The 10 Best Horror Films of the 80s

Evil robots! Vampire worms! Terrifying carpet!

Index to Best of Horror by Decade.

Many of the major directors and genres of modern horror were established during the 70s. But Cronenberg, Carpenter, Stephen King adaptations, body horror, slashers and more replicated wetly and crawled into their true skin suits in the high gloss 80s.  Look upon the most hideous visages of the decade and despair!

10. Re-Animator (1985)

Lots of mad scientists cackle with glee. But it’s hard to think of a Dr. Frankenstein knock-off who takes as much sheer pleasure in his work as director Stuart Gordon and his self-insert, Herbert West (Jeffrey Coombs.)

Re-Animator has a notional plot in there about a couple (Bruce Abbott and Barbara Crampton) thwarted by her disapproving professor father. But mainly the film is just an excuse for the intensely smirking West to pull out his glowing green serum and inject it into various corpses, leading to chaos and macabre FX.  Nothing quite captures the joy of horror films like Herbert looking back and forth between a head and a body and exclaiming, “I’ve never done whole parts before!” Then, of course, he brings them back to life.