The 1980s proved to be the most prolific decade for the horror genre of any that came before it. So many varied subgenres of the horror film came to fruition and flourished during this time. Directors like John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Tobe Hooper made box office hits and 80s horror classics, with films such as The Fog, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and The Funhouse.
But not all 80s horror gems were big hits. Some weren't discovered until they hit the home video market. Inside this video-wonderland are buried treasures of 80s horror cinema that deserve mention.
Dead End Drive-In (1986)
Low budget filmmaker Brian Trenchard-Smith created this undervalued gem with screenwriter Peter Smalley. In the future, a young couple becomes trapped in a drive-in theater that is overrun by new wave-punk rock youths hopped up on music, drugs and films.
The film takes a cue from George Miller's Mad Max and John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13. Its post-apocalyptic look adds to the atmospheric quality and the horror-tinged action and suspenseful scenes make this one of the great unsung treasures of 80s horror.
Monkey Shines (1988)
George A. Romero's Monkey Shines was a studio-backed project that should have received a wider release. The tale of a paraplegic man whose care-animal turns on him is a tight and scary horror film.
Romero gets a lot of Hitchcockian tension from his animal horror homage to Rear Window. This is a film where the horror is a slow build, occasionally jolting the viewer with a shock until the final act revs up the horror to an unbearable tension. Unfortunately, the studio barely released the film and moved it quickly from the few theaters in which it played to home video.
Just Before Dawn (1981)
Teens in the woods are hunted by killers who wield machetes. Jeff Lieberman's slasher film is an obvious cash-in on the massive success of Friday the 13th, one year earlier, and certainly pays homage to Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes when it comes to the killers. Yet, the director makes his film fun and creative, allowing it to stand on its own.
Oscar-winner George Kennedy adds gravitas as a park ranger who warns the youths to steer clear of the area. The tension works and a few of the kills are creative, making Just Before Dawn an undervalued 80s horror gem.
Lair Of The White Worm (1988)
No one but director Ken Russell could have brought Bram Stoker's underrated novel Lair of the White Worm to the screen with such flair and originality. The film centers around an ancient curse that is unleashed after an archeologist discovers a skull.
Amanda Donohoe is the wealthy woman who reveals herself to be a vampire-like creature who worships the unleashed demon, a giant white worm. Hugh Grant and Peter Capaldi do solid early work and director Russell keeps things moving, mixing campiness, eroticism, and real chills. The film is a buried treasure of a British horror film.
Spookies (1986)
1986's Spookies is a mess, but also a film to be treasured. Producer Michael Lee hired Thomas Doran and Brendan Faulkner to direct the movie, but when their almost three-hour final cut was shown to studio executives, the directors were fired from the project. Director Genie Joseph was then hired to add segments and piece together his work with scenes the former directors had shot and get the running time to around 90 minutes.
While its current state is mostly jumbled and incoherent, the film has an 80s horror charm. The practical effects are fantastic and there are more monsters and demons than horror fans could dream of. The film never knows what it wants to be but its wild story of a young boy being buried alive in the woods (which leads to a haunted mansion, a necromancer, and zombie attacks) ultimately entertains.
Paperhouse (1988)
Candyman director Bernard Rose crafted this unique and creepy British horror film about a young girl who visits a strange boy who lives within a dream-like house that she drew in her sketchbook. The screenplay by Matthew Jacobs was based on Catherine Storr’s book, Marianne Dreams.
The visual palette of the film is quite stunning and the eerie atmosphere keeps viewers infused with an uneasy feeling. Rose's film allows its audience to experience the link between the dream world and our waking lives and brings to light the palpable vividness of childhood fears.
Deadly Blessing (1981)
Perhaps Wes Craven's most underseen film, 1981's Deadly Blessing tells of a widow who lives near a creepy group of Hittites, led by Ernest Borgnine. The woman and her friends begin to have nightmares that lead to murders.
Outstanding cinematography and an extremely eerie score create the proper horror mood. This film was a box office failure and is rarely talked about when discussing Wes Craven's filmography but it is an underrated horror film from one of its masters that works and holds more than enough scares to please genre fans.
Intruder (1989)
One of the unsung slasher films of the 1980s, Scott Speigel's Intruder tells of the overnight staff in a supermarket who are stalked by a killer. Sounds silly but it works.
Sadly sent straight to home video, this is a tremendous example of a great slasher film. Speigel co-wrote The Evil Dead with Sam Raimi and gives him a good role here and the director's penchant for extreme and over-the-top gore works 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 film was his adaptation of the F. Paul Wilson's horror novel The Keep. During WWII, inside a castle in the Carpathian Mountains, a monstrous evil is killing the invading Nazi forces. Scott Glenn and Ian McKellan give strange early career performances, while Gabriel Byrne plays a vicious Gestapo leader.
While the narrative is muddled due to Mann's 2 hour and 45-minute cut being sliced by the studio to only 96 minutes, the film has much to love. The production design is some of the most darkly beautiful in cinema history. Mann's world is one of smoke and burning reds and greys, cloaking the film in an undeniably eerie atmosphere. Tangerine Dream's electronic score is an ambient classic and gives the film 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 to Friday the 13th, but The Burning is effective and creepy.
A killer at a summer camp murders a group of teenage campers. Tom Savini's gore effects are classic examples of how well practical makeup can work. The cast included debuts from Jason Alexander and Oscar winner Holly Hunter and each gives a performance perhaps unworthy of low budget horror. The film is exciting and full of tense moments of slasher horror.