The '80s Project: The Horror of 1980

There was just something special about the '80s when you're talking about movies, and even more so when you're talking about "genre" pictures. It's arguably the mostimportant era for horror and sci-fi, with a large chunk of the output of the decade helping todefine where their futures would lead.Sure, the '30s were essentially the birthplace of horror, what with the Universalmonsters rearing their heads.Sure, the '50s would explode the sci-fi boom with the fear of technological advancesand growing interest in space exploration.Sure, the '70s would legitimize horror by allowing auteurs to dare to infuse a level ofhigh art into their narratives and explore deeper themes.But, none of those could touch the '80s. The '80s Project is my effort to relive the experience of the timeframe in which the films that shaped my infatuation with horror andsci-fi flourished. I decided to make an effort to watch all of the horror and sci-fi filmsreleased in the decade, in order of when they were released.Now, for the sake of brevity, and let's face it, my sanity, i can't watch EVERYTHING. SoI had to create some ground rules for how this would all work. First off, i eliminated shortfilms. To get on the Project, it would have to be a feature length film. Secondly, i cast asidethe vast majority of TV movies, although I chose to include some. Third, i had to get rid ofsome of the international entries, mainly due to just being irrelevant through an Americanperspective, but also due to availability. In order to watch them and include them here, I hadto be able to find them, and let's face it, some of the more obscure Indonesian horror filmsaren't exactly at our fingertips. That being said, I didn't want to only stick to US theatricalreleases, since that would eliminate a large number of important films. So I developed a foolproof system. I included them if I felt like it. I mainly stuck to things that I felt were eitherimportant to horror/sci-fi cinema in general, or just to my own personal experiences ofnostalgia.This volume encompasses the releases of 1980 that fall under the category of horror orsci-fi, which in my opinion includes superhero films. Each film entry will give you somedetailed information about the film itself and the basic plot setup, although I've tried to keepspoilers or major plot twists out of it in order to preserve some mystery should you chooseto seek these out for yourselves. I'll also give you my personal rating on each one, based ona five star system. I feel like I'm a bit stingy with my ratings, and reserve 5 stars for films thati consider the best of the best. They're pretty few, and far between. I will also rate the filmbased on a Cultural Significance, which I realize is a bit of an arbitrary rating, but I'll evaluateeach film on how much of an impact it had on its specific genre. The interesting thing aboutthat consideration is that it generally doesn't reflect my personal opinion on it. It may havehad a massive impact on the film world, and yet not been a great film, or vice versa. Thefinal rating each film will get is a simple recommendation. Sort of a "too long, didn't read"and will sum up each one with a suggestion to watch it, don't watch it, or maybe watch it.There's definitely films out there that I believe SHOULD be watched, even if they don'tsound exactly like something that would be up one's alley, and also ones that I'm prettyconfident that most people will not enjoy whatsoever. But there's a certain contingency offilms that I know that some people will like, and others will not, so those will be the onesgiven the "maybes." Read more