Horror movies are a little like grocery stores–through good times and bad, people will always turn to them. That doesn’t mean that the genre doesn’t grow and change, because horror has definitely evolved in the last 40 years. Even so, there are still plenty of gems from the 1980s worth considering if you’re someone who loves horror.
We’ve pulled together a list of the very best ’80s horror movies that you should definitely make time for. Check them out, and decided for yourself whether they’re still petrifying.
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Evil Dead II (1987)
84m
Genre
Horror, Comedy, Fantasy
Stars
Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Hicks
Directed by
Sam Raimi
Watch on Amazon
Nobody does horror quite the way that Sam Raimi does, and Evil Dead 2 is the best example of his sensibility. What starts as a fairly standard story about a group of kids who go to a cabin in the woods and unleash demonic forces eventually turns into a genuinely silly movie about one man’s attempts to overcome those forces. Thanks to the utter commitment of Bruce Campbell as Ash, and Raimi’s visual inventiveness, Evil Dead 2 is the kind of horror movie that’s designed to make you laugh. It’s become a classic precisely because it knows exactly what it’s doing from minute one.
The Thing (1982)
109m
Genre
Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction
Stars
Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley
Directed by
John Carpenter
Watch on Peacock
John Carpenter has directed some of the greatest horror movies ever made, and The Thing is certainly one of them. The film follows a group of scientists living in the arctic who come upon a sled dog that is actually an shapeshifting alien in disguise. As they realize that the force they’re fighting can take on the shape of those it kills, the movie becomes a cat and mouse game as they attempt to figure out who among them is not really who they claim to be. Filled with incredible special effects, and gripping central performance from Kurt Russell, and an ingenious premise, The Thing holds up perfectly.
The Shining (1980)
144m
Genre
Horror, Thriller
Stars
Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
Directed by
Stanley Kubrick
Watch on max
A horror movie so iconic that it almost feels silly to include it, The Shining is still one of the scariest movies ever made. Telling the story of a small family whose patriarch takes a job caretaking for a remote, Colorado hotel during the offseason, the movie follows the family’s father as he slowly loses his mind. There’s clearly something wrong with this hotel, which is filled with spirits and ghosts, and it’s those spirits that ultimately convince this man to murder his family. Stanley Kubrick reminds us what a complete master he is here, and The Shining is just as disturbing for everything it doesn’t tell us as for everything it does.
Aliens (1986)
137m
Genre
Action, Thriller, Science Fiction
Stars
Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn
Directed by
James Cameron
Watch on Hulu
The original Alien is much more of a straightforward horror movie than Aliens, which melds horror and action. Even so, Aliens still has several sequence that are genuinely terrifying, in part because it fully understands how to take advantage of the horror of the xenomorphs. James Cameron has an almost intuitive sense of how to thrill his audience, but long before Ripley gets her triumphant moment near the film’s conclusion, Aliens is characterized in part by an even larger death toll than the first installment.
Videodrome (1983)
88m
Genre
Horror, Science Fiction, Mystery
Stars
James Woods, Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits
Directed by
David Cronenberg
Watch on Peacock
An admittedly blunt but undeniably effective horror movie about what people actually want from their entertainment, Videodrome follows the executive of a small TV network who is looking for anyway to juice his ratings. When he stumbles upon Videodrome, a program dedicated to various forms of torture and pain, he buys in, only to discover that everything he’s witnessing is not as fake as he believed it to be. Directed by David Cronenberg, Videodrome is filled with horrific imagery, but it’s also an important reminder of how much we can sometimes enjoy the horror.
Possession (1981)
124m
Genre
Horror
Stars
Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen
Directed by
Andrzej Żuławski
Watch on Amazon
One of the most disturbing movies about possession ever made, and one of the less famous movies on this list, Possession will keep you on your toes. The movie begins as a marital drama about an affair that crumbles a marriage, only to escalate into something much more supernatural as we learn exactly one partner has been hiding from the other. Featuring an incredible performance from Isabelle Adjani, Possession is genuinely disturbing in ways that will take you by surprise, even if you’re someone who considers themselves a horror expert.
The Fly (1986)
96m
Genre
Horror, Science Fiction
Stars
Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz
Directed by
David Cronenberg
Watch on Amazon
Another Cronenberg movie well worth checking out, The Fly is the director at his most extreme, at least in terms of body horror. The film tells the story of a scientist who begins turning into a fly after a teleportation experiment goes ever so slightly awry. Jeff Goldblum is admirably game as the scientist who is slowly losing control of his faculties, and Geena Davis might be even better as his girlfriend, a woman who realizes that the man she loves is slowly being replaced by something genuinely disturbing.
Poltergeist (1982)
114m
Genre
Horror
Stars
Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Beatrice Straight
Directed by
Tobe Hooper
Watch on Amazon
The ultimate horror movie of the Reagan era, Poltergeist tells the story of a California family who move into a new home only to discover that it’s very, very haunted. While the ghosts in their house initially seem gentle and playful, things eventually take a much more menacing turn. Confined largely to a single home, Poltergeist is impressive in part because of all the ways the movie is able to take advantage of that single location. Rumors have always abounded that Steven Spielberg essentially directed this movie, and if that’s the case, it certainly shows.
