Ahh, the ’80s. What a decade. Mullets were cool, yo-yos were a thing, shoulder pads made even the most beautiful girl look peculiarly repellent, and half the globe strutted their stuff with a ghetto-blaster on their shoulder and a Game Boy in their back pocket. Happy days.
The ’80s were bodacious, and would probably be the first place most folks visit when time travel finally gets invented (come on, Doc!). But it wasn’t solely a decade of dodgy fashion sense, incredible music and the mass market explosion of video games — it was arguably the creative zenith of modern horror movies, too; a perfect storm of enhanced special visual effects, cheap production costs, great box office numbers, and a swelling matinee culture’s ravenous appetite for more, more, more.
So, we’ve decided to do what we did recently for ’90s horror flicks, but instead re-focus on the ’80s. It’s time for WGTC to wrestle the age old question: What were the best horror movies from the ’80s?
Before we get to the list, we’d like to touch on a few honourable mentions that didn’t quite make the final cut: The Lost Boys and Gremlins are charming, quintessential, more family-orientated horror-comedy entries into the genre; John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness and George Romero’s Day of the Dead are smart, creepy cult-classic gems, and An American Werewolf In London and The Blob blend body horror with a dash of cheesy black humour to captivatingly great effect. Also, James Cameron’s incredible sci-fi sequel Aliens is an absolute masterpiece, but leans a little too heavily into the action to warrant an entry on this horror-focused list. And finally, Child’s Play kept us up for nights on end, but it sadly doesn’t quite stand as tall with more modern, mature eyes.
So, come join us as we take a trip down memory lane to the excessive and extraordinary heights of the ’80s. Just, like, don’t forget to bring a Rubick’s Cube and your most gnarly, totally radical headband for the ride, yeah…