The Scariest Movies of the 1980s
Arguably the most important, inspirational, and terrifying decade for horror films, the ‘80s masterfully blended and expanded upon the genre and helped create what we know it as today, while simultaneously scaring the living daylights out of anyone who dared to check out these films. From campy slashers to melancholic deep dives to action-packed terror to horrifying body horror, there is undoubtedly something here that will terrify even the most hardcore of horror fans.
Films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th saw the continued birth and growth of the terrifyingly realistic slasher subgenre, while films like The Shining and The Thing showed the true horrors of man in painstaking and pain-inducing realism. Each and every one of these films will have audiences checking under their bed, in the closet, and around every corner because after watching them, they will be terrified of anything and everything that goes bump in the night…
Be sure to vote up the scariest horror movies of the 1980s, and be sure to check out the scariest films of the 1990s!
- 1Frank Marshall, Steven Spielberg
- Actors: Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Beatrice Straight, Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robins
- Released: 1982
- Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Strange and creepy happenings beset an average California family, the Freelings -- Steve (Craig T. Nelson), Diane (JoBeth Williams), teenaged Dana (Dominique Dunne), eight-year-old Robbie (Oliver ...more - 2Robert Shaye
- Actors: John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Johnny Depp
- Released: 1984
- Directed by: Wes Craven
In Wes Craven's classic slasher film, several Midwestern teenagers fall prey to Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), a disfigured midnight mangler who preys on the teenagers in their dreams -- which, in ...more - 3Robert Fryer, Stanley Kubrick
- Actors: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson
- Released: 1980
- Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer's block. He settles in along with his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and ...more - 4Richard P. Rubinstein
- Actors: Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, Denise Crosby, Brad Greenquist, Michael Lombard
- Released: 1989
- Directed by: Mary Lambert
Doctor Louis Creed (Dale Midkiff) moves his family to Maine, where he meets a friendly local named Jud Crandall (Fred Gwynne). After the Creeds' cat is accidentally killed, Crandall advises Louis to ...more - 5David Foster, Lawrence Turman
- Actors: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, T.K. Carter, Richard Dysart, Richard Masur
- Released: 1982
- Directed by: John Carpenter
In remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings ...more - 6Sean S. Cunningham
- Actors: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson
- Released: 1980
- Directed by: Sean S. Cunningham
Crystal Lake's history of murder doesn't deter counselors from setting up a summer camp in the woodsy area. Superstitious locals warn against it, but the fresh-faced young people -- Jack (Kevin ...more
