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Horror Geeks, assemble! The year was 1985. Thirty-five years ago, that year brought us more classics than we could have hoped for. Seeing these films in the theater, I didn’t realize I was experiencing moments in history. I’ve compiled a list of ten movies from 1985 that should be on your must-watch list.
Sadly, since the year was so abundant with memorable movies, I’ll throw a few against the wall that can easily replace what’s below in the order you’d prefer. Rambo: First Blood Part II. Just getting that out of the way for people who don’t read past the second paragraph. Clue! How could I leave this out? Commando. Oh, Arnold, you type cast champion. Teen Wolf, The Breakfast Club, Return to Oz, Enemy Mine. I’m so sorry you were cut. Ladyhawke, Real Genius, The Black Cauldron, The Last Dragon, You all were great, but the competition was tight. You’ll make it to another list. I promise. Fletch, Day of the Dead, if only I had twelve fingers. Fans of Vision Quest and D.A.R.Y.L., sorry. There aren’t enough dismembered toes.
Honorable Mention: Vampires in Havana
I’d never heard of this animated feature until a little over a year ago. I saw the eye-catching poster in a Cuban cafe nearby the graffito culture Wynwood Walls in Florida. I took note of the ¡Vampiros en La Habana! art, and made a point to watch it. It’s The Pink Panther on methamphetamine in a dirty embrace with 1967’s Mad Monster Party. It’s not my 1985, but I wish it was.
10Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Mad Max (1979) is the Sex Pistols as The Road Warrior (1981) The Clash. Skip ahead to the height of the MTV days, and Beyond Thunderdome is an extended music video that could have had a cameo by Mark Goodman (MTV veejay), and no one would have flinched. While the series basically claimed ownership of the car chase scene and turned it into a genre (apologies to ’70s car classics and stunt porn), this edition became the disco album half a decade after disco made room for new wave. The costumes became even more theatrical and the stunts got as expensive as the decade’s exorbitance.
9Weird Science
You can’t have an ’80s list that doesn’t include John Hughes. It has not aged well, but Weird Science still has its moments between cringing objectification and sophomoric humor. But, hey, that was the ’80s, dude! Kelly LeBrock proved to us boys that we can’t do anything right without women. You’ll want to do that double take at Chet’s ultimate form, because I swear it inspired Pizza the Hutt in Spaceballs (1987) more than Jabba did.
8Silver Bullet
Also, what ’80s list would be complete without Stephen King and his small town horror style? Based on his novella Cycle of the Werewolf, Silver Bullet isn’t awarded the best werewolf transition, but it’s a must for monster fans. The Frog Brothers might be the most popular hunters of classic monsters, but they aren’t the only, first, or last. Silver Bullet is Leprechaun with a werewolf. That sounds like an insult. It’s not. For number nine, it was either Silver Bullet or Cat’s Eye. Don’t rest on Cat’s Eye, it’s just not officially in this list.
7Legend
Tome Cruise has been around for a long time. He’s done so many movies he could rival Kevin Bacon. This dark fairy tale directed by Ridley Scott, and starring the illustrious Tim Curry, is the perfect cover photo for ’80s geek films. It stands today with the help of a walker, but you could glean some of the magic that goes into Guillermo del Toro‘s work so many years later.
6The Goonies
If there was a single movie that delivers the ’80s to the present, look no further. I was already too old to really enjoy The Goonies at the time, but it has stood the test of time as a classic referenced by so much of what we see today. A clear inspiration for Stranger Things, it’s a must view if you like to see how story telling evolves and repeats over time and through generations.
5Re-Animator
See below. This was the invitation. Horror can be funny? Of course (see House II vs House, another 1985 gem not listed here, and you decide which is better)! For less than a million dollars, you can make a movie that ends up on a top ten list 35 years later. This Lovecraftian Frankenstein film happened in the middle of the decade, but it defined the tone for horror in the ’80s. Anyone looking at it through the nightmare-colored glasses of more well known franchises might not realize that.
4Return of the Living Dead
The marriage of comedy and horror happened after a long courtship spanning the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. They said “I do” in the ’80s, and Return of the Living Dead was the wedding reception. Did you hand in your envelope of cash? If not, you don’t deserve the gore cake and dancing around cultural commentary. Zombies are scary as all heck, but they can be funny as all hell!
3Fright Night
Ferris Bueller took a week off and spent it in Salem’s Lot. Before The Lost Boys, there was Fright Night. We all had a weird neighbor we suspected was hiding a nefarious secret. Fright Night is a cult classic that deserves its own viewing before you set foot near the remake.
2Brazil
This dystopian love story should be on every “movies you should see before you die” list. Don’t put it off. If V for Vendetta (2005) and Amélie (2001) had a baby; and A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Children of Men (2006) had a baby; and those babies grew up and had a baby, that baby would be Brazil.
1Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
Unfairly absent from lists everywhere. It’s not in any of the prominent lists’ top 100, but if you think the world would survive without an injection of Pee-Wee Herman’s hope and tenacity, a rewatch of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure might be your best prescription.
RELATED: The 9 Best Cameos in ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’
Stab me with money
