10 Most Underrated 80s Horror Movies
Scares, slashers, and a large dose of spandex.
There's plenty of ridiculous offerings the 80s still stings us with almost a full four decades after it began. Outrageous hair and loud shirts still remain an excellent fixture, synth pop soundtracks are inescapable, and rose-tinted nostalgia creeps its way into everything from TV adverts to social media trends - so it's hardly a surprise that films are still pulling from the same spandex-clad source material.
And when speaking of 80s movies, it's impossible to ignore the impact the era had on horror in particular. I mean, when you're getting A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Shining, and even batsh*t entires like Society all hitting cinemas in the same ten year period, you know you're onto something good. And terrifying. But mostly good.
So, as always is the case, whilst the world was distracted by all this and similar horrors like Madonna and Pac-Man, there were innumerable underrated horror gems that slipped through the cracks, making now the perfect time to dive back in there and dig up the very best lost treasures. Chuck on your parachute pants and start growing in your mullet, as we're going in...
10. Shocker
One of Wes Craven's early works and celebrating his more flamboyant taste in filmmaking, the Scream director's take on an electricity fuelled murderer is big dumb fun. Stipulated by heavy metal music and dazzling special effects, Craven has created something that is creative, bloody, and that positively sparks with the director's signature weirdness, even if its not necessarily the best in his back catalogue.
Shocker tells the story of a television-repairman-come-serial-killer that is sentenced to death in the electric chair, only, since he's smart enough to get bargaining with the devil before he bites it, he comes back as pure energy. Horace Pinker becomes electricity itself in a bid to take out new victims and hunt down the detective that locked him away in the first place, and it's a live wire of a movie.
Yes, Shocker has its faults, and is about as messy as a film about a person turning into a plug-socket dwelling nightmare sounds on paper. But truthfully, Shocker deserves far more love for its batsh*t commitment to its blackly comic premise, especially since it's one that has only gotten more poignant as time has gone on.