans down. (91 mins.)
Director: Lamberto Bava
32.
StageFright: Aquarius
(1987)
A troupe of struggling stage actors is rehearsing for a small-town production of a play. Everything... (90 mins.)
Director: Michael Soavi
33.
The Slumber Party Massacre
(1982)
An eighteen-year-old high school girl is left at home by her parents and she decides to have a slumber party... (77 mins.)
Director: Amy Jones
34.
Basket Case
(1982)
A young man carrying a big basket that contains his deformed Siamese-twin brother seeks vengeance on the doctors who separated them against their will. (91 mins.)
Director: Frank Henenlotter
35.
Q
(1982)
New York police are bemused by a spate of reports of a giant flying lizard that has been spotted around the rooftops of New York... (93 mins.)
Director: Larry Cohen
36.
Tenebre
(1982)
An American writer in Rome is stalked by a serial killer bent on harassing him while killing all people associated with his work on his latest book. (110 mins.)
Director: Dario Argento
37.
April Fool's Day
(1986)
A group of nine college students staying at a friend's remote island mansion begin to fall victim to an unseen murderer over the April Fool's day weekend. (89 mins.)
Director: Fred Walton
38.
Superstition
(1982)
A witch put to death in 1692 swears vengeance on her persecutors and returns to the present day to punish their descendants.
Director: James W. Roberson
39.
Children of the Corn
(1984)
A young couple is trapped in a remote town where a dangerous religious cult of children believe everyone over the age of 18 must be killed. (92 mins.)
Director: Fritz Kiersch
40.
The Beyond
(1981)
A young woman inherits an old hotel in Louisiana where after a series of supernatural 'accidents', she learns that the building was built over one of the entrances to Hell. (87 mins.)
Director: Lucio Fulci
41.
Night of the Demons
(1988)
On the night of Halloween, 10 teens decide to go to a party at an abandoned funeral parlor. "Hull House"... (90 mins.)
Director: Kevin S. Tenney
42.
Christine
(1983)
A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it. (110 mins.)
Director: John Carpenter
43.
The Funhouse
(1981)
Four teenage friends spent the night in a carnival funhouse and are stalked by a deformed man in a frankenstein mask. (96 mins.)
Director: Tobe Hooper
44.
Day of the Dead
(1985)
A small group of military officers and scientists dwell in an underground bunker as the world above is overrun by zombies. (102 mins.)
Director: George A. Romero
45.
The Keep
(1983)
Nazis guard a citadel that harbors a dangerous force that starts wreaking havoc and death upon them, forcing an uneasy alliance with a Jewish professional who can stop it. (96 mins.)
Director: Michael Mann
46.
Razorback
(1984)
A wild, vicious pig terrorizes the Australian outback. The first victim is a small child who is killed... (95 mins.)
Director: Russell Mulcahy
47.
Critters
(1986)
A race of small, furry aliens make lunch out of the locals in a farming town. (82 mins.)
Director: Stephen Herek
48.
City of the Living Dead
(1980)
A reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from the grave. (93 mins.)
Director: Lucio Fulci
49.
Alone in the Dark
(1982)
A quartet of murderous psychopaths break out of a mental hospital during a power blackout and lay siege to their doctor's house. (92 mins.)
Director: Jack Sholder
50.
Wacko
(1982)
Cops try to track down the infamous "Lawnmower Killer." (90 mins.)
Director: Greydon Clark
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