8. The Snakeman - Dreamscape (1984)
Freddy What'ser? Jason Who'sees? There was really only one cinematic bogeyman troubling my sleep in the mid 80's; this reptilian bad-ass that tore Dennis Quaid's Alex Gardner a new one when he psychically entered the dreams of haunted kid Buddy. Although Dreamscape was not categorically a horror movie, it used Alex's psychic abilities as a venue to explore different genres in the form of various dreams. There's a hazy romance-novel interlude on a train, a crazed carnival tour of infidelity, an apocalyptic wasteland and this surrealistic horror scenario centered around the bogeyman. This sequence is unquestionably the highlight of the movie, and The Snakeman, a saurian biped with a cobra's head, is a uniquely unsettling presence. The film's creepy stop-motion lends him a real menace as he stalks Alex and Buddy through impossibly winding staircases and canted door frames. Snakey is beheaded before the halfway mark of Dreamscape, but this doesn't prevent him from making a second appearance. Alex shares his fear of the beast with nemesis David Patrick Kelly who takes on the Snakeman's form in the finale, adding a demented twist; now the creature has Kelly's features protruding from its winding neck. Granted, this kind of costume will take some work if you're making it from scratch. A cute little plush Snakeman is probably an afternoon of sewing, but if you're busting out the latex and model kits, you're going to be committed to a good deal of work. The upside is that if you know what you're doing, you might end up with a monster more sophisticated than the one that appears in the movie.