13 Going on 30: 13 Must-See Horror Films from 1989

A deep indie Troma release from November of ‘89, Beware! Children at Play enjoys the infamy of one of the most brutal finales in ‘80s cinema history. When the trailer played at Cannes before a screening of Tromeo & Juliet, it cleared about half the theatre. This thing is almost as brutal as the Rambo (2008) sequence when the Burmese soldiers raid the village. And despite it’s proclivity to gut-churning “what the hell?!” violence, it’s still a thoughtful film, both provocative and intriguing.

Children go missing, presumably taken by things called “woodies,” and simultaneously adults are being ritualistically murdered. With inspiration taken from literary totem Beowolf, and a bit of cannibal cultism thrown in for good measure, the film features such wonderful horror tropes as mob rule, fervent religiosity, and Troma-expected graphic violence. It feels like something between 2000 Maniacs and Village of the Damned, and is a must-watch indie of 1989. 

Somewhere between after-school special and all-out slasher, Cutting Class is a winning combination of B-movie schlock, John Hughesian teen melodrama, and formula slasher. Starring a heart-throbbingly young, pre-Thelma and Louise Brad Pitt (doing his best James Dean impersonation), the film centers on the mysterious deaths at a high school and the revolving door of men who want to get into leading lady Paula’s pants. The film features a wild soundtrack of original pop cheese written by Andy Prieboy and performed by “Walls of Voodoo” (yes, the guys who did “Mexican Radio”). This coupled with a cavalcade of genre favs including Nancy Fish as weasley teacher Mrs. Knotch, Martin Mull as hunter/lawyer/feckless father William Carson, and Roddy McDowall as skeevy Principal Dante.

It’s a satisfying late entry in the slasher subgenre of the ‘80s, which by that time was so saturated it was hard to determine worthwhile and worthless watches. Cutting Class: definitely worthwhile in the campiest way possible.

A Sean S. Cunningham production (as if that’s not enough to get you ready to watch) The Horror Show stars the always amazing Lance Henriksen as detective Lucas McCarthy. After apprehending serial killer “Meat Cleaver Max” Jenke (Brion James) and watching him die in the electric chair, McCarthy, his family, and his home are haunted by the vengeful spirit of Max. Turns out, MC made a deal with the devil before shock treatment – to tear Detective Lucas’s world apart. It has a dark, haunting atmosphere covered in fog and fire, and takes itself very seriously as a terror from beyond the grave late-phase supernatural slasher.

Its gritty detective moments are strongly suited counterparts to killer Max’s sadistic mayhem. There are deep fried body parts, sweaty loud-mouth detectives, pulsating chest gashes, and Poltergeist-level interdimensional phenomena reminiscent of when Freddy was still scary. Brion James, in one of his only leading roles, is a premiere villain for this truly underwatched horror film. 

Shocker is the rock-and-roll, blood-and-batshit brother of The Horror Show in almost every way. A serial killer on the loose, a detective’s family in the line of fire, and an electric chair deal-with-the-devil execution; it’s almost as though the same script was plucked from the reader pile and adapted with departurist supernatural flair. From a poltergeist to pure electric energy, Wes Craven’s take has a bit more gusto when it comes to visual FX, with psychedelic TV sequences and more lightning than rubbing your hair on Pennywise’s balloon.

Mitch Pileggi (who will always be “Skinner” in everything he’s in) plays the serial killer turned ball of energy with furious commitment. Despite how ludicrous the film ends up (mainly due to Peter Berg capturing the spirit of Mark Patton ala Freddy’s Revenge), it’s one of Craven’s more fun and frantic films that allows itself horror themes without ever getting too heavy, and is a great revisit for a Sunday afternoon watch. 

Trying to find new locations for a horror story we’ve seen before, Intruder takes on the challenge with the endearing locale of a small, going-out-of-business supermarket. There’s not much more to say about Intruder, as it plays totally straight as a slasher: a set location with a small group of sexually rowdy teens, a couple “we got a job to do” adults, a red herring ex-boyfriend, an array of opportunistic murder weapons, and a playful killer who hides body parts throughout the discount aisles for soon-to-be victims to find.

The film was produced by Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, with appearances by Sam as Randy (just Randy), brother Ted Raimi as Produce Joe, and Bruce as Officer Howard. As expected, this team brings with it moments of horror levity, like blood-spewing beer cans and ironic safety signage, to cap off every creative kill. I find the ending to be a real pay off, turning the tables on the typical “the killer is still alive” motif and throwing some handcuffs on what would have been a standard slasher finale.

When it comes to Stephen King adaptations, there tends to be a near 50/50 split – it’s going to be a memorable, terrifying masterpiece or it’s going to be The Langoliers. Some of the latter films have grown cult followings over the years, with less outright admonishment and more love of the attempt (Sleepwalkers and Riding the Bullet come to mind). Some will always be masterworks (ala Kubrick’s The Shining – which King openly hates – and Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption). In a very rare middle ground between nigh unwatchable and masterclass of filmmaking exists the 1989 adaptation of Pet Sematary. Directed by Mary Lambert, and not greatly deviating from the source material, it’s a movie that captures King’s horrific vision of familial loss, ancient mythos, and undead things. King had a firm hand in developing the project (something that was kind of a mixed bag in other works), and it introduced the world to Miko Hughes – one of the most terrifying and talented children to ever grace the silver screen. To say nothing of Zelda, a character so horrifying, you have to see her to believe it.

There’s so much to say about ‘89s Pet Sematary, but much of it has already been said. For the purpose of this list, just watch it. Remake be damned – this is a rare example of King’s vision truly coming to life on celluloid (I use rare loosely, since It, Gerald’s Game, and 11/22/63 have done expert jobs of keeping the original story in tact – and with Dr. Sleep on the horizon – hopefully more of that to come). 

An exercise in cyberpunk body-horror and a real first of its kind, Tetsuo: the Iron Man is a psychotically stimulating film that’s as abstract as it is narrative. The story centers on Salaryman, a man tormented by a metal fetishist with the ability to psychically manipulate metal objects – many times using the metal to possess a human body. The fetishist is able to grow (or embed, it’s not really clear) metal into Salaryman – turning him into a grotesque cyborg with a gigantic drill dick. But there’s more history here, as the fetishist has not randomly targeted Salaryman and his girlfriend, but is on a quest for revenge culminating in a junkyard fusion battle with apocalyptic intentions.

The flurry of stop motion animation played at breakneck speed paired with high-contrast cinematography makes the film feel ripped from the pages from a manga. It’s hyperkinetic, not made for casual viewing, and highly original. A perversely sardonic tale that breaks as many rules as it follows, if you love the Davids (Lynch and Cronenberg), then you best put this on your viewing list. Now. 

Directed by the dream demon himself, Robert “Freddy Krueger” Englund (as the trailer for this murky little cult horror calls him), 976-Evil is the tale of a premium rate phone line that gives out “horrorscopes.” Nerdy teen Hoax (played by Fright Night’s Evil Ed, Stephen Geoffreys) become somewhat infatuated with the phone service and why not? It’s run by the devil (the area code was 666, for Freddy’s sake!). Hoax’s mother is an overly religious cat lady who constantly chastises her already bullied son, and in Christine-like fashion, Hoax’s possession escalates as his bad boy cousin, Spike, tries to save Hoax from himself. Just as it sounds, it’s a manic movie, with fish falling from the sky, armies of spiders, and a pit to hell in a suburban living room.

As enjoyably ludicrous as all this sounds, there are some genuinely creepy moments – like the slow pan across the top of graffitied bathroom stalls while we listen to the hack and slash of another kill. It’s got the gratifying gore to boot (provided by Kevin Yagher) and dials into its place in the canon of so-good-its-bad horror flicks of the 1980s. 

A classist divide beyond Blane and Andie in Pretty in Pink, Society is a grotesque and gaudy film that splattered the way for Brian Yuzna as a breakout director of body horror. It’s the imagery of Lovecraft and Cronenberg with the societal cynicism of Carpenter, all the while maintaining a firm grasp of standard horror tropes like paranoia, disbelief, and compulsive hair eating.

Teen Billy is an outsider in his own family, caring more about basketball than socializing, but good thing his sister gets him. Until she doesn’t. After her “coming out party,” Jenny is just more and more like their parents – smarmy and schmoozy – and developing a cringe-worthy familiarity with the old men of the community. Growing more convinced that these upper-crust “parties” are more than just champagne and caviar, Billy attempts to uncover the mystery that is “the shunting” – a seemingly ritualistic indoctrination into high society. The film culminates in an FX-driven climax (thank you, Screaming Mad George) that knocks our heads all the way up our butts. 

Before Mom & Dad, Mandy, and the upcoming Color Out of Space, Nicolas Cage had been sidelined to ‘90s action fair. With a few dramatic and comedic departures, you wouldn’t find the “California Klaus Kinski” (his words) connected to the horror genre other than his whacked-out mind. But in 1989, there was one. A young, eccentric Cage lent his more peculiar talents to what would become one of the greatest screen-captures of all time in Vampire’s Kiss. While this is definitely “horror-light,” focusing more on a psychological decline than actual terror, it’s such a weird and wild watch with Cage’s performance as man convinced he’s becoming a vampire taking over every mad-cap scene. A practice in daylight horror (an odd but probably deliberate choice for a vampire film) adds to its curiously captivating plot.

There are random bat attacks, fervent yelling, eye bulging, coffin couches, and plastic fangs. There are hallucinatory sequences of “did he/didn’t he” that never actually get answered and draw an overarching unease that’s simultaneously entertaining and uncomfortable – a solid recipe for a b-movie broadcast that really is a must-watch (specifically for Nic Cage fans). 

David Webb Peoples is probably one of the biggest, most important names in science fiction screenwriting. He wrote Blade Runner, 12 Monkeys, Soldier, and The Blood of Heroes, to name a few, and acclaimed non-sci-fi western Unforgiven. And in 1989, he and director George Cosmatos (Tombstone) brought us a claustrophobic deep-sea creature feature in Leviathan.

Something akin to Event Horizon under the sea, genre great Peter Weller leads a fairly standard cast of characters on an undersea mission that discovers soviet shipwreck Leviathan. After investigating the ship, and discovering a questionable flask of soviet vodka, two crew members drink the stuff – and very soon after the mutations begin. The creature is tremendously satisfying, as equal parts human mutation and ancient, deep sea relic. Stan Winston lends his formidable creature talent as mayhem and paranoia grow into a full-on feeding frenzy. One reviewer at the time of release said that it “will doubtlessly be forgotten in two weeks,” and 30 years later, I’m still happy to recommend it to horror-fans over and over again! 

Director Joe Dante has a wonderfully tight relationship with spooky-not-scary fair that really caps off any Hallowe’en celebration. It’s a “fun for all ages” aesthetic, which is why The ‘Burbs stands out as simultaneously creepy and cool, funky and frightening, and just so full of Tom Hanks being his adorable ’80s self. Hanks plays Ray, a bored husband home from work for a week with nothing to do but convince the neighborhood their new tenants are Satanic fiends. And, who wouldn’t? With Henry Gibson as head of household, fresh off his “Illionis Nazi” role in The Blues Brothers, everyone knew he was evil. We also get Bruce Dern as the Ted Nugent-wannabe war vet and Rick Ducommun as the supportive yet incompetent best friend-to-the-end as accomplices to Ray’s increasingly nosy and ridiculous plotting to prove the weirdos next door are deadly.

There are wonderfully demented sequences in Ray’s imagination that add to the horror-comedy of it all. For every moment of believing the ritualistic killings are real, there’s just as much conviction that the film is spoofing us with its use of typical horror tropes and red herrings. And what good horror fan hasn’t concocted a crazy story about their neighbors being ghost-vampires or were-zombies or witch-golems. Right? 

This wild, abstract, auteur work by Alejandro Jodorowsky released in 1989 is probably the closest the filmmaker has come to a narrative horror film, despite some truly chilling imagery in his other works. Still not exactly “horror,” the imagery and subject matter do place it in the Un Chien Andalou side of horror history. There are elements of giallo, oedipal complexes ala Psycho but missing some appendages, and slasher “light” with much of the horror coming from hallucinatory sequences where the dead don’t stay that way.

The plot revolves around Fenix, son of two circus performers with a kinship to the carnival’s elephant. But his father is a drunk adulterer and his mother is an overly-religious (in not the way you’d think) trapeze artist. One night, involving hydrochloric acid, a tattooed lady, and arm-tearing, the family is pulled apart, and Fenix’s journey just gets more bizarre and blood-drenched from there. If you’re into the avant-garde and haven’t played your hand at this one yet, just know that it’s in season!

(Dis)Honorable Mention: Parents

I, personally, do not like this movie. It plays like a big fat missed opportunity of talent. The story is slow, and with such a rich “80s are the new 50s,” slay-and-eat-the-spoiled-calf message that it really should have been a special little comedy of horrors. But it’s slow. I can’t say it enough. Very…freaking…slow. AND it’s a SHORT movie, and it’s slow. Not to mention, the kid is action-less, bland, and doesn’t carry the weight he needs to to make the plot points work. That being said, I do know many people like this movie, enjoy this movie, and find it to be refreshingly dark. A true black comedy. So there. I mentioned it. Consider it mentioned.

Which 1989 horror films are your favorite? Be sure to let us know in comments below or on social media!

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