15 Greatest Guilty Pleasure Movies Of The 1980s

That's right; we said there was no way this list could be complete without at least a couple of Cannon Films productions.

The notorious company had a key role to play in popularising ninja movies in the 1980s. The earlier entries in their loosely-related Ninja trilogy (1981's Enter the Ninja, and 1983's Revenge of the Ninja) are great guilty pleasures in their own right, to say nothing of Cannon's later American Ninja series.

But if you're looking for genuine world class trash cinema, nothing can beat the monumental madness of 1984's Ninja 3: The Domination. Those unfamiliar with Cannon's first two Ninja movies needn't worry, as (beyond the presence of actor/fight choreographer Shô Kosugi, who appears in all three) this is very much a standalone feature; indeed, there's no other movie quite like it.

After an opening sequence in which a dastardly ninja assassin is shot to death by cops, his evil soul transfers itself into his sword - which is later picked up by all-American girl Christie (Lucinda Dickey, briefly one of Cannon's biggest stars thanks to the Breakin' movies).

The part-time telephone engineer and aerobics instructor (yes, really) soon finds herself experiencing nightmarish visions, and boasting uncanny martial arts abilities she never had, because - shock horror - she has been possessed by the dead ninja.

In 2014 documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story Of Cannon Films, Ninja 3: The Domination is hilariously (but accurately) summarised as a combination of a ninja movie, The Exorcist and Flashdance. In other words, it's guilty pleasure nirvana.