We’ve listed 10 underrated 1980s horror movies that are spectacular. They are movies that frighten at the same proportion as they amuse those who watch, having chilling stories and breathtaking plot-twists.
10 – Terror Train (1980)
A masked killer targets six college kids responsible for a prank gone wrong three years earlier and who are currently throwing a large New Year’s Eve costume party aboard a moving train.
9 – Dead & Buried (1981)
After a series of gory murders commited by mobs of townspeople against visiting tourists, the corpses appear to be coming back to life and living normally as locals in the small town.
8 – Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
Bubba, an intellectually disabled man, is falsely accused of attacking a young girl. Disguised as a scarecrow, he hides in a cornfield, only to be hunted down and shot by four vigilante men. After they are acquitted due to lack of evidence, the men find themselves being stalked one by one.
7 – The Funhouse (1981)
Rebellious teen Amy defies her parents by going to a trashy carnival that has pulled into town. In tow are her boyfriend, Buzz, and their friends Liz and Richie. Thinking it would be fun to spend the night in the campy “Funhouse” horror ride, the teens witness a murder by a deformed worker wearing a mask. Locked in, Amy and her friends must evade the murderous carnival workers and escape before it leaves town the next day.
6 – Ghost Story (1981)
Four successful elderly gentlemen, members of the Chowder Society, share a gruesome, 50-year old secret. When one of Edward Wanderley’s twin sons dies in a bizarre accident, the group begins to see a pattern of frightening events developing.
5 – Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
Virginia is proud that she belongs to a clique. The best students at a private school. But before her 18th birthday, a grueling set of murders take place and her friends are the ones who are falling prey. Could it be her? She suffers from blackouts due to a freak accident one year earlier. We soon learn the truth behind her accident and what is going on.
4 – The Howling (1981)
After a bizarre and near fatal encounter with a serial killer, a newswoman is sent to a rehabilitation center whose inhabitants may not be what they seem.
3 – Night School (1981)
A Boston police detective investigates a series of gruesome decapitations of various college coeds commited by a helmeted, black-leather clad serial killer which leads him to suspect a well known anthropology professor as well as his female live-in assistant.
2 – Alone in the Dark (1982)
A quartet of murderous psychopaths break out of a mental hospital during a power blackout and lay siege to their doctor’s house.
1 – Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Dr. Daniel Challis and Ellie Grimbridge stumble onto a gruesome murder scheme when Ellie’s novelty-salesman father, Harry, is killed while in possession of a halloween mask made by the Silver Shamrock mask company. The company’s owner, Conal Cochran, wants to return Halloween to its darker roots using his masks – and his unspeakable scheme would unleash death and destruction across the country.