The Good, The Bad, and the Outrageous: 1980s Horror Cinema

The 1980s proved a watershed period for horror cinema, seeing taboos broken, technology flourish, and storytelling go off in wild directions. Scenarios became more outrageous, more over-the-top, and were often leavened with a liberal dose of black humor that upped the fun factor exponentially. Additionally, during the Reagan/Thatcher era, film seemed to become that much more transgressive and satirical, perhaps in reaction to the stifling, backward-looking conservatism of the times. The Good, the Bad and the Outrageous: 1980s Horror Cinema highlights a mix of '80s heavy hitters like An American Werewolf in London, The Thing, and A Nightmare on Elm Street; lesser-known but creditable efforts such as Alligator, Dead & Buried, and Motel Hell; and unique obscurities like The Children, Boardinghouse, and Tales of the Third Dimension that comprise the most impressive and engaging the '80s had to offer. And there are some doozies from this pivotal decade that brought us the slasher phenomenon, SPFX creators as rock stars, and outrageous sights like a man cutting off his own hand with a chainsaw before attaching it to his bloody stump; a fetus-sucking detached witch-head flying through the night with internal organs dangling from its gory neck; and a reanimated disembodied head giving head. Horror films frequently push boundaries, and at no time was this truer than the 1980s.

The VHS boom resulted in more horror films being produced than ever before, with over 1700 genre movies released from 1980 through 1989 (chronicled here in an extensive descriptive listing). But beyond sheer volume, the decade remains hyper-relevant today because of its touchstone status, with modern filmmakers taking inspiration from, and even directly referencing, a myriad of '80s horrors. The Good, the Bad and the Outrageous takes a kaleidoscopic excursion through some of the best, worst (yet still enormously enjoyable) and craziest cinematic artifacts of the time. Through critical examination, historical context, production history, and the filmmakers' own stories and insights, it takes a deep-dive into 88 prime specimens that not only serve as guiding cinematic lights/influencers, but as thought-provoking, emotion-inspiring and, above all, entertaining exemplars of 1980s horror cinema.

Bryan Senn has been writing about cinema for over three decades, authoring a dozen books and hundreds of articles on the cinema macabre. His works include Golden Horrors; A Year of Fear; The Most Dangerous Cinema; The Werewolf Filmography; Here There Be Monsters: Interviews and Essays on Classic (and Not So Classic) Horror Cinema; Ski Films; and Mummy Movies. He lives in Montana with his wife and several cats, enjoying the natural beauty, fantastic skiing, and pursuing his cinematic passions (and writing about them).