HGB Halloween Special 2024 - 80s Horror

Horror movies are a Halloween tradition. Many of us spend Halloween night pursuing a good scare via the medium of film. There have been dozens of horror sub-genres and many of these hit their stride in the 1980s. In our opinion, the 1980s was the pinnacle of horror movies. There have been many great movies since, but there was just something special about that decade. Join us for a fun conversation about the horror movies of the 1980s on the HGB Halloween Special 2024!

George Mellies produced what is credited with being the first horror movie in 1896. The movie was called "Le Manoir du Diable," which translates to "The House of the Devil." It's also sometimes called "The Haunted Castle." This is what one would call a short and we mean short, it was only three minutes long. The film featured animated skeletons, ghosts, cauldrons and the Devil. Focusing on the supernatural was the MO of early horro movies from 1900 to 1920. And while our premise for this episode is that the 1980s were the finest era for horror movies, most film scholars deem the 1920s and 1930s as the Golden Age of Horror. And we could almost agree with that considering Nosferatu came out in 1922 and the Universal Monster Movies launched with Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931, The Mummy in 1932 and The Invisible Man in 1933.

Hammer Horror Films would hit their stride in the 1950s and it dominated the horror scene with stars like Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Barbara Shelley. And Alfred Hitchcock started producing hit horror films at the same time with Vertigo and Rear Window and then into the 1960s with Psycho and The Birds. During the 1960s, cheap horror movies were produced with a few hitting gold like George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968. That movie grossed $30 million on a $100,000 budget. Giallo movies also started in Italy in the 1960s. Devil inspired movies, particularly about possession, found a home in the 1970s with The Omen and the Exorcist. And then our decade arrived and slasher movies really took off. But the movies of the 1980s, covered all the different sub-genres of horror.

The Shining (1980)

The Shining was one of Stanley Kubrick's masterpieces and took Stephen King's novel of the same name to the next level with amazing performances by Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. This was Kubrick's first foray into the horror genre and features a slow-burn ghost story. Many memorable scenes found their way into pop culture and continue today from the line "Here's Johnny" to "Red Rum" to the twin girls in blue dresses standing in the hallway to a flood of blood coming from the elevator. Jack Nicolson played Jack Torrance who was an alcoholic aspiring novelist who slowly descended into madness through the film, which ultimately ended with him trying to kill his wife and son. Throughout the movie, he is plagued by visions of ghosts as is his son Danny, who has a gift called the shining, which is a telepathic ability. The music is great and gives a real sense of dread and the location of a remote hotel in the winter with only the Torrance family watching over it, is just screaming for something creepy to happen. It only adds fuel to this movie that in reality, Stephen King had stayed at the haunted Stanley Hotel in Colorado and had his own paranormal experiences there. This, of course, brings up the question of whether there really are ghosts at the hotel or if it is Jack's mental illness making them up. Whatever Kubrick meant for us to believe, he directed a great movie that stays with you.

The Changeling (1980)

This movie was based on a true event that happened in Colorado at a home near Cheeseman Park, so I loved that. This was a supernatural film out of Canada co-written by Russell Hunter, who based the screenplay on paranormal experiences he had while living at the Henry Treat Rogers Mansion in Denver. The movie itself is set in Seattle and tells the story of a New York City composer who moves into a haunted house in Seattle. The star of the film is George C. Scott and he does a great job with this highly under-rated film. It's one of the best haunted house movies out there and still gives the chills today. The opening sequence is hardcore, leaving Scott's character a widow and childless, and the seance scene is one of the greatest in film history. There's lots of places to watch it for free, like Tubi.

The Rogers mansion no longer stands, but it had been built in 1892 in the Federal architectural style and was painted white. Rogers passed away in 1922 and his wife Kate lived in the home until her death in 1931 and the house passed onto their niece Frances. Frances passed away and her husband rented out the mansion and that is how Russell Hunter came to rent it in 1968. He had encounters with a ghost cat and heard this continual bouncing sound coming from the attic. He couldn't figure out what in the attic was causing the noise so he had an architect join him for a walk through and they discovered a sealed-off stairway behind a second-story closet that led to a smaller attic space and when they opened the door, a small red ball bounced down the stairs. The noise stopped for a while, but when it returned, he invited over a group of friends who all heard the sound and when they opened the door, a red ball bounced down the stairs once again. Hunter claimed he found a journal and a young boy named Eric, whose age changed everytime he told the story, was locked away in the attic as a sickly boy and he died there. There was never any proof of the story and the mansion was demolished in 1969 to make room for apartments. People claim to see the ghost of a boy still hanging out at the corner where the house had once been.

Friday the 13th (1980)

The original Friday the 13th movie dropped in 1980 and launched the twelve-film franchise. This was a slasher film with the main character being Jason Voorhees, the embodiment of a little boy who drowned while away at summer camp, due to the negligence of the camp counselors. This first film reveals the killer to be his mother, but subsequent films feature a very grown-up Jason. We prefer Michael Myers to Jason and clearly the Friday the 13th movie was inspired John Carpenter's film. Jason is pretty good at coming up with some unique ways to kill people. This was one of Kevin Bacon's first films.

The Evil Dead (1981)

Bruce Campbell was an unknown when he starred in Evil Dead. Now, he is a household name for those of us who love horror movies, and particularly the ones featuring zombies. The film was written and directed by Sam Raimi and was a huge success, launching the careers of Raimi and Campbell. This is one of THE largest cult films to ever be made and not onyl has had sequels and remakes, but an awesome TV series that we were bummed to see come to an end after 3 seasons. Campbell plays Ash Williams who ends up at a remote cabin in the Tennesse woods with a group of friends. They discover a Sumerian version of the Book of the Dead and a tape. They play the tape and read from the book and unleash the evil dead, which appear to possess trees and Ash's friends. In the end, all of Ash's friends end up dead and we are left wondering what happened to him, until Part II came out later in the decade.

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Obviously, this is a werewolf movie and it features the most amazing practical effects transformation of man into werewolf in any film every made. David Naughton stars in this John Landis film as a backpacker in England who is attacked by a werewolf. His character, who is also named David, turns into a werewolf with the next full moon. His friend Jack, who had been backpacking with him, had been killed by the werewolf. The ghost of Jack appears to David letting him know that he is indeed a werewolf and that Jack's spirit will walk in limbo until this bloodline is killed. He wants David to kill himself. David can't kill himself and ends up killing six people as a werewolf. He eventually is killed by the police in his werewolf form. The film was a critical and commercial success.

The Howling (1981)

This is another werewolf film. Dee Wallace stars and portrays a news anchor named Karen White who is traumatized by her experience of being stalked by a serial killer. She and her husband go away to a place called The Colony for her to recover from the experience. Karen eventually figures out that the entire colony is made up of werewolves who can shapeshift at will. She manages to escape with a friend who came to rescue her, but as they leave, Karen is bitten by her husband who has become a werewolf. Karen later transforms into a werewolf on live TV and her friend shoots and kills her. Rob Bottin created the amazing make-up special effects in the film, which was directed by Joe Dante.

Poltergeist (1982)

Poltergeist taught us all the lesson that you don't move the headstones from a graveyard without moving the bodies as well. For many of us, this was our first foray into paranormal investigation. The film stars JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson and Heather O'Rourke as little Carol Anne, who gives us all the memorable line "They're here" after starring at a television full of snow one night. Carol Anne is the youngest in the Freeling family who have just moved into a planned community in California. Shortly after Carol Anne's revelation, the family starts experiencing paranormal activity in the house and much if it is downright frightening. None of us can forget the creepy demonic clown doll that tries to strangle Carol Anne's brother. Carol Anne herself is abducted to inside the house by the spirits. The family is forced to bring in help and they do eventually get Carol Anne back and run screaming from the house as coffins and skeletons start erupting from the ground all throughout their new neighborhood. Before this all happens, Nelson's character named Steven, finds out from his boss with who he developed this community, that they only moved the headstones from a cemetery they built over. They didn't move the bodies. Steven Spielberg wrote the screenplay and the film was directed by Tobe Hooper. Despite being a horror film, it was the eighth highest grossing film of 1982.

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

This 80s slasher film was very unique because it was entirely written and directed by women. The director was Amy Holden Jones and Rita Mae Brown wrote the screenplay. This is a slasher film centered around a group of girls having a slumber party that is interrupted by a drill-wielding killer. Brown had meant this to be a pardoy of the slasher genre, but the film was made from a serious angle. Three of the girls mange to make it to the end of the film, which is different then most that ended with one final girl. There's a lot of comedy in this one and it has a cult following and also had sequels.

Creepshow (1982)

Creepshow couldn't be anything but great with director George Romero helming a screenplay by Stephen King. Tom Savini did the special effects. The film is an anthology that comes across as though reading a comic book and was inspired by the EC horror comics King and Romero grew up reading in the '50s. The anthology features five stories with very weird creatures and stories and inspired a reboot series on Shudder, which is amazing as well. Stephen's son Joe Hill (who is way better at this horror thing than his dad) also appears in the film as the young boy reading the comic. Probably the worst of the five stories is "They're Creeping Up on You!" because it features cockroaches.

The Thing (1982)

This is one of John Carpenter's masterpieces and is a remake of 1951's "The Thing From Another World," which was based on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella "Who Goes There?" The film starred Kurt Russell and was filmed in Alaska, British Columbia and LA. The Thing features a story about a group of American research scientists at a remote base in Antarctica who take in a sled dog and realize too late that the dog harbors some kind of creature within it. This beast assumes the shape of its victims and picks everybody off, one by one. The Creature is eventually destroyed by Russell's character, but things don't end well as he is left to freeze to death since he blew up the base. The practical effects in this film are amazing!

Sleepaway Camp (1983) 

We've never seen this one. The story centers around a girl named Angela who loses her family in a boating accident. She goes to live with her aunt and cousin and the aunt sends them to Camp Arawak. Violent accidents start claiming the lives of the campers and soon it is revealed that a crazy killer is committing the acts. Although people claimed that this film was copying Friday the 13th, it has become a cult classic and is credited with having one of the most shocking twist endings in the horror genre.

Children of the Corn (1984)

Children of the Corn was based on Stephen King's story of the same name and was directed by Fritz Kiersch (Cure Sk). The film features Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton play a couple traveling through rural Nebraska to Seattle. In Nebraska, they meet a group of children who revolted under the leadership of two boys named Isaac and Malachi. During this revolt, the children sacrificed all the adults in the town. They did this sacrifice for an entity they call "He Who Walks Behind the Rows." In the end, the couple torches the cornfield and escapes with two of the children who hadn't joined the cult.

Night of the Comet (1984)

This is another zombie movie and this one is set in the middle of Valley girl central in Southern California, so its lots of fun. The premise is that a comet passes through the sky and everybody who is outside gets turned to dust. The few people who survived were exposed to radiation and they start to become zombies. Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney star as Regina and Samantha who are sisters that fight for survival in postapocalyptic Los Angeles. I remember thinking it would be kinda cool to have the run of the planet. We're left to believe that the sisters go on to have bitchin' lives as they help to repopulate the planet.This movie is worth the watch for the hair and clothes alone.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Diane remembers watching this movie for the first time at a sleepover when she was 13. It left her with nightmares for two weeks. A Nightmare on Elm Street was produced under New Line Cinema, leading to the company being referred to as "the house that Freddy built." The Freddy refers to Freddy Krueger who was portrayed by Robert Englund. Krueger is an undead child killer that is horribly burned and has a glove hand with finger knives. He comes to people in their dreams and kills them while they are dreaming. The final girl in this movie is portrayed by Heather LangenKamp whose name is Nancy. Johnny Depp has his film debut in this one. This first movie launched the franchise, which has nine films and a television series. Wes Craven wrote and directed the slasher and he claimed that the story was inspired by a series of newspaper articles sharing stories about Hmong (mung) refugees who fled to the United States from Cambodia. These refugees suffered from something called Asian Death Syndrome. They had disturbing nightmares and some were so bad that the refugees died.

Gremlins (1984) 

Gremlins is a horror comedy starring Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates with Howie Mandel voicing Gizmo. Galligan plays Billy who receives a Gizmo the mogwai from his father for Christmas. This is a cute furry creature that comes with three rules. If the rules aren't followed, it will spawn  other mogwai which are mischievous and aggressive. The rules are do not expose the creature to light, especially sunlight, which will kill it; do not let it come in contact with water; and above all, never feed it after midnight. Gizmo gets water spilled on him and several mogwai are spawned. They later eat after midnight and form cocoons from which gremlins emerge, led by one named Stripe. Chaos ensues, as does death. All the Gremlins are killed and Gizmo is given back to his original owner. The Motion Picture Association complained about the film being too violent for a PG rating and two months after the film was released, the rating of PG-13 was created.

Fright Night (1985)

Tom Holland directs this vampire horror film featuring William Ragsdale as Charley and Chris Sarandon as the vampire Jerry Dandrige. Roddy McDowall plays a horror TV host who hosts a program called Fright Night. Jerry the vampire moves in next to Charley and Charley figures out what Jerry is and a conflict develops between the two. Charley enlists the help of McDowall's Peter Vincent and the two are able to destroy Jerry and save Charley's girlfriend whom Jerry bit. The movie features a great new wave soundtrack and quickly became a cult classic. 

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

The Return of the Living Dead is set in Louisville, Kentucky and is described as a mordant punk comedy. This zombie movie brought about the idea that zombies feast on brains. A warehouse owner and two of his employees inadvertently reanimate a corpse with a toxic gas called Trioxin. They manage to dismember and burn the corpse, but while burning it, they release the toxic gas into the air and as it rains, corpses in a nearby cemetery reanimate. A group of friends fight the zombies with several getting killed. The military comes in and nukes the town, killing all the human survivors. The film ends with more toxic rain falling and zombies screaming in their graves.

Aliens (1986) 

This is one of my all time favorite horror movies. I like it better than the first one. The creature for the Alien movies is unique and one-of-a-kind and in this sequel, we get to meet the one who birthed all these eggs, the Alien Queen. The film starts with Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, is picked up by a salvage ship after she has been in stasis for 57 years. The company she worked for debriefs her and decides to send a team of Colonial Marines to destroy the aliens and eggs left behind. At least, that is what they tell Ripley. They actually want to bring back a couple aliens so that they can use them as weapons. Ripley also didn't know, because she's been asleep for half a century, that colonists were sent to this exomoon to terraform a colony. When the Marines arrive, they find everybody dead except a little girl named Newt. The rest of the film features the Marines battling the aliens and nearly all of them are killed. Ripley manages to get away with Newt and another Marine who was injured, but the Alien Queen hitched a ride and we get to hear Sigourney Weaver yell, "Get away from her you bitch" when the alien goes after Newt. Such a great line. The Alien franchise has seven films in its anthology with the most recent being dropped this year, 2024.

The Hitcher (1986)

Rutger Hauer plays the Hitcher, who is a serial killer that stalks his victims. C. Thomas Howell plays the latest young motorist to get the Hitcher's attention. Howell picks up the Hitcher and is soon threatened by the killer, so he pushes him out of the car. As Howell drives from Chicago to San Diego, he continues to run into the Hitcher. One of the most memorable scenes that I remember kids talking about in school was Howell finding a severed finger in his French fries. The Hitcher continues to play with Howell's character and eventually kills a bunch of cops and a waitress, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, who tries to help Howell. In the end, Howell finally is able to run over the Hitcher and then shoots him a bunch of times with a shotgun.

Hellraiser (1987)

Hellraiser was terrifying ans disgusting. This film was adapted from Clive Barker's novella The Hellbound Heart and features a mysterious puzzle box known as the Lament Configuration. A person who solves this puzzle box is in for a real "treat." The Cenobites are summoned and these are some truly scary creatures. They all feature some kind of painful torture devices on their body because they are sadomasochistic beings and they bring the one who has summoned them the pain of having their body hooked all over and then pulled apart. This happens to Frank Cotton and he spends the rest of the film trying to rebuild his body with the help of his sister-in-law Julia whom he had been having an affair with. Julia has to bring men back to her house where Frank is hiding in the attic and kill them so that Frank can use the blood to build his body. The Cenobites eventually kill Frank and his niece gets rid of the box by throwing it in a fire. It's retrieved and eventually will show up again as there are eleven films in the Hellraiser franchise. This was Barker's directorial debut and features Doug Bradley as Pinhead.

The Lost Boys (1987)

This is one of the best vampire movies and stars Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Jami Gertz, Dianne Weist and the two Coreys, Corey Haim and Corey Feldman. Patric and Haim play brothers who move to a seaside town in California with their mother. Haim's character Sam meets the two Frog brothers and they tell him that the town has the undead creeping around it and that they are vampire hunters. Patric's character Michael falls for a girl named Star who brings him into the orbit of a biker gang lead by Sutherland's David. The gang invites him to join and offers him to drink from a bottle of what he thinks is wine. It was actually blood and Michael begins his transformation into a vampire. This condition is reversible as long as Michael doesn't kill anyone. Michael, Sam and the Frog brothers go to the vampire lair during the day and drive a stake through the heart of one of them and run away. They prepare to fight that night with water guns filled with holy water. The vampire gang attacks and all of them are killed, including David. When Michael doesn't become human again, the group realizes that David wasn't the head vampire. The head vampire is the guy their mom is dating, Max. Max wanted to make their mom the mother of his lost boys. The grandfather of the family drives into the house with his truck and impales Max with a wooden fence post. Michael is saved.

They Live (1988)

They Live is another classic 80s horror movie helmed by John Carpenter. The film was based on the 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson and starred "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Keith David and Meg Foster. Piper plays a drifter who happens upon some sunglasses through which he can see which people in society are aliens. These aliens make up the ruling class. This class uses subliminal messages to control the masses. The film has become a cult classic probably because of an innane fight scene that goes on for six minutes and some of the dialogue, which includes "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum."

Child's Play (1988)

Child's Play brought creepy dolls to a whole new level. This Good Guy doll becomes possessed by the spirit of a serial killer who reanimates the doll and continues to go on killing sprees. The story was created by Don Mancini, John Lafia and Tom Holland, who directed, and Brad Dourif plays the voice of Chucky. Alex Vincent made his film debut as Andy, who gets Chucky as a gift. Chucky starts his murdering ways by killing Andy's babysitter. Andy gets blamed for the murders Chucky commits and he gets institutionalized. His mother realizes shortly after that that Chucky has been moving and talking without batteries. Chucky finds out that he needs to possess Andy to become human again and he kidnaps him. Before he can do a ritual, Andy's mom and the cop who originally killed Chucky when he was human, save Andy and eventually Chucky is set on fire and shot multiple times with one bullet piercing his heart and killing him for good...until the sequel. Child's Play is a franchise with seven films and a television series.

Pet Semetary (1989)

Stephen King wrote the novel Pet Sematary upon which the film is based and he wrote the screenplay. The film was directed by Mary Lambert and starred Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby and Fred Gwynne. The Creed family, which consists pf Louis, Rachel and their kids Ellie and Gage, move from Chicago to Maine. Shortly after getting there, Ellie's cat Church dies and Louis' neighbor Jud Crandell tells him about a place that will bring the cat back to life. Jud and Louis bury Church at a special pet cemetery and Church comes back, but he isn't the same cat he was before. There's something off and bad about him. When Gage is killed in the road, Louis does the unthinkable, he buries the small boy at the pet cemetery. Gage comes back and starts killing people, which eventually includes his mother. And oh man, Louis does it again. He buried Rachel ion the cemetery and she comes back and we're left with an image that leads us to believe Louis is about to lose his life. Poor Ellie is left on her own.

It really is clear that the 1980s has a special place in the horror genre. So many cult classics and franchises were birthed during this time. The Slasher movie really found its groove. Stephen King really came into his own at this time too. What is your favorite 1980s horror film? That is for you to decide!