5. “An American Werewolf in London” (1981)
The great discomfiting genius of John Landis’ seminal horror comedy, aside from its now-legendary practical creature effects and still-never-bettered werewolf transformation scenes, is how consistently it wrong-foots the viewer without losing coherence. Taking in sexual paranoia (and giving the boys of the 1980s a powerful thang for Jenny Agutter), this film mines laughs and scares in equal measure from classic nightmare scenarios like being lost in the woods, or trailing around misty moors at night, or stumbling into a local pub where you don’t know the customs and can scarcely understand the accents. Its depiction of rural England may bear very little relation to the real thing, but as a snapshot of every American tourist’s most unacknowledged fears (as visited on proxies Griffin Dunne and David Naughton) it’s both hilarious and scabrous. In one of the few cases of horror-comedy that gets scarier as it gets funnier, the two impulses feel like complementary symptoms of the same volatile energy.
4. “The Fly” (1986)
It’s easy to forget it was a remake, but “The Fly” takes the bare bones of an earlier story and stuffs it into a telepod with a whole host of Cronenbergian flourishes and themes —what stumbles out is the most grotesquely gorgeous mutant movie on this list. Oscar-winning makeup effects and prosthetics decorate a classically formulated three-act tragedy in which scientist Jeff Goldblum, at his lankily oddball best, devolves from sweetly gauche genius to power-mad asshole and finally repulsive psychotic insect-human hybrid. There is subtext about AIDS panic in the way Cronenberg uses body horror amongst the traditional sci-fi horror warnings about “playing God,” plus a wonderfully resourceful female role in Geena Davis’ character. Not just the love-interest-turned-moral-compass, but emerging as the film’s most resilient hero, it’s fittingly she who gets to deliver the film’s most iconic and oft-repeated line: “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” All the viewer can do is comply.
3. “Possession” (1981)
The greatest masterpiece of the late Polish arthouse auteur Andrzej Żulawski, who passed away earlier this year, “Possession” is a film not quite like any other, as if Bergman and Polanski teamed up to redo “Don’t Look Now” but then amped everything up to eleven. Nominally, the film sees spy Mark (Sam Neill) return home to find that his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani, who won Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival for her performance) unexpectedly wants a divorce, inspiring a terrifying chain of events involving doppelgangers, a horrifying creature and, seemingly by the end, the apocalypse. The narrative events can seem almost random in their nightmarish quality (and truly summon a kind of guttural terror), but it’s all meticulously constructed, with Żulawski gradually showing that this isn’t just shock for shock’s sake, but a wrenching portrait of a dissolving relationship, and the jealousies and anxieties that come with it, taken to the furthest possible extremes.
2. “The Thing” (1982)
Is it Ennio Morricone’s intense electronic score? Could it be Bill Lancaster’s script, cleverly building up paranoia until your knuckles turn white? Might it be horror maestro John Carpenter’s controlled direction, turning an isolated research station in the Antarctic into a location of unspeakable fear? Or, just maybe, it’s that scene in the kennel. Whatever makes ‘The Thing’ a classic sci-fi horror in your eyes, it’s a staple of the genre that’s outmatched by only one other in the 1980s. The horrifying tale of an alien organism imitating life on Earth with grotesque results (think Cronenberg lost in an Edvard Munch painting) works like dynamite on screen, thanks to all the key players above and a bearded Kurt Russell expertly channeling all of our doubts and anxiety with his flawed hero. Unfortunately released around the more audience-friendly “E.T.” and “Blade Runner,” ‘The Thing’ has mutated over time into one of the genre’s most compelling examples.
1. “The Shining” (1980)
It’s famously hated by Stephen King. It caused mixed reactions on its initial premiere in vintage Stanley Kubrick style. And it may not be the greatest film to come out of the master’s intimidating oeuvre. Yet ‘The Shining’ stands the test of time as a purely cinematic apotheosis of unequivocal terror. The story of the Torrence family, led by Jack (a reeling, crazed, iconic Jack Nicholson), and their experience looking after the Overlook Hotel during an unforgiving winter is a multi-layered masterpiece that turns all the faucets of the genre’s conventions on full blast, and lets it rip through every element of the medium. From the performances (Shelley Duvall and Dan Lloyd are appropriately overshadowed but never outperformed) to revolutionary Steadicam work, John Alcott‘s awe-inspiring cinematography and Kubrick’s infamous compositional genius: ‘The Shining’ consistently tests the viewer’s mettle on psychological, physical and spiritual planes of fear; burning the images of bloody elevators, creepy twins, decomposing bathtub ladies and bars where the credit is always good, deep into our minds.
The ’80s might be even better for horror than the ’70s were, and so there were loads of other movies that we might have included with more space. There were a few that came close, but we ultimately decided many films weren’t quite full horror enough: they included “Aliens” (mostly an action movie), “The Vanishing” (mostly a thriller, despite its terrifying ending), “The Dead Zone’ (mostly a supernatural thriller) and “Gremlins” (mostly a comedy).
We also mulled over films including Peter Jackson’s “Bad Taste,” Stephen King adaptation “Pet Sematary,” the original “Child’s Play,” found-footage pioneer “Cannibal Holocaust,” Neil Jordan’s fantasy “The Company Of Wolves,” Kiefer Sutherland vampire pic “The Lost Boys,” anthology movie “Creepshow,” Tony Scott’s “The Hunger,” Ken Russell’s ropey but sometimes interesting “The Lair Of The White Worm,” Wes Craven’s voodoo movie “The Serpent And The Rainbow,” Rutger Hauer as “The Hitcher,” and zombie pic “Dead & Buried.”
And that’s not to forget John Carpenter’s aforementioned “Prince Of Darkness” (and “Christine,” to some extent, and “They Live” if you qualify it as horror, which we’re not sure we do), Argento’s “Inferno” and “Phenomena,” the third “Nightmare On Elm Street” film “Dream Warriors,” the original “Friday The 13th,” Fulci’s “The Beyond,” Lamberto Bava’s “Demons,” the underrated “Psycho II,” Stuart Gordon’s “From Beyond” (which isn’t as good as “Re-Animator,” but isn’t far off), gory twin movie “Basket Case,” Brian Yuzna’s deeply fucked up “Society,” Michael Mann’s flawed but interesting “The Keep,” slashers like “Sleepaway Camp,” “The Slumber Party Massacre” and “Silent Night, Deadly Night” and many, many more. Anything you think deserves mention? Let us know in the comments.