15 Best Movie Thrillers From The 1980s
10. Blow Out
On the one hand, this is an arguably unnecessary quasi-remake of a classic, 1966 Italian thriller Blowup. On the other, this genuinely odd Brian De Palma picture boasts one of the best performances of John Travolta’s career, and transcends the thriller confines to end up an oddly touching tribute to the director’s love of cinema and the entire movie making process.
Travolta plays Jack Terry, a sound effects technician who inadvertently uncovers an assassination plot while recording material for a slasher film. De Palma piles on the tension and the paranoia from there, as Terry finds himself thrown deeper into a conspiracy he never wanted any part of.
De Palma takes cues from Hitchcock, as well as the Italian film which provided the inspiration, but Blow Out is a film of its time. Coming out at the start of the ‘80s, the film is deeply affected by the sense of distrust in the USA at large following the turbulent ‘70s, as well as the murder of JFK which clearly informs the main plot.
Blow Out bombed on release, too weird and too bleak for its time, but it has only grown in stature since then.