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The 1980s proved to be the most fecund decennary for the horror genre of any that came before it . So many wide-ranging subgenres of the horror pic number to fruition and flourished during this time . Directors like John Carpenter , Wes Craven , and Tobe Hooper made box office hits and80s horror classic , with films such asThe Fog , A Nightmare On Elm Street , andThe Funhouse .
But not all 80s horror gems were bighearted hit . Some were n’t discovered until they polish off the home video mart . Inside this video - wonderland are buried gem of LXXX repugnance movie theatre that deserve mention .
Dead End Drive-In (1986)
humiliated budget filmmaker Brian Trenchard - Smith created this undervalued gemstone with screenwriter Peter Smalley . In the futurity , a young couple becomes trapped in a drive - in theater that is invade by raw undulation - punk rock candy young hopped up on music , drugs and films .
The movie takes a clew from George Miller’sMad Maxand John Carpenter’sAssault on Precinct 13 . Its post - apocalyptic tone impart to the atmospheric quality and the horror - color action and nail-biting scenes make this one of the greatunsung treasures of 80s horror .
Monkey Shines (1988)
George A. Romero’sMonkey Shineswas a studio - backed project that should have received a extensive release . The tale of a paraplegic man whose care - animal turn on him is a tight and scary revulsion celluloid .
Romero gets a lot of Hitchcockian tenseness from his beast horror homage toRear Window . This is a film where the horror is a dull shape , at times jolting the looker with a seismic disturbance until the last act rev up the revulsion to an intolerable stress . regrettably , the studio barely release the film and moved it cursorily from the few theaters in which it played to habitation picture .
Just Before Dawn (1981)
Teens in the woods are hunt by killer whale who wield machete . Jeff Lieberman ’s slasher celluloid is an obvious cash - in on the monolithic success ofFriday the 13th , one year earlier , and certainly pays homage to Wes Craven’sThe Hills Have Eyeswhen it come to the killer . Yet , the director makes his film fun and originative , allowing it to stand on its own .
Oscar - winner George Kennedy add gravitas as a park fire warden who warns the youths to steer clear-cut of the orbit . The tension works and a few of the kills are originative , makingJust Before Dawnanundervalued 80s horrorgem .
Lair Of The White Worm (1988)
No one but director Ken Russell could have brought Bram Stoker ’s underrated novelLair of the White Wormto the screenland with such elan and originality . The film focus on around an ancient curse that is unleashed after an archeologist discovers a skull .
Amanda Donohoe is the flush woman who uncover herself to be a vampire - like creature who worships the unleashed ogre , a giant snowy louse . Hugh Grant and Peter Capaldi do square other body of work and conductor Russell keeps things moving , mixing campiness , eroticism , and real chills . The film is aburied gem of a British revulsion film .
Spookies (1986)
1986’sSpookiesis a great deal , but also a film to be prize . Producer Michael Lee hired Thomas Doran and Brendan Faulkner to direct the movie , but when their almost three - hour final slice was shown to studio executive , the theater director were arouse from the project . Director Genie Joseph was then hired to add segments and piece together his piece of work with scenes the former directors had shot and get the running time to around 90 minutes .
While its current country is mostly jumbled and tongue-tied , the film has an 80 repulsion magic spell . The practical effects are wild and there are more ogre and demons than horror fans could dream of . The film never knows what it wants to be but its wild story of a young male child being inhume live in the woods ( which leads to a haunted star sign , a necromancer , andzombie fire ) at last entertains .
Paperhouse (1988)
Candymandirector Bernard Rose craft this unique andcreepy British horror filmabout a young girl who visits a unusual boy who live within a dream - like house that she drew in her sketchbook . The screenplay by Matthew Jacobs was base on Catherine Storr ’s book , Marianne Dreams .
The visual palette of the film is quite arresting and the eery atm save viewers infused with an uneasy feeling . Rose ’s film give up its audience to experience the link between the ambition world and our waking lives and make for to light the tangible vividness of childhood fears .
Deadly Blessing (1981)
Perhaps Wes Craven ’s most underseen film , 1981’sDeadly Blessingtells of a widow who last near a creepy group of Hittites , moderate by Ernest Borgnine . The woman and her champion begin to have nightmares that direct to murders .
Outstanding filming and an highly eerie score make the right horror temper . This film was a box office failure and is rarely talked about when discussing Wes Craven ’s filmography but it isan underrated horror film from one of its mastersthat forge and hold more than enough scares to please genre lover .
Intruder (1989)
One of the unsung slasher films of the eighties , Scott Speigel’sIntrudertells of the overnight staff in a supermarket who are stalk by a killer . Sounds empty-headed but it work .
deplorably send direct to family video , this is a tremendous example of agreat slasher film . Speigel co - wroteThe Evil Deadwith Sam Raimi and gives him a good character here and the director ’s penchant for uttermost and over - the - top gore work out well . This is an imaginative and wildly inventive slasher film that has a sense of humor but stays away from becoming a parody .
The Keep (1983)
Master filmmaker Michael Mann ’s second celluloid was his adjustment of the F. Paul Wilson ’s horror novelThe Keep . During WWII , inside a palace in the Carpathian Mountains , a monstrous evil is killing the invasive Nazi forces . Scott Glenn and Ian McKellan give strange early life history performances , while Gabriel Byrne plays a deplorable Gestapo loss leader .
While the narrative is muddled due to Mann ’s 2 time of day and 45 - minute cut being sliced by the studio to only 96 minute , the film has much to get it on . The production design is some of the most darkly beautiful in picture palace story . Mann ’s world is one of smoke and burning reds and grey , cloaking the film in an undeniably eery atmosphere . Tangerine Dream ’s electronic mark is an ambient classic and gives the celluloid an unshakeable aura of macabre .
The Burning (1981)
One of the top slasher films of the 1980s is one of the least known . It was probably ignored due to its obvious comparisons toFriday the 13th , butThe Burningis good and creepy .
A killer at a summer refugee camp murders a group of adolescent campers . Tom Savini ’s gore effects are classic object lesson of how well practical makeup can turn . The cast included debuts from Jason Alexander and Oscar winner Holly Hunter and each break a carrying into action perhaps wretched of low budget horror . The film is exciting and full of tense moments of slasher repulsion .
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