The 1980s—Horror’s Greatest Decade

 

In the more than one century of Horror cinema, there have been many watershed years, years that have shaped and defined the genre.  1922 saw the first truly great Horror film—Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau.  1931 marked the birth of the American Horror film, as Universal unleashed its twin titans, Dracula and Frankenstein.  1951 which marked the beginning of the era of the Science Fiction Horrors with the release of The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Thing from Another World.  And 1968, wherein one movie, George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, separated what had been considered Horror, from what would henceforth be Horror—with a line that was sharp and bright, and black and white.

But those were individual years, brief moments in time that stand out because a small, discrete number of films released in those years were transformative to the genre.  Though great Horror films may have been produced in the years preceding or following the years we have singled out, they lack the importance of those we have chosen.

But what if there were an entire decade that was, start to finish, that transformative, that influential, to the genre as a whole?  What if there was a decade that altered how filmmakers made Horror films; how distributors marketed Horror films; and how the horror fans viewed Horror films?  We’ve discussed how one or two films, in a single extraordinary year can change the way the Horror film is perceived by the public.  Can there be an extraordinary decade of extraordinary years?  There can be, and there was—the years from 1980 to 1989, the decade of the 1980s.

In the ‘80s, each year saw an increasingly rich cornucopia of Horror flooding Drive-Ins, Main Street theaters, Multiplexes, and eventually, our neighborhood video stores.  The decade began with movies such as Alligator, The Awakening, The Changeling, Fade to Black, The Fog, Friday the 13^th, Humanoids from the Deep, Maniac, Motel Hell, Prom Night, and The Shining.  It ended with La Chiesa (The Church), Leviathan, Offerings, Pet Sematary, Society, and

The Woman in Black.  In between lay a decade filled with some of the greatest Horror films ever made. 

The decade opened strong, with films such as An American Werewolf in London, Dead and Buried, Ghost Story, My Bloody Valentine, and Scanners in 1981.  1982 gave us Basket Case, Cat People, Creepshow, Pieces, Poltergeist, The Slumber Party Massacre, and John Carpenter’s The Thing, keeping the streak going.  1983 was no less impressive—Cujo and Christine, Psycho II and Sleepaway Camp.

In this spectacular decade, 1984 would have to be regarded as the standout year.  Any year that saw the release of C.H.U.D., Children of the Corn, Firestarter, Gremlins, Night of the Comet, and Silent Night, Deadly Night would be a memorable one by any standard.  However, in November of that year we would see the release of one of the most important movies of the decade, the film that launched the third great Slasher franchise, Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street.  Freddy Krueger, personified by a stellar performance by Robert Englund, redefined the Slasher genre.  The first era of the Slasher had passed its zenith, and the second era, characterized less by the silent, psychopathic, “unstoppable” slashers, and more by the smart, wisecracking, undeniably supernatural beings such as Freddy, Chuckie, or the evil Djinn from the Wishmaster films, had begun.

1985 was only slightly less remarkable than the preceding year.  Several of the best Horror films of the decade were released in 1985, films such as the conclusion to George Romero’s Dead trilogy, Day of the Dead; Fright Night, directed by Tom Holland; Tobe Hooper’s space vampire film Lifeforce; Re-Animator, directed by Stuart Gordon, and based on a story by H. P. Lovecraft; The Return of the Living Dead, Dan O’Bannon’s self-referential take on the Romero Zombie-verse; Silver Bullet, based on a Stephen King graphic novel, and directed by Daniel Attias; and Larry Cohen’s The Stuff.

1986, while not the equal of the previous two years in terms of quality, certainly excelled in terms of quantity.  Aliens, April Fool’s Day, Chopping Mall, Demons, The Fly, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Hitcher, House, Night of the Creeps, Rawhead Rex, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2—among others.  None, with the possible exception of Night of the Creeps, are great movies (and yes, that’s my opinion … but then, everything I write is my opinion).  But they’re all good—and that’s a lot of good movies for one year.

1987 was the first year of the final third of the decade.  By this point, most Horror fans would be expecting a let-down, but the ‘80s offered no real let-downs.  Yes, if you only associate ‘80s Horror with Slasher movies, then you will be disappointed as the decade wears on.  But ‘80s Horror was so much more than that.  Of the films that I consider the year’s standouts, none are Slasher films.  Angel Heart, Evil Dead 2, Hellraiser, The Lost Boys, The Monster Squad, Near Dark, Night of the Demons, John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness—they show the breadth of Horror in the 1980s.

Likewise, 1988 saw the release of some of my favorite ‘80s movies.  Beetlejuice, The Blob, The Church, Child’s Play, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, The Lady in White, Pumpkinhead, and Waxwork might not have been the decade’s biggest or best, but they were highly entertaining, and hugely successful.

The end of the 1980s marked the end of this period of unparalleled Horror film popularity.  Fittingly, 1989 lacked some of the excellence of the rest of the decade, though there are still gems to be had.  Three in particular served to ring out the ‘80s in style, and all three are uniquely ‘80s movies.  The ‘Burbs, directed by the great Joe Dante, and starring Tom Hanks, came towards the tail end of the actor’s forays into comedy, and this is one of his better examples, as well as being an excellent Horror Comedy.  Mary Lambert’s Pet Sematary might be the best adaptation yet of a Stephen King novel.  And Society, directed by Brian Yuzna, is the perfect summation to the “decade of greed and excess.”

Were the 1980s Horror’s greatest decade?  While any use of the appellation “greatest” is by its very nature subjective, I certainly believe that it applies in this instance.  Yes, the first half of the decade of the 1930s were certainly groundbreaking, marking the birth of the American concept of the Horror film.  One could make an argument for the latter half of the ‘60s, or the opening years of the 21^st Century.  Even today, occasionally, the Horror gods smile down on Hollywood and we are blessed with a phenomenal year or two.  But never before, and never since, have we had a full decade as spectacular, as impactful to the genre, as the decade of the 1980s.