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Best Horror Movies of the 1980s
#1 Michael Jackson's Thriller (1983) · ★ 8.3 · 804 votes · 0h 14m · thriller, horror, musicA night at the movies turns terrifying when Michael and his date are attacked by zombies. Released at the height of Thriller’s success, the short film redefined the music video, br…
#2 The Shining (1980) · ★ 8.2 · 19,368 votes · 2h 24m · thriller, horrorJack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter.…
#3 Come and See (1985) · ★ 8.2 · 1,977 votes · 2h 22m · drama, horror, historyThe invasion of a village in Belarus by German forces sends young Flyora into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl,…
#4 The Thing (1982) · ★ 8.1 · 8,235 votes · 1h 49m · horror, science-fiction, mysteryA research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.…
#5 Evil Dead II (1987) · ★ 7.5 · 3,536 votes · 1h 24m · comedy, fantasy, horrorAsh Williams and his girlfriend Linda find a log cabin in the woods with a voice recording from an archeologist who had recorded himself reciting ancient chants from "The Book of t…
#6 A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) · ★ 7.4 · 5,968 votes · 1h 31m · horrorTeenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child moles…
#7 The Fly (1986) · ★ 7.4 · 5,167 votes · 1h 36m · horror, science-fictionWhen brilliant, eccentric scientist Seth Brundle makes a huge technological breakthrough in teleportation, he decides to test it on himself. Unbeknownst to him, a common housefly m…
#8 An American Werewolf in London (1981) · ★ 7.4 · 2,728 votes · 1h 37m · comedy, fantasy, horrorAmerican tourists David and Jack are savagely attacked by an unidentified animal while hiking on the Yorkshire Moors. After retiring to the home of a beautiful nurse to recuperate,…
#9 The Evil Dead (1983) · ★ 7.3 · 4,747 votes · 1h 25m · horrorIn 1979, a group of college students find a Sumerian Book of the Dead in an old wilderness cabin they've rented for a weekend getaway.…
#10 Possession (1981) · ★ 7.3 · 1,444 votes · 2h 4m · horrorA young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. B…
#11 Poltergeist (1982) · ★ 7.2 · 3,460 votes · 1h 54m · horrorThe Freelings' suburban home becomes the center of paranormal activity that opens a portal to the 'other side'. With help, they must cross over to get their daughter back.…
#12 Videodrome (1983) · ★ 7.2 · 2,558 votes · 1h 28m · horror, science-fiction, mysteryAs the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn is desperate for new programming to attract viewers. When he happens upon "Videodrome," a TV show dedicated to gratuitous torture…
#13 The Return of the Living Dead (1985) · ★ 7.2 · 2,313 votes · 1h 31m · comedy, horror, science-fictionTwo employees at a medical supply warehouse accidentally release a toxic gas from a misplaced top-secret U.S. Army shipment, causing the dead to rise from a nearby cemetery with an…
#14 Santa Sangre (1989) · ★ 7.2 · 521 votes · 2h 2m · fantasy, thriller, dramaA former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless, cult leader mother, and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name.…
#15 Gremlins (1984) · ★ 7.1 · 7,158 votes · 1h 46m · comedy, fantasy, horrorAfter receiving an exotic small animal as a Christmas gift, a young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet, which unleashes a horde of malevolently m…
#16 The Lost Boys (1987) · ★ 7.1 · 2,403 votes · 1h 37m · comedy, thriller, romanceWhen an unsuspecting town newcomer is drawn to local blood fiends, the Frog brothers and other unlikely heroes gear up to rescue him.…
#17 Angel Heart (1987) · ★ 7.1 · 1,809 votes · 1h 53m · horror, mysteryA down-and-out Brooklyn detective is hired to track down a singer on an odyssey that will take him through the desperate streets of Harlem, the smoke-filled jazz clubs of New Orlea…
#18 Re-Animator (1985) · ★ 7.1 · 1,733 votes · 1h 26m · comedy, horror, science-fictionConducting clandestine experiments within the morgue at Miskatonic University, scientist Herbert West reveals to a fellow graduate student his groundbreaking work concerning the re…
#19 Dead Ringers (1988) · ★ 7.1 · 1,053 votes · 1h 55m · thriller, horrorElliot, a successful gynecologist, works at the same practice as his identical twin, Beverly. Elliot is attracted to many of his patients and has affairs with them. When he inevita…
#20 The Dead Zone (1983) · ★ 7.0 · 1,913 votes · 1h 43m · thriller, horror, science-fictionJohnny Smith is a schoolteacher with his whole life ahead of him but, after leaving his fiancee's home one night, is involved in a car crash which leaves him in a coma for 5 years.…
#21 Little Shop of Horrors (1986) · ★ 7.0 · 1,706 votes · 1h 34m · comedy, horrorSeymour Krelborn is a nerdy orphan working at Mushnik's, a flower shop in urban Skid Row. He harbors a crush on fellow co-worker, Audrey Fulquard, and is berated by Mr. Mushnik dai…
#22 Manhunter (1986) · ★ 7.0 · 1,599 votes · 2h 0m · thriller, horror, crimeFBI Agent Will Graham, retired after catching notorious cannibal Hannibal Lecter, returns to duty to engage in a risky cat-and-mouse game with Lecter to capture a new killer.…
#23 Fright Night (1985) · ★ 7.0 · 1,596 votes · 1h 47m · comedy, horrorCharley Brewster, a high school student, accidentally discovers the true and creepy nature of Jerry Dandrige, his dashing and enigmatic new neighbor; but no one seems willing to be…
#24 Day of the Dead (1985) · ★ 7.0 · 1,454 votes · 1h 41m · drama, horror, mysteryAs the world is overrun by zombies, scientists and military personnel in an underground Florida bunker must decide on how they should deal with the undead.…
#25 Dressed to Kill (1980) · ★ 7.0 · 1,169 votes · 1h 45m · thriller, horror, mysteryAfter witnessing a mysterious woman brutally slay a homemaker, prostitute Liz Blake finds herself trapped in a dangerous situation. While the police thinks she is the murderer, the…
#26 The Hitcher (1986) · ★ 7.0 · 1,117 votes · 1h 38m · action, thriller, horrorOn a stormy night, young Jim, who transports a luxury car from Chicago to California to deliver it to its owner, feeling tired and sleepy, picks up a mysterious hitchhiker, who has…
#27 The Changeling (1980) · ★ 7.0 · 750 votes · 1h 47m · horrorAfter a tragic event happens, composer John Russell moves to Seattle to try to overcome it and build a new and peaceful life in a lonely big house that has been uninhabited for man…
#28 Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) · ★ 7.0 · 740 votes · 1h 7m · horror, science-fictionA "metal fetishist", driven mad by the maggots wriggling in the wound he's made to embed metal into his flesh, runs out into the night and is accidentally run down by a Japanese bu…
#29 Hellraiser (1987) · ★ 6.9 · 3,002 votes · 1h 33m · fantasy, thriller, horrorA hedonistic man finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons a group of gruesome beings known as the Cenobites. These otherworldly entities open the doors to a dominion where pain a…
#30 Christine (1983) · ★ 6.9 · 2,333 votes · 1h 50m · horrorNerdy high schooler Arnie Cunningham falls for Christine, a rusty 1958 Plymouth Fury, and becomes obsessed with restoring the classic automobile to her former glory. As the car cha…
#31 Creepshow (1982) · ★ 6.9 · 1,200 votes · 2h 0m · comedy, horrorFive grisly tales from a 1950s-style comic, including a murdered father rising from beyond, a bizarre meteor, a vengeful husband, a mysterious crate's occupant, and a plague of coc…
#32 The Blob (1988) · ★ 6.9 · 1,111 votes · 1h 35m · action, thriller, horrorIn Arborville, California, three high school students try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches.…
#33 The Beyond (1981) · ★ 6.9 · 693 votes · 1h 28m · horrorNew Yorker Liza Merril inherits an old hotel in Louisiana and invests her savings to reopen the place, unaware that the hotel houses the body of a dead painter murdered decades ear…
#34 The Hidden (1987) · ★ 6.9 · 517 votes · 1h 37m · action, thriller, horrorWhen average, law-abiding citizens suddenly turn to a life of hedonistic behavior and violent crime, Detective Tom Beck is tasked with helping young FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher deter…
#35 Child's Play (1988) · ★ 6.8 · 3,487 votes · 1h 27m · horrorAfter being shot in a toy store, a serial killer transfers his soul into a Good Guy doll. A mother then gifts it to her six-year-old son Andy, which unleashes terror upon the city.…
#36 The 'Burbs (1989) · ★ 6.8 · 1,429 votes · 1h 42m · comedy, thriller, horrorWhen secretive new neighbors move in next door, suburbanite Ray Peterson and his friends let their paranoia get the best of them as they start to suspect the newcomers of evildoing…
#37 Prince of Darkness (1987) · ★ 6.8 · 1,198 votes · 1h 42m · horrorA priest discovers an ancient canister containing a strange liquid in an abandoned church. When a group of graduate students and scientists are tasked with studying it, they unknow…
#38 Phenomena (1985) · ★ 6.8 · 945 votes · 1h 55m · thriller, horrorA young girl, with an amazing ability to communicate with insects, is transferred to an exclusive Swiss boarding school, where her unusual capability might help solve a string of m…
#39 Near Dark (1987) · ★ 6.8 · 915 votes · 1h 34m · horrorA farm boy reluctantly becomes a member of the undead when a girl he meets turns out to be part of a band of vampires who roam the highways in stolen cars.…
#40 Tenebre (1982) · ★ 6.8 · 717 votes · 1h 41m · thriller, horror, mysteryA razor-wielding serial killer is on the loose, murdering those around Peter Neal, an American mystery author in Italy to promote his newest novel.…