80s Horror
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- DirectorStanley KubrickStarsJack NicholsonShelley DuvallDanny LloydA family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter, where a sinister presence influences the father into violence. At the same time, his psychic son sees horrifying forebodings from both the past and the future.Based on The Shining
by Stephen King - DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsAdrienne BarbeauJamie Lee CurtisJanet LeighLocal legend tells of a ship lured on to the rocks of Antonio Bay being enveloped by a supernatural cloud as it sank; the myth says that when this mysterious fog returns, the victims will rise up from the depths seeking vengeanceThe initial inspiration for The Fog came to Carpenter when he and his collaborator and then-girlfriend, Debra Hill, were promoting their film Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) in England; the two visited Stonehenge during the trip, where they witnessed an eerie fog rolling over the landscape from a distance.[8][9] Carpenter stated that he drew additional inspiration for the story from the British film The Trollenberg Terror (1958), which dealt with monsters hiding in the clouds.
- DirectorSam RaimiStarsBruce CampbellEllen SandweissRichard DeManincorFive friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.
- DirectorJohn IrvinStarsCraig WassonAlice KrigeFred AstaireTwo generations of men find themselves haunted by the presence of a spectral woman. When the son of one of the elderly men returns to his hometown after his brother's mysterious death, they attempt to unravel her story.Based on Ghost Story
by Peter Straub - DirectorJohn LandisStarsDavid NaughtonJenny AgutterJoe BelcherAmerican college students David Kessler and Jack Goodman on a walking tour of Britain are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists. Jack dies. David recovers in a hospital, where he has nightmares.
- DirectorMichael WadleighStarsAlbert FinneyDiane VenoraEdward James OlmosA New York cop investigates a series of brutal deaths that resemble animal attacks.Based on The Wolfen
by Whitley Strieber - DirectorTobe HooperStarsJoBeth WilliamsHeather O'RourkeCraig T. NelsonA family's home is haunted by a host of demonic ghosts.
- DirectorTommy Lee WallaceStarsTom AtkinsStacey NelkinDan O'HerlihyKids all over America want Silver Shamrock masks for Halloween. Doctor Daniel Challis seeks to uncover a plot by Silver Shamrock owner Conal Cochran.Original director Joe Dante recruited veteran British science fiction writer Nigel Kneale to write the original screenplay, mostly because he and Carpenter were admirers of Kneale's Quatermass series.[14] Kneale said his script did not include "horror for horror's sake".[15] He adds, "The main story had to do with deception, psychological shocks rather than physical ones." Kneale asserts that movie mogul Dino De Laurentiis, owner of the film's distribution rights, did not care for it and ordered more graphic violence and gore.[16] While much of the plot remained the same, the alterations displeased Kneale, and he requested that his name be removed from the credits. Director Tommy Lee Wallace was then assigned to revise the script.[17][18][19] He explained in the interview the direction that Carpenter and Hill wanted to take the Halloween series, stating, "It is our intention to create an anthology out of the series, sort of along the lines of Night Gallery, or The Twilight Zone, only on a much larger scale, of course."[20] Each year, a new film would be released that focused on some aspect of the Halloween season.[21][22]
Hill told Fangoria that the film was supposed to be "a 'pod' movie, not a 'knife' movie."[8] As such, Wallace drew inspiration from another pod film: Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).[23] The fictional town of Santa Mira was originally the setting of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and named as such in Halloween III as an homage to Siegel's film.[10] Aspects of the plot proved very similar as well, such as the "snatching" bodies and replacing them with androids.[24] Halloween III's subtitle comes from George A. Romero's second film Season of the Witch (1973)—also known as Hungry Wives—but the plot contains no similarity to Romero's story of a housewife who becomes involved in witchcraft. - DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsKurt RussellWilford BrimleyKeith DavidA research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.Based on Who Goes There?
by John W. Campbell - DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsChristopher WalkenBrooke AdamsTom SkerrittA man awakens from a coma to discover he has a psychic ability to foresee future events.Based on The Dead Zone
by Stephen King - DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsKeith GordonJohn StockwellAlexandra PaulA nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind of its own and his nature starts to change to reflect it.Based on Christine
by Stephen King - DirectorMichael MannStarsScott GlennIan McKellenAlberta WatsonNazis are forced to turn to a Jewish historian for help in battling the ancient demon they have inadvertently freed from its prison.Based on The Keep
by F. Paul Wilson - DirectorTony ScottStarsCatherine DeneuveDavid BowieSusan SarandonA love triangle develops between a beautiful yet dangerous vampire (Catherine Deneuve), her cellist companion (David Bowie), and a gerontologist (Susan Sarandon).Based on The Hunger
1981 novel
by Whitley Strieber - DirectorJoe DanteJohn LandisGeorge MillerStarsDan AykroydAlbert BrooksVic MorrowFour horror and science fiction segments, directed by four famous directors, each of them being a new version of a classic story from Rod Serling's landmark television series.Based on the Twilight Zone TV Series
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsJames WoodsDebbie HarrySonja SmitsA programmer at a Toronto TV station that specializes in adult entertainment searches for the producers of a dangerous and bizarre broadcast.
- DirectorWes CravenStarsHeather LangenkampJohnny DeppRobert EnglundTeenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.A Nightmare on Elm Street contains many biographical elements from director Wes Craven's childhood.[20] The film was inspired by several newspaper articles printed in the Los Angeles Times in the 1970s about Hmong refugees, who, after fleeing to the United States because of war and genocide in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, suffered disturbing nightmares and refused to sleep. Some of the men died in their sleep soon after. Medical authorities called the phenomenon Asian Death Syndrome. The condition afflicted men between the ages of 19 and 57 and was believed to be sudden unexplained death syndrome or Brugada syndrome or both.[21] Craven stated, "It was a series of articles in the LA Times; three small articles about men from South East Asia, who were from immigrant families and had died in the middle of nightmares—and the paper never correlated them, never said, 'Hey, we've had another story like this."[22] The 1970s pop song "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright sealed the story for Craven, giving him not only an artistic setting to jump off from, but a synthesizer riff for the movie soundtrack.[23] Craven has also stated that he drew some inspiration for the film from Eastern religions.[24]
Other sources attribute the inspiration for the film to be a 1968 student film project made by Craven's students at Clarkson University. The student film parodied contemporary horror films, and was filmed along Elm Street in Potsdam, New York.[25][26]
The film's villain, Freddy Krueger, is drawn from Craven's early life. One night, a young Craven saw an elderly man walking on the sidepath outside the window of his home. The man stopped to glance at a startled Craven and walked off. This served as the inspiration for Krueger.[20] Initially, Fred Krueger was intended to be a child molester, but Craven eventually characterized him as a child murderer to avoid being accused of exploiting a spate of highly publicized child molestation cases that occurred in California around the time of the film's production.[18] On Freddy's nature, Craven states that "in a sense, Freddy stands for the worst of parenthood and adulthood – the dirty old man, the nasty father and the adult who wants children to die rather than help them prosper. He's the boogey man and the worst fear of children – the adult that's out to get them. He's a very primal figure, sort of like Kronos devouring his children – that evil, twisted, perverted father figure that wants to destroy and is able to get them at their most vulnerable moment, which is when they're asleep!".[27]
By Craven's account, his own adolescent experiences led him to the name Freddy Krueger; he had been bullied at school by a child named Fred Krueger.[18] Craven had done the same thing in his film The Last House on the Left (1972), where the villain's name was shortened to Krug. Craven chose to make Krueger's sweater red and green after reading an article in a 1982 Scientific American that said these two colors were the most clashing colors to the human retina.[22]
Craven strove to make Krueger different from other horror film villains of the era. In 2014, he recalled, "A lot of the killers were wearing masks: Leatherface, Michael Myers, Jason. I wanted my villain to have a mask, but be able to talk and taunt and threaten. So I thought of him being burned and scarred." He also said the killer should use something other than a knife because it was too common. "So I thought, 'How about a glove with steak knives?' I gave the idea to our special effects guy, Jim Doyle." Ultimately two models of the glove were built: the hero glove that was only used whenever anything needed to be cut, and the stunt glove that was less likely to cause injury.[3] For a time, Craven had considered a sickle as the weapon of choice for the killer, but around the third or fourth drafts of the script, the iconic glove had become his final choice. - DirectorMark L. LesterStarsDrew BarrymoreDavid KeithFreddie JonesA couple who participated in a potent medical experiment gain telepathic ability and then have a child who is pyrokinetic.Based on Firestarter
by Stephen King - DirectorDaniel AttiasStarsGary BuseyEverett McGillCorey HaimIn a small town, brutal killings start to plague the close knit community. Marty Coslaw, a paraplegic boy, is convinced the murders are the doings of a werewolf.Based on Cycle of the Werewolf
by Stephen King - DirectorLewis TeagueStarsDrew BarrymoreJames WoodsAlan KingA stray cat is the linking element of three tales of suspense and horror.Based on "Quitters, Inc." and "The Ledge" by Stephen King
- DirectorTom HollandStarsChris SarandonWilliam RagsdaleAmanda Bearse"Fright Night" sees a teenager believing that the newcomer in his neighborhood is a vampire. He turns to an actor in a television hosted horror movie show for help to deal with the undead.While writing the script for Cloak & Dagger,[5] Tom Holland amused himself when he conceived the idea of a horror-movie fan becoming convinced that his next-door neighbor was a vampire, but he did not initially think this premise was enough to sustain a story. "What's he gonna do", Holland asked, "because everybody's gonna think he's mad!"[6] The story percolated in his mind for a year and finally one day while discussing it with John Byers, then the head of story department at Columbia Pictures,[5] he finally figured out what the boy would do. "Of course, he's gonna go to Vincent Price!"[6] In that era, many local TV stations in the United States had horror hosts (such as Zacherle, Svengoolie, and the nationally syndicated Elvira), so Holland decided it would be natural for the boy to seek aid from his local host. "The minute I had Peter Vincent, I had the story. Charley Brewster was the engine, but Peter Vincent was the heart."[7] Once he'd conceived that character, Holland knocked out the first draft of the script in three weeks.[5][6][8] "And I was laughing the entire time, literally on the floor, kicking my feet in the air in hysterics."
- DirectorWes CravenStarsMatthew LabyorteauxKristy SwansonMichael SharrettAfter his friend is killed by her abusive father, the new kid in town attempts to save her by implanting a robotic microchip into her brain.Based on Friend
by Diana Henstell - DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsJeff GoldblumGeena DavisJohn GetzA brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.Based on The Fly
by George Langelaan - DirectorJoel SchumacherStarsJason PatricCorey HaimDianne WiestWhen a recently divorced mother and her two teenage boys move to a coastal town to stay with her father, it doesn't take long for the brothers to realize the area is a haven for something much more sinister than party-going surfers.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsDonald PleasenceLisa BlountJameson ParkerA group of graduate students and scientists uncover an ancient canister in an abandoned church, but when they open the container, they inadvertently unleash a strange liquid and an evil force on all humanity.
- DirectorTibor TakácsStarsStephen DorffChrista DentonLouis TrippKids left home alone accidentally unleash a horde of malevolent demons from a mysterious hole in their suburban backyard.The first draft of the script was written by Michael Nankin when he was unemployed and recently divorced, basing it on "the nastiest thoughts from [his] childhood".[5][6] Glen and Al were depicted as being more mischievous than shown in the final film, and the demons spread to the rest of the town, where they would drag neighbors out into the streets to kill them. The gigantic demon was originally envisioned as being made of bloody entrails.