When I was a kid I loved Halloween because of the pillow-case full of candy I always ended up with at the end of the night. Now that I’ve generally lost interest in voluminous quantities of sugary snacks, I can think of no better way to celebrate it than by watching a lot of teenagers get slashed to death by a lot of masked maniacs! It’s now Halloween 2009 so I’d like to remind you all of some of my own personal favorite horror movies from the 1980s, one of the best decades for horror ever. So, in an effort to promote one of my favorite genres at one of the few times of the year that it gets the recognition it deserves, here is my list of 15 of the best scary movies of the 1980s. And for those of you interested in the best horror of anytime between the 1970s and today, see the pink links below. Enjoy!

You know, we just don't get cool movie posters like this anymore!

15. The Stuff (1985), R, 93 mins.

Ok, so I’ll start with one you’ve never heard of again. The Stuff, first of all, is not a great horror movie. Not by a long shot. It’s a thinly veiled social commentary about drug addiction (with a strong undertone about corporate corruption), which doesn’t strike me as the most interesting premise in the world for a horror movie, but ironically you can hardly do better for good, campy fun.

It’s about this creamy new snack product that has become a phenomenal commercial success, almost as though people were addicted to it! It’s difficult to describe exactly what it is, but let’s just say that throughout the movie I couldn’t stop thinking about Marshmallow Creme. I don’t know how Marshmallow Creme could become a success as a snack that people would eat by itself in large quantities, but whatever the case, people can’t seem to get enough of “The Stuff.”

A guy named Mo Rutherford (”They call me that ’cause when people give me money, I always want mo’.”) is sent by a competing corporation to discover what exactly is in “The Stuff” so they can get an edge on the market (apparently this is before the days of Nutrition Facts and ingredient labels). Complicating matters is that The Stuff literally seeped up out of the earth, was discovered and tasted by miners, and then was packaged and sold because it tasted so good.

Unfortunately, it also took over the minds of those who ate it, turning them into zombies and starting a full scale war between humans and this mysterious goo. Here’s a little quote to give you an idea of how this particular war on terror is handled:

Col. Malcolm Grommett Spears: “We’re Americans – we’ve never lost a war!”
Jason: “What about ‘Nam, sir?”
Col. Malcolm Grommett Spears: “‘Nam? We lost that war at home, sonny.”

That leap from snack to zombie is a doozie, but nevertheless, The Stuff is undeniably a horror comedy classic.

14. Cujo (1983), 91 mins.

Donna Trenton is a regular New England wife and mother whose life has been thrown into turmoil after her husband Vic has discovered that she has been having an affair. Brett Cambers is a young local boy whose only companion is a massive Saint Bernard named Cujo (which, incidentally, is an ancient Indian word meaning “unstoppable force”). One day while Vic is away on business, Donna drives her Pinto with her 5-year-old son Tad over to Brett’s father’s car shop, only to have to car break down and the Cambers family is nowhere in sight. But Cujo is around, and he’s pissed off and very, very sick…

Cujo is not a traditional horror movie, it doesn’t do what you would expect with that premise and turn Cujo into a vicious, fire-breathing movie monster. It’s a realistic, suspenseful movie that takes a while to build up, but once it does it never lets you relax and the tension is high throughout. It fits a frightening occurrence into an everyday situation, which was one of Hitchcock’s favorite techniques, and it stars Dee Wallace, who you might remember as the mother from E.T. the year before.

Note: Ten years later, one of the best horror movies of the 90’s, The Dark Half, was released (also made from a Stephen King novel), and it’s main character is a novelist named Thad (pronounced “Tad”). Coincidence?

13. Fright Night (1985), R, 106 mins.

Young Charlie Brewster is a horror movie fan and when two men move in next door and begin behaving strangely he has no doubt in his mind that it is because they are a vampire and his undead guardian. Carlie enlists the only help he can find in hunting them down, a washed-up actor named Peter Vincent who also hosts Charlie’s favorite TV show, “Fright Night.” Unfortunately, Vincent believes in money more than he believes in vampires, so Charlie may be even more on his own than he thinks.

Fright Night stands out among vampire films because of its classic portrayal of a modernized vampire, its villainous nature presented perfectly by Chris Sarandon juxtaposed with the pathetic mortals that he preys on. The feeling of power that this situation gives the vampire is what creates the tension and suspense when one young mortal rises up against him.

The movie was released in competition with films like Nightmare on Elm Street and Back to the Future, but still manages to hold its own with surprisingly impressive special effects and performances that are far better than are now to be expected from 80’s horror movies. Fright Night is not one of the greatest horror films ever, but it is one of the greatest vampire films.

12. They Live (1988), R, 93 mins.

In the same spirit as The Stuff, They Live is one of the funniest scary movies that I have seen. Or one of the scariest funny movies that I’ve seen. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which genre it’s supposed to be. A unemployed construction worker named Nada (played by “Rowdy” Roddy Piper) discovers a pair of sunglasses that allows him to see the true form of some aliens that have infested our population, taken human form and embarked on a campaign to control people’s minds.

Billboards and advertisements, seen through the glasses, reveal their true meanings with slogans like “Obey,” “Conform,” “Stay Asleep,” and “Submit to Authority.” And the aliens themselves are revealed in their true form as well, which is pretty creepy (look to your right and you’ll get an idea of what they look like!).

Nada’s mission is to find the other people that know about what’s happening (the ones who made the sunglasses), sabotage the aliens’ plans and awaken the world to what’s really going on. Along the way he meets a black man named Frank (a brilliant horror comedy performance by the now hugely successful actor Keith David), engages in what might be one of the funniest fist fights ever filmed, and then teams up with him.

The question is – will they be able to make people realize what’s happening, and what will happen when the sleep is washed from their eyes?

Welcome to the real world…

11. Friday the 13th (1980), R, 95 mins.

One of the most famous horror movies ever made, if not necessarily the best, the original Friday the 13th is one of a very small handful of films that gave birth to what became known as the slasher sub-genre, about vicious, relentless masked killers that couldn’t be stopped and seemed to especially dislike promiscuous teenagers.

A group of young counselors at the infamous Camp Crystal Lake begin to prepare to open the camp for the summer, years after a young boy drowned in the lake and, the following summer, two camp counselors were mysteriously murdered. It very soon becomes clear that there is someone who is not at all happy that the camp is reopening, and it soon becomes the scene of a lot of hilarious 1980’s teenage partying and more grisly murders.

Besides being a slasher classic, the movie has become a trivia piece as to who the real killer is. Here’s a hint, it’s not the local nutcase that warned the teens against going up to the lake…

10. Pet Sematary (1989), R, 103 mins.

The Creed family has just moved into their dream house in the peaceful countryside, fulfilling their idyllic location except for the narrow highway on which huge semi-trucks roar past at high speeds and the mysterious cemetery in the woods nearby. The locals are initially reluctant to talk about the cemetery, until the Creeds suffer the tragic death of their beloved cat, Church.

It seems that the cemetery is a mysterious ancient site with the power to bring loved ones back from the dead. They bury Church there and are astonished when he reappears at their house. He’s alive and well but is somehow changed. He’s mean now.

Not long afterwards, the family’s son is killed by a passing semi-truck, and the family, unable to handle their grief, buries him in the cemetery as well. They are at first overcome with relief when he reappears alive and well not long after, but he is also not quite the same…

Pet Sematary is also not a classic horror film, but it has a great story and has more than a few moments that are genuinely scary. This is the kind of horror that I wish Stephen King would go back to, and it has some moments that are some of the more memorable in the genre. An astonishing performance from 3-year old (!!) Miko Hughes (you mey remember him as the little kid in the 1998 Bruce Willis film Mercury Rising) gives the horror in Pet Sematary a particularly, ah, sharp edge (pun intended). See this one!

9. Hellraiser (1987), R, 94 mins.

Taking place in an entirely different horror world from any of the other 80’s horror movies on this list, writer/director Clive Barker’s Hellraiser introduces the world to Pinhead,  who might be the single most recognizable face in horror movie history. Clive Barker not only has the perfect name for a horror novelist (and now, director), but also a truly uniqe and bizarre imagination.

A man and wife move into an old house and discover a hideous monster living upstairs that turns out to be the man’s half-brother (as well as his wife’s former lover). By solving Pandora’s Box and opening a doorway to Hell, he has lost his physical body to the Cenobites (led by Pinhead), but a drop of blood on the old wooden floor of the room upstairs has brought him back into existence.

He soon coerces Julia, his former mistress (a frightening performance by Clare Higgins) to bring him human sacrifices so that he can come back to life completely, with the Cenobites fighting their efforts all along the way.

Hellraiser is Clive Barker’s feature film directing debut, but when Stephen King says, at the height of his own career, “I have seen the future of horror, and it’s name is Clive Barker,” you know you have something special. Also unique about the Hellraiser series is that, of it’s numerous sequels, they tend to be far better than the majority of installments in your typical horror franchise (hear that, Freddy?).

8. The Evil Dead (1981), R, 85 mins.

Fans of the Evil Dead series are often amazed to look back at the original film and compare it to the two sequels (especially Army of Darkness), because when you watch Army of Darkness, it’s hard to believe that in the original film Ash was just such a geek.

Five friends go into the deep woods for a nice weekend out of the city, only to quickly discover an old, rotting cabin in which lies the Necronomicon (The Book of the Dead), and a taped translation of the text from a man who was studying it years earlier in the same cabin. The mystery surrounding his fate becomes more and more important as the group discovers a powerful evil force lurking in the woods around them.

The recitation of the text awakens the evil forces and one-by-one the group makes frightening transformations into demonic zombies, with the (eventually) heroic Ash stunned to find himself battling the evil manifestation in the most bizarre ways imaginable.

Note: The incantation that they recite from the book of the dead – “klaatu barada nikto” – is taken from the classic 1951 science fiction/horror film The Day the Earth Stood Still (”Your choice is simple: join us and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration.”). A re-make of the film, starring Keanu Reeves, is set for release this December.

7. The Lost Boys (1987), R, 97 mins.

To this day it’s difficult for me to watch Kiefer Sutherland in any film or tv show without thinking about this movie. You just can’t go wrong with a tagline like “Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It’s fun to be a vampire.”

A single mother moves to a small coastal town in California with her two sons, and right away the town is plagued with bikers and mysterious deaths. The younger boy makes friends with two other boys who claim to be vampire hunters, while the older boy becomes interested in a beautiful girl who lures him into the biker gang.

As the older brother’s sleeping habits make a sudden and suspicious change, the younger brother becomes more and more deeply involved in the obsession of the vampire hunters and begins to suspect that his brother has become one. He sets off on a mission to find and destroy the lead vampire and therefore save his brother’s soul.

Besides being one of the most entertaining vampire films around, The Lost Boys stands out as a great popcorn flick. The entertainment value is high and the performances throughout are impressive, and it even has a great soundtrack. The Lost Boys was far ahead of its time…

6. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), R, 90 mins.

Here’s a curious little factoid about the original Nightmare, besides being the film debut of Johnny Depp, it is midway through this film that we learn that Freddy Krueger, who is now one of the most morbidly loved horror characters ever, was a child molester who was released on a technicality. The reason he’s dead and haunting the dreams of teenagers is because he’s seeking revenge on the private citizens who took the law into their own hands and killed him!

In the movie, he returns from the dead to haunt the dreams of the children of the people who killed him. The line between dreamland and reality is blurred as Freddy begins killing off victims in their sleep, resulting in their deaths in real life, leaving one girl with the mission to draw him out of her dreams into the real world so that he can be killed once and for all, without being killed herself in the process.

It was a long, long time ago that this movie stopped being scary, but it’s got a clever premise for weaving nightmares into real life, made by a director on his way to the top of his game. The entertainment level is high even if the scares have long since evaporated, but if nothing else, who could forget that girl in her underwear rolling around the walls and ceiling of her room??

5. Poltergeist (1982), PG, 114 mins.

Steven Spielberg makes another unexpected appearance in another top 10 of horror list with his 1982 film Poltergeist, which must be the most successful family horror film ever made. I always forget that the movie was rated PG, which tends to make me think that it can’t be much of a horror movie, but it remains one of the most genuinely entertaining and fun ghost story movies I’ve ever seen.

A family is visited by ghosts in their home, which at first seem to be friendly, moving objects around the house to the family’s amusement, but soon their tricks turn mean and nasty. The family’s young daughter seems to have found a way to communicate with the ghosts through the static on the tv, but soon she is “kidnapped” into an unknown parallel world.

A memorable perfomance by Zelda Rubinstein as the curious Tangina, the woman who comes to clear the home of the ghostly spirits and save the daughter, makes the movie particularly memorable, along with several impossible to forget scenes, such as the living trees and the coffins popping out of the swimming pool. Excellent entertainment, even for the weak of heart.

4. Re-Animator (1985), R, 86 mins.

When I think about Re-Animator, the first thing that pops into my mind is that, if nothing else, it is a campy horror classic that deserves to be called a horror camp classic. It gives us the kind of horror/comedy that makes the Evil Dead films so much fun, and it remains a great film despite the fact that the soundtrack seems to be a naked rip-off of Bernard Herrman’s score for Psycho, probably the single most famous sound ever to have come from a movie.

Jeffrey Combs delivers a wonderfully crazy performance as Herbert West, the mad scientist who believes he has discovered a scientific way to beat death, and he becomes desperate to try it out on a human being rather than small animals, on whom he has had remarkable success. In order to carry out his experiments, he needs to get his hands on some fresh corpses, and in the horror genre, this premise makes for a great movie.

The movie is all about too much gore and too much blood and too much gratuitous nudity, but also about too much fun. It’s so over-the-top that it’s hard notto have a great time with it. It’s a great example of how much fun horror movies can be.

3. An American Werewolf in London (1981), R, 92 mins.

Two American students on a walking tour of England  are attacked one night by a werewolf. One is killed while the other escapes but is badly injured. The werewolf is killed but reverts to its human form, so the local people deny that it ever existed.

The surviving American begins having nightmares about hunting as a wolf, and the original werewolf’s recent victims begin appearing to him ad demanding that he find a way to die because as long as he is alive they are trapped between worlds because of their unnatural deaths.

The mutilated victims appearing to him and brainstorming about how he can kill himself provide for some pretty classic horror comedy, but it is the remarkable and groundbreaking special effects used to show the transformation from human to werewolf and back that really made the movie stand out when it was first released. In fact, the creativity and ingenuity displayed in the technical production of the film remains respected and admired to this day.

2. The Evil Dead II (1987), R, 85 mins.

Why is The Evil Dead II ranked #2 while the original film is way back there at #8? Well, mostly because it is one of the rarest kinds of movies in the film world, a horror sequel that’s better than the original. In fact, it’s almost more a remake of the original film than a sequel, which is probably part of the reason that it’s better than part 1.

Once again Ash is in the woods in the old, broken down cabin and listening to recorded passages from the Book of the Dead. Soon the forces of evil are unleashed again and the night becomes a long, grisly, enormously bloodly but side-splittingly hilarious chainsaw/shotgun battle between Ash and the fiendish horde of demons.

An innumerable quantity of classic quotable quotes and Bruce Campbell’s phenomenal performance (it may very well be the funniest performance in a horror movie ever filmed) make this one of the bloodiest but most highly entertaining horror movies around. I can’t begin to tell you how many drinking game opportunities are to be found here!

1. The Shining (1980), R, 146 mins.

Okay, so technically 1980 is the 70’s (right? because we count from 1-10, not from 0-9), but The Shining was directed by Stanley Kubrick, one of the cinema’s greatest directors, written by Stephen King, the most successful horror novelist of all time, and stars Jack Nicholson. How can you go wrong?

You probably can, but they didn’t. The Shining is one of the two or three scariest movies that I’ve ever seen, and I have this movie to thank for a fear of hallways that I developed the first time I saw it and that continues to this day. Thanks a lot!

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson – once again playing a character with his own name) is a writer who needs some peace and quiet to work on his next project, so he and he signs up to be the caretaker of the cavernous Overlook Hotel during the winter, when heavy snowfall cuts it off entirely from the rest of the world. The hotel owners are required by law to inform them that the last caretaker went crazy and brutally murdered his family while overseeing the hotel in a previous winter, but Jack is not bothered.

He and his wife and son go up to the hotel and begin to spend a quiet winter there, getting accustomed to the massive amount of space and empty hours, until Danny begins to have strange visions with a ghostly presence in the hotel, in particular the errie appearance of what have to be the creepiest twin girls ever. He has a “gift” that the hotel’s cook explains to him is called “shining,” which allows him to see the grisly images of the terrible things that have happened in the hotel in the past.

Soon Jack begins to lose touch with his sanity, having visions himself of people and things that may or may not really be there, and ultimately the true nature of his own existence becomes questionable.

Kubrick’s unique directing style and his love of tracking shots gives a unique experience for the sheer size and emptiness of the hotel, but Jack Nicholson’s performance as the increasingly unstable Jack Torrance and his terrorization of his own wife and son is the centerpiece in what is undoubtedly one of the most thoroughly well-made horror movies ever made.