10 Most Underappreciated '80s Horror Movies
Those great '80s horror movies that don't get anywhere near enough love.
The 1980s may not have been a flawless decade for horror, but it's one that's looked back on extremely fondly by so many for a wide variety of reasons. Sure, some of those films may not have aged particularly well, and certain franchises may have gone a little too heavy with how many sequels they turned around in such a short spell, but there's a whole lot to love about the '80s horror landscape.
While the likes of The Thing, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, Re-Animator, Creepshow, Aliens, Poltergeist, and the first two Evil Dead movies are just some of the films usually in the conversation for the best of '80s horror, there's so many other pictures which don't get anywhere near the appreciation or love that they should.
Sometimes, that's down to those films simply being low-key releases that flew under the radar, other times the title or odd premise may have turned audiences off, and there are also moments where franchise fatigue well and truly kicked in.
With that in mind, then, here are ten of the most underappreciated horror movies delivered across the 1980s.
10. The Mutilator
While the likes of Black Christmas, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Scream forever crop up when people think of the greatest slasher movies, one slasher that gets overlooked by the masses is Buddy Cooper's The Mutilator.
Hitting cinemas in 1984, The Mutilator stands out for its vast array of inventive, gruesome kills, and its quite frankly ridiculously catchy Fall Break theme song. Starting things off with a literal bang, we find an unnamed wife baking a birthday cake for her husband Big Ed, with their son, Ed Jr., polishing his old man's gun collection as they await the family patriarch to return home from work.
Unfortunately, Ed Jr. accidentally unloads one of those guns - because allowing a kid to mess around with loaded weapons is always wise... - and fatally shoots his mother, just as Big Ed arrives home. In a bizarre sequence, Big Ed hugs his wife's corpse and tries to get her to drink some bourbon - obviously to no avail.
Skipping ahead, we find Ed Jr. in college and get introduced to his collection of pals as they set out for a stay at Ed's family beach house. Having spent the ensuing years despising his son, Big Ed is waiting at this beachside locale, where he intends to slaughter these young adults in some incredibly imaginative ways.
Also, for fans of The Mutilator, the great news is that, after years of such rumblings, The Mutilator 2 has completed filming and is currently looking for a distributor.