80's Horror Recommendations Needed
 

So I'm looking to expand my 80's horror movie collection and would appreciate some recommendations. Some of my favorite movies are Demons 1985 and Demons 2, Night of the Demons, Phantasm, Evil Dead 2, Fright Night, Near Dark 1985 and House 1985.

The Return of the Living Dead?

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Speaking of Rats: Night of Terror I would also reccomend Hell of the Living Dead. It's a zombie movie that is so bad that it's good and those were both made by the same director

First, I'd recommend checking this out. A team of very experienced horror film aficionados put together a list and description of the best (twenty-two) 1980's horror films here in this forum thread (just scroll down to the 80s): http://horror.com/forum/showthread.php?t=63436&page=3


Based on you liking the Demons, you might films from the same or similar Italian directors: The Beyond (1981), Zombi2, Phenomena, Cemetery Man.


But you also liked Evil Dead 2, Fright Night and Near Dark, so I just think you have a good taste in many types of horror, so I'll just give some 80's horror I think you'd like as well:

The Thing (1982)
The Fly (1986)
Scanners (1981)
Poltergeist (1982)
The Howling (1981)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Christine (1983)
The Funhouse (1981)
Aliens (1987)
The Howling (1981)
The Shining (1980)
Re-Animator (1985)
Videodrome (1983)

The Gate
Halloween 3
Silver Bullet
The Wraith
Lost Boys
Pumpkinhead

I heard City of the Living Dead and The Beyond are both good. They're both Italian movies made by Lucio Fulci, the guy who directed Zombie aka Zombi 2.

Some good recommendations and I would like to throw in some of my choices You might enjoy:
THE LADY IN WHITE (1988)
BRAIN DAMAGE (1988)
FRIDAY, THE 13th (1980). An obvious choice and surprised not to see it listed. I still think it holds up well, but the sequels are to be approached very carefully.
NIGHTMARE IN A DAMAGED BRAIN (1981)
CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE (1980) AKA INVASION OF THE FLESH HUNTERS
THE BOOGENS (1981)
DEAD AND BURIED (1981)
HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (1980)
NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (1986)
PSYCHO 3 (1986)
THE TERMINATOR (1984)
ZOMBIE (1980)

Wasn't Zombie made in 1979 which would technically make it a 70's movie?

It was still a great movie though so I highly recommend it too!

A great horror movie ad line
 

I love that line from the ads for Return of the Living Dead:

"They're not angry...They're just hungry!"

Does this date make the movie a 1970s movie?
 

At the end of every century, there is an argument over what year ends the century. One side argues that it is the year ending in one, because the first a.d. year was the Year One (there is no Year Zero) and adding a hundred to that makes a hundred and one.

So if a decade is ten years, you might argue that a movie made in 1980 is 70s movie.

Just a thought.

Yeah I guess so. ::big grin::

But I noticed that some of the people in the movie were wearing very 70's clothing and hairstyles.

yeah, you're right, Zombi2 was released in Italy in late 1979, but the English version was not released until 1980. Pretty nifty retort, eh? So I figured I recommend it anyway. ::big grin::

Very true. I remember growing up it took me awhile to get "the 16th Century" was 1501 to 1600. It just seemed easier to me to have it be 1600-1699, but it's not. (And so on... the 20th Century is 1/1/1901 - 12/31/2000.)

So if you follow that "XXth Century" format, the "80th Decade" would be 81-90.

Reading this, I do recall that ZOMBIE does have a 1979 release date, but I didn't hear of it until 1980, which is why I put it in there::embarrassment::.
A film I forgot to list was 1987's THE STEPFATHER

I LOVE LOVE Jill Schoelen! And I really like Terry O'Quinn. But I didn't think The Stepfather was very good. It caught me at a time where everything in it was just too clique for me. Which is too bad for me, cause I do remember it being technically done well, and I liked the cast.

It's interesting, looking at the reviews on Rottentomatoes, this was the occasion that Roger Ebert decided to write,

Ebert gave it 2.4/4, and I remember watching Ebert and Siskel reviewing it on their At the Movies show, and I'm pretty sure it got two "thumbs down".

On Rottentomatoes this is one of those films that got a much higher Critic rating 86% (29 reviews) than Audience rating 65% (3k reviews). But then the defect in Rottentomatoes rating is its pass/fail (fresh/rotten) system.

6.8/10 rating on IMDB is very solid for a horror film. It may have been I didn't find the film very relatable? Did you have a mixed family? Or whatever the term is for a new parent in the house at some point?

a horror movie's date
 

Besides the clothing and hair styles, another way you can date a horror movie is: The bigger the phones they are using, the older the movie.

Everything is bigger in older movies! TVs, Cars, Phones, Computers, Radios, etc.

I feel like with each passing decade the items we use every day grow smaller and smaller...

What about toothbrushes?

A lot of cool looking titles to work with, I'm going to be watching trailers for a while. Thanks for the recommendations guys!

Cool! Glad we could hip ya to some movies. Let us know which ones you really liked. It's good feedback.

I've heard of that one but I haven't seen it.

Thanks for the recommendations, looks like a good variety! I watched Pieces and I really enjoyed it! Blood Diner looks promising. I've heard of Cannibal Holocaust and I don't think I would care for it much but I'm interested in the other films you have on the list.

Is it also called Escape from the Insane Asylum? I saw a few posters that looked pretty rad. I really like "bad" horror as well- the most recent one I've seen is Shocker by Craven.

I don't think so but it also goes by the titles of "Night of the Zombies", "Zombie Creeping Flesh", and "Virus".

You might like it. It's a very 80's zombie movie about a bunch of punk era teenagers who decide to party in a cemetery where the dead come back to life as zombies. It's kind of like a horror-comedy. ::smile::

Blood Diner is a blast, definitely check it out, especially if you dig the dark comedy elements of movies like Evil Dead, Demons, Dead Alive, etc. Also, if you like over the top slashers like Pieces, Intruder is worth a watch.

Cannibal Holocaust is not for everyone, to be sure, but I tried to throw a variety at you to help narrow down future recommendations.

Have now seen the Gate (I liked it), Silver Bullet (that was really fun), Pumpkinhead was super dope. I didn't know the same team that did the special effects for Alien did Pumpkinhead as well. I saw the Lost Boys a while back and remember liking it. Recently I re-watched the original Halloween but I haven't seen all of the Halloween movies so maybe I'll make a night of it.

Watched update:

The Thing (1982) Really enjoyed the atmosphere and special effects makeup
The Fly (1986) Really well written and well rounded movie
Re-Animator (1985) I had a lot of fun with this one
Videodrome (1983) A very unique experience, I really liked this one as well
The Funhouse (1981) Also enjoyed this one
Aliens (1987) Fun, action packed
The Shining (1980) Good slow burn

Thanks again for all of the recommendations. Now that I have a shudder subscription I can watch them before I buy them which helps me save some money. Although I went to Texas Frightmare and bought a bunch of random Arrow video releases that I had never heard of.

Cool! glad you liked those. Love to see peeps enjoy these classics for the first time, especially The Thing, Fly and Aliens, definitely modern classics.

Videodrome is an odd one, isn't it? The symbolism is right on the surface as far as media experience recreating people, but I'm not quite sure what the ending was trying to say.

Videodrome was an experience for sure. It really did say a lot about being influenced by the media with it's use of very literal body horror. I'm not quite sure what it meant either, I believe I read somewhere that there are 5 different endings.

1980s Horror
 

Alone in the dark (great actors)
An american werewolve in london (The best in its type)
Cats eye
Children of the corn
The hand

George Romero's Day of the Dead

Chopping Mall

I haven't heard of the first one but I'll look it up.

I've heard of An American Werewolf in London but never seen it I'll add it to the list.

Cats eye looks familiar.

Loved Children of the Corn.

I'll have to look up the Hand.

That is on the list - I recently finished Night and Dawn. I really liked Night but I only liked the beginning of Dawn.

I've just recently seen this one - it was really fun! It was super creative with the pratical effects.

There are so many great horror films from the 1980s, it can be hard knowing where to begin! A lot of them have already been mentioned on this threat at one point or another! Some of the lesser mentioned ones that come to mind are The Dead Zone, Christine, C.H.U.D., The Children(1980), Curse Of The Cannibal Confederates, Umberto Lenzi's Eaten Alive, Ghoulies series, Munchies, Nightbreed, Near Dark, The Burning, Humongous, The Initiation, The Babysitter(William Shatner), April Fool's Day, Dead Pit, Crash and Burn, Full Moon's Oblivion, Scanners, Trancers, The Willies, Dead Time Stories, Terrorgram, Spookies, Wolfen, Nightmare(1981), The Boogey Man, Home Sweet Home, Blood Diner, Night Of The Creeps, Terror Vision, Surf Nazis Must Die, Zombie Island Massacre, The Newlydeads, Shadow Zone, Critters, The Kiss, Alligator, Dark Night Of The Scarecrow, Prince Of Darkness, The Serpent And The Rainbow, Cellar Dwellar, to name a few! ::EEK!::