It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Welcome to the late eighties, a much-revered era in the horror genre, and for many horror fans, the foundation of their love for it. The period from 1985 to 1989 was filled with fun, gory, and very rewatchable movies. It was also the era of the unstoppable (and highly profitable) horror franchises. Join the Scariest Things for our deeper dive into the late eighties in Episode 217.
The early eighties gave us a spate of slasher movies. The late eighties gave us their sequels, sometimes once a year. While many will bemoan the cookie-cutter nature of some sequels, a few surpassed or matched their source material. Aliens (1987), Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987), Day of the Dead (1985), and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) were triumphs as franchise offerings. Many will also say that Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986) was the best of that franchise… though that may be a fairly low threshold to clear.
Beyond the sequelpalooza trend, studios also returned to some horror roots and gave us rebooted films, tapping into B-movies and improving them a lot. The Fly. The Blob. Little Shop of Horrors. All of those films understood the core value and elevated the material beyond its humble roots. The eighties continued to successfully tap into Stephen King’s catalog, with mixed results. The era starts with Cat’s Eye (1985), Silver Bullet (1985), Stand By Me (1986), Creepshow 2 (1987), and culminates with perhaps the strongest offering, Pet Sematary (1989).
What is largely missing from this era are iconic original content films. Prince of Darkness (1987) may be the closest thing we have to a well-executed original concept, but compared to today’s story-first, character-centric landscape, the late eighties leaned more into raw entertainment. For pure entertainment, it’s hard to beat The Lost Boys (1987) for a fun, sexy take on vampires and a rock-and-roll cool vibe. Apart from Sigourney Weaver’s Oscar nomination for Ripley in Aliens, and the snub that should have given Jeff Goldblum a nomination for The Fly, the horror offerings from this era weren’t exactly trying to garner Academy Awards. They chased the dollars and managed to turn a tidy profit.
Killing Never Felt So Good
Gone were the bleak and despairing themes of the seventies. The eighties delivered killing teenagers as a spectator sport. This time period aimed to give audiences a good time. Even the Romero movies of this time reveled in the spectacle. Gone were the apocalyptic endings. In a way, this was embracing the attitudes of fifties B-movie fare, but with sex and gore as a tantalizing coating. The offerings were pure popcorn fare. Do you want some blood on your popcorn? Sure you do!
There would be a price to pay, however. Eventually, people got tired of the cookie-cutter franchise mentality. Cheering for the villain became routine, and even someone as loathsome as Leatherface would become something of a comic book character. The stories struggled to evoke real fear or emotional connections, and the nineties struggled with reconciling the hangover from the franchise era. Wes Craven was acutely aware of the state of the horror union, so he gave us a meta reading of his own material with A New Nightmare and, eventually, Scream.
The Podcast: Episode 217
Gen-X horror fans still retain warm feelings for their favorites from this time. We enjoyed being scared. The scares were a roller coaster ride, not a lecture. Scattered throughout the eighties are some overlooked gems that defied the stereotype of the times, and The Scariest Things has endeavored to uncover some of these films for you in Episode 217: Horror History – The Late Eighties Franchise Era!
If you want to hear about the early eighties, check out Episode 215: The VHS Era.
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… and that’s just scratching the surface!