It was a wonderful time to bea horror fan in the 1980s. A time of great experimentation for the genre, horror films of the decade took a more raw and gory approach, stapling themselves as some of the most memorable and creative movies of the period.The rise of independent filmmakingand VHS home video allowed many filmmakers to find an audience in different ways, paving the way for what was to come in the ’90s. One of the most notable sub-genres, thanks in large part to the possibility of gore, was the demon/possession films, which count as some of the best of the decade. Here is a list on the very best:
8Prince of Darkness (1987)
Legendary director John Carpenter’s1987 classic is a riveting journey into science, religion, and madness. It follows a group of scientists who are experimenting with an ancient cylinder that is believed to contain Satan in liquid form. They slowly begin to realize that they’re being killed off one by one by demons possessing their bodies. The movie is a slow burn (as most of Carpenter’s films are) that relishes in the build-up and the atmospheric tension it creates throughout the whole movie. It never relents and always builds-up, putting constant obstacles in the characters' way and forcing them to separate and form plans.
7Night of the Demons (1988)
An underrated cult classic,Night of the Demonscombines the classic tropes of slasher films and the descent into madness of possession films, blending the two to form a well-made movie many horror fans have come to love. When a group of teenagers decide to spend the night at an abandoned mortuary in the hopes of having a good time, their luck turns on them as one of the members is immediately possessed by a demon. She then begins to possess the rest of the group and turns the whole journey into a macabre spectacle of punk and gore.
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6Hellraiser (1987)
Clive Barker’s directorial debut was one for the ages. It holds no punches from the very beginning, introducing the viewer to nightmarish images of blood and organs, along with the introduction of a collection of mutilated and disjointed figures. The movie slowly reveals to us, they are in fact demons in the search of victims, and that one of their particular victims has escaped back to the real world, setting the plot of the story in motion. The effects are nothing short of filthy and mesmerizing, completely making you believe that there is such a place as hell in this world. Pinhead and his cohorts are the very embodiment of terror on screen, filling the air with morbid fright in every second of screen time. The film is truly a nightmarish creation perfect to leave any horror aficionado squirming with interest.
5The Hidden (1987)
This film is the very definition of a hidden gem. Rarely talked about today, though this is quickly changing, the film stands out for its engaging plot and succinct ’80s vibe. The movie follows a parasitic alien resembling a black giant worm using human bodies as hosts running amok the streets of Los Angeles; every time he is about the get caught, he discards the body and finds another victim to possess. It is up to a mysterious FBI detective (Kyle MacLachlan, in his first role as an FBI agent) and a Police Lieutenant to team up and bring him to justice. It’s truly astounding not only of how many science fiction tropes it uses, but in how similar the themes and plots used can be found in modern action/adventure filmmaking. With this in mind, the film acts more as a prototype for the kind of film that we’re going to get made a few decades later, making it an even more fascinating relic of the time.
The film’s destructive force of evil is very similar toThe Terminatorin that he never stops or relents from his mission of causing as much chaos as possible; he is always on the move and one step ahead, and it is through this that we find the charm of the character. The dynamic between our two cops is endearing and revealing, grounding the movie to more relatable tones.
4Child’s Play (1988)
After thief Charles Lee Ray is shot and cornered in a convenience store, his weapon of last resort is a voodoo incantation that transports his soul into a fictional Good Guys toy figure. When he is subsequently bought by an unsuspecting mother as a gift to her son Andy, Chucky (as he refers to himself when speaking as a doll) mechanizes a plan to switch bodies with him and continue his life of as a petty criminal. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that what truly made Child’s Play such a classic was its titular villain.
Chucky stands out as a horror antagonist unlike any of the others for his crude and mild humor more than anything else. It accentuates his differences by adding an element of black humor to the franchise, one heavily present in the rest of the movies. With Don Mancini’s fantastic story and Tom Holland’s bright yet moody direction,Child’s Playachieved a level of notoriety only a few other horror films did,establishing a still-running franchiseand forever enriching itself in the pantheon of memorable movies with scary dolls, right next toE.T.
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Acting as a spiritual sequel to the firstEvil Dead, the second installment featured a better budget, a polished story, and an element of comedy that made it one of the most legendary horror films ever made. Straight out of the depths of Sam Raimi’s mind,Evil Dead 2takes the first film’s existential dread and transforms it into a nihilistic adventure that completely shifts the tone while introducing a more coherent mythology behind the demonic possessions. Two plots interject: the aftermath of Ash’s experience in the possessed cabin, and the cabin owner’s daughter’s quest to visit said cabin.
When both plots meet the movie turns into a bloody spectacle of horror and amusement, succinctly making it stand out as a staple of the genre for decades to come. From Ash’s iconic “Groovy” to his shenanigans with his possessed hand, the movie holds no punches and puts our characters through the wringer. The effects are much better than the original and the plot threads are more coherent, tying Ash’s humanity to the love he had for his possessed girlfriend and making him both the comic relief and hero of the story. All the elements combine to bring forth a once-in-a-lifetime effort that firmly solidified theEvil Deadfranchise as one of the premier horror franchises in history.
2Demons (1985)
Directed by Lamberto Bava, Mario Bava’s son, and produced by Dario Argento,Demonsis one of the best giallo-like films of the decade. After a woman in a group of friends puts on a mysterious mask while in a movie theater exhibition, she accidentally cuts her face and begins to slowly transform into a demonic monster who immediately begins killing and infecting victims. Her transformation occurs while a crowd of people are watching a movie, and before they know it, half the theater is infected, turning the situation into a survival scenario. We follow the many groups introduced across the first 10 minutes try to escape the hellish hole they find themselves in, all while the viewer is treated with a practical effects galore of blood, green blood, goo, peeled skin, and tendons. Bava went the extra mile and delivered a riveting suspense thriller full of everything a horror fan would want, all the while a selection of the best punk rock songs of the time rolled through the chaos of it all.
While many make a caseEvil Dead 2is the best film of the trilogy, the first installment has always been championed by many fans as the true king. The biggest selling point for the argument is theshockingly low $350,000 budget. A simple story of a group of teenagers visiting an abandoned cabin only to be possessed or killed by some unknown entity haunting the woods was a trope that was previously used in films likeTexas ChainsaworA Bay of Blood, butThe Evil Deadstands out with its gritty amateurism. Director Sam Raimi and company, with very little resources, were able to not only create a believable and lived world, but the perfect tone and atmosphere a movie with such content requires. While the effects are far from the best, there is something endearing about them; the plastic makeup was fantastically painted and the behavior of the demons reaches an eerie form of taunting. Where the film truly makes its mark is in its absolutely disgusting ending, where we see all the demons decompose into buckets of goo, bones, and cockroaches, leaving you feeling nothing but dread, and what more could you ask for in a horror film?
