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The 80s was the best decade for Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, and cult films.

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P

PhoncipleBone

Banned
Sure, the fashion was atrocious, but the 1980s was the greatest decade for genre films ever. No other decade comes close for the sheer volume of genre and cult classics.

This is all before 1985 mind you:

Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Blade Runner
Tron
The Thing
Escape from New York
The Fog
Poltergeist
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Evil Dead
Krull
Conan: The Barbarian
The Last Starfighter
Dragonslayer
Friday the 13th
Nightmare on Elm St.
American Werewolf in London
The Terminator
The Road Warrior
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai


And all of that is before the decade was half over. After that we got things like Back to the Future, Aliens, Predator, Evil Dead 2, and Alien Nation. There are many other great genre and cult films and tv shows from the decade.

For TV we got V, Quantum Leap, and Star Trek: TNG.

What other decade comes remotely close to the 80s for sheer volume of awesome genre films?
 
J

Jaeger

Member
I disagree about the fashion, especially considering we are retreading and doing some of the same stuff done in the 80's in fashion nowadays. I do agree about Sci-Fi though. Especially with film and anime.
 
P

PhoncipleBone

Banned
Jaeger said:
I disagree about the fashion, especially considering we are retreading and doing some of the same stuff done in the 80's in fashion nowadays. I do agree about Sci-Fi though. Especially with film and anime.
Click to expand...

Yeah, throwing in anime into the mix just further stacks the deck in the 80s favor.
 
L

Lord_Balkan

Member
POSTER-THE-BEYOND-ASIAN.jpg
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1970 to the 80s were awesome
 
M

Matty77

Member
It was really really good, but a lot of if not more good stuff came out of the 70's.

I would say 74 to 84 would be a better frame than just by decade.
 
C

Chojin

Member
Yeah I can agree to it.

My favorite sci-fi movies were in the 70s because of the heavy handed social messages thrust at you.

But in terms of mass appeal and just plain fun the 80s had it in the bag.

90s had the best "worst" sci fi movies.
 
D

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
70s had Halloween(the greatest horror movie ever made), Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alien, Jaws, Dawn of the Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Exorcist.

80s can get fucked on horror
 
P

PhoncipleBone

Banned
dekline said:
The 70s was pretty god damn incredible for just about anything film wise
Click to expand...

For film in general, the 70s is impeccable and damn near untouchable. But for sheer volume of genre stuff though, it pales to the 80s.

Data West said:
70s had Halloween(the greatest horror movie ever made), Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alien, Jaws, Dawn of the Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Exorcist.

80s can get fucked on horror
Click to expand...

Nightmare on Elm Street, The Fog, The Thing, Prince of Darkness, Poltergeist, Evil Dead.

Outside of that and a few things I am forgetting, the 80s has more great stuff by volume, but your list of horror of the 70s does contain the pinnacles of the genre.
 
L

Lord_Balkan

Member
PhoncipleBone said:
For film in general, the 70s is impeccable and damn near untouchable. But for sheer volume of genre stuff though, it pales to the 80s.



Nightmare on Elm Street, The Fog, The Thing, Prince of Darkness, Poltergeist, Evil Dead.

Outside of that and a few things I am forgetting, the 80s has more great stuff by volume, but your list of horror of the 70s does contain the pinnacles of the genre.
Click to expand...
81tMEGFArJL._SL1500_.jpg
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80s US horror was already happening in Italy in the 70s
 
F

Fusion Pizza

Member
injurai said:
It was good. But I feel "cult" is basically just "indie" but with a different vibe.
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I beg to differ. Cult classics are movies that have a small and rabid fanbase that slowly grows over the years and eventually leads to new fans being drawn in to discover a hidden gem.

Indie is a label that gets slapped onto anything that's being done by plucky upstarts outside the generally established industry.

Do the two have cross over? Of course! Are they the same? No.
 
IISANDERII

IISANDERII

Member
PhoncipleBone said:
Sure, the fashion was atrocious, but the 1980s was the greatest decade for genre films ever. No other decade comes close for the sheer volume of genre and cult classics.

This is all before 1985 mind you:

Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Blade Runner
Tron
The Thing
Escape from New York
The Fog
Poltergeist
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Evil Dead
Krull
Conan: The Barbarian
The Last Starfighter
Dragonslayer
Friday the 13th
Nightmare on Elm St.
American Werewolf in London
The Terminator
The Road Warrior
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai


And all of that is before the decade was half over. After that we got things like Back to the Future, Aliens, Predator, Evil Dead 2, and Alien Nation. There are many other great genre and cult films and tv shows from the decade.

For TV we got V, Quantum Leap, and Star Trek: TNG.

What other decade comes remotely close to the 80s for sheer volume of awesome genre films?
Click to expand...
What about Dune. Never saw it but I've heard things, many things
 
C

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
the 80s had Spielberg at his prime so yeah, it's hard to top in terms of well made popcorn flicks
 
S

Slayven

Member
Let me tell you about Full Moon studios. Greatest horror movie studio ever. Look at that output

Full Moon Productions

Puppet Master (1989)
Shadowzone (1990)
Meridian: Kiss of the Beast (1990)

Full Moon Entertainment

Crash and Burn (1990)
Subspecies (film series) (1991)
Puppet Master II (1991)
The Pit and the Pendulum (1991)
Trancers II (1991)
Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge (1991)
Dollman (1991)
Netherworld (1992)
Demonic Toys (1992)
Seedpeople (1992)
Bad Channels (1992)
Doctor Mordrid (1992)
Trancers III (1992)
Robot Wars (1993)
Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993)
Arcade (1993)
Mandroid (1993)
Dollman vs. Demonic Toys (1993)
Puppet Master 4 (1993)
Trancers 4: Jack of Swords (1994)
Bloodlust: Subspecies III (1994)
Invisible: The Chronicles of Benjamin Knight (1994)
Oblivion (1994)
Lurking Fear (1994)
Dark Angel: The Ascent (1994)
Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter (1994)
Shrunken Heads (1994)
Trancers 5: Sudden Death (1994)
Castle Freak (1995)
Demon in the Bottle (1996)
Oblivion 2: Backlash (1996)

Full Moon Studios

Vampire Journals (1997)

Full Moon Pictures

Hideous! (1997)
Head of the Family (1996)
Petticoat Planet (1996)
Alien Abduction: Intimate Secrets (1996)
The Creeps (1997)
Talisman (1998)
Shrieker (1998)
Curse of the Puppet Master (1998)
Blood Dolls (1999)
The Boy with the X-Ray Eyes (1999)
The Incredible Genie (1999)
The Killer Eye (1999)
Retro Puppet Master (1999)
Witchouse (1999)
Killjoy (2000)
Witchouse II: Blood Coven (2000)
The Dead Hate the Living! (2000)
Prison Of The Dead (2000)
Sideshow (2000)
Demonicus (2001)
Witchouse 3: Demon Fire (2001)
Trancers 6 (2002)
Groom Lake (2002)
Hell Asylum (2002)
Killjoy 2: Deliverance from Evil (2002)

Full Moon Features

Puppet Master: The Legacy (2003)
Tomb of Terror (2004)
Dr. Moreau's House of Pain (2004)
Decadent Evil (2005)
The Baker's Dozen (2005)
Doll Graveyard (2005)
The Gingerdead Man (2005)
Evil Bong (2006)
Petrified (2006)
Decadent Evil II (2007)
Deadly End (2008)
Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust (2008)
Dead Man's Hand (2007)
Dangerous Worry Dolls (2007)
Evil Bong 2: King Bong (2009)
Skull Heads (2009)
Demonic Toys 2 (2010)
Puppet Master: Axis of Evil (2010)
Killjoy 3 (2010)
Evil Bong 3D: The Wrath of Bong (2011)
Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver (2011)
Killer Eye: Halloween Haunt (2012)
The Dead Want Women (2012)
Killjoy Goes to Hell (2012)
Puppet Master X: Axis Rising (2012)
DevilDolls (2012)
Ooga Booga (2013)
Unlucky Charms (2013)
Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong (2013)
Evil Bong 4:20 (2015)
Click to expand...
 
I

injurai

Banned
Megalodactyl said:
I beg to differ. Cult classics are movies that have a small and rabid fanbase that slowly grows over the years and eventually leads to new fans being drawn in to discover a hidden gem.

Indie is a label that gets slapped onto anything that's being done by plucky upstarts outside the generally established industry.

Do the two have cross over? Of course! Are they the same? No.
Click to expand...

indie originally meant independent, it no longer means that

cult originally meant cult, it no longer means that

that was my point, I wasn't splitting naunces
 
S

Slayven

Member
PhoncipleBone said:
We really need to meet sometime. We can just watch horror films while you make me feel bad about my comic book knowledge. It would be a great time.
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Bring the Everclear.

I will watch any horror movie, except for The Gate. That movie still freaks me out and it was on;y PG 13
 
P

PhoncipleBone

Banned
Slayven said:
Bring the Everclear.

I will watch any horror movie, except for The Gate. That movie still freaks me out and it was on;y PG 13
Click to expand...

What you got against The Gate, bro? Of course, there are still some films that freak me out to this day because I saw them as a kid and the fears they instilled in me still linger.
 
S

Slayven

Member
PhoncipleBone said:
What you got against The Gate, bro? Of course, there are still some films that freak me out to this day because I saw them as a kid and the fears they instilled in me still linger.
Click to expand...

WHen they hit that demon and it turns into a bunch of little demons. Fucked me up man. not as bed as The Dark Crystal, man if they made the Dark Crystal today? They would have to give kids Prozac at the theater.

And a few scenes fromt eh Secret of NIMH was rough too.
 
P

PhoncipleBone

Banned
Slayven said:
WHen they hit that demon and it turns into a bunch of little demons. Fucked me up man. not as bed as The Dark Crystal, man if they made the Dark Crystal today? They would have to give kids Prozac at the theater.

And a few scenes fromt eh Secret of NIMH was rough too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Secret of NIMH still fucks with me a little bit.

There is a scene in The Last Starfighter that still messes with me. The one where they kill the spy and shoot the laser into the top of his skull, and he screams as his face melts.
 
S

Slayven

Member
PhoncipleBone said:
Yeah, Secret of NIMH still fucks with me a little bit.

There is a scene in The Last Starfighter that still messes with me. The one where they kill the spy and shoot the laser into the top of his skull, and he screams as his face melts.
Click to expand...

And the scene where the robot double is being formed or formated or whatever.
 
D

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
PhoncipleBone said:
Nightmare on Elm Street, The Fog, The Thing, Prince of Darkness, Poltergeist, Evil Dead.

Outside of that and a few things I am forgetting, the 80s has more great stuff by volume, but your list of horror of the 70s does contain the pinnacles of the genre.
Click to expand...

Hey man, I love Poltergeist and The Thing as much as anyone else, but 80s was really when horror movies all felt like they were starting to follow a formula. I mean, Friday the 13th is an admitted Haloween ripoff.
 
MrCunningham

MrCunningham

Member
Fancy Clown said:
20011.jpg


Mine's better!
Click to expand...

Hey, it had a sequel in the '80's:

2010-poster01.jpg


Which never lived up the the original... though it does make a nice little companion piece.

I often felt that there was a little more creativity present in '80's sci-fi than there is now.


Currygan said:
the 80s had Spielberg at his prime so yeah, it's hard to top in terms of well made popcorn flicks
Click to expand...

It wasn't just Spielberg, it was the whole Spielberg crew. Robert Zemeckis, Joe Dante, Richard Donner, John Landis and etc. There was a certain style of psudo-sci-fi that these guys cultivated in the '80's that really defined it. And of course Lucas too as well as his underlings.

James Cameron really brought a lot to R-Rated action movies in the '80's too. Terminator, Aliens and he even wrote the script to Rambo 2. Stan Winston became famous through Terminator and his studio ended up making the some of the greatest movie monsters of the 80's.
 
D

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
If you really want to talk up the 1980s.

HK action movies pretty much embarrassed everyone else and still do to this day..
 
P

PhoncipleBone

Banned
Data West said:
Hey man, I love Poltergeist and The Thing as much as anyone else, but 80s was really when horror movies all felt like they were starting to follow a formula. I mean, Friday the 13th is an admitted Haloween ripoff.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. :)

Slayven said:
The decade that spawned The Beast Master and Krull?
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Man, I forgot about Beastmaster. I haven't seen that since the 80s. I loved it as a kid, and I wonder how I would feel about it now. Krull surprised me by how much I loved it after about thirty years separated from it, so maybe Beastmaster will be as kind.

Besides, Beastmaster has Marc Singer, AKA Mike Donovan from V. Even if the movie is bad I will love it deep down because of him.
 
L

Lord_Balkan

Member
Data West said:
Hey man, I love Poltergeist and The Thing as much as anyone else, but 80s was really when horror movies all felt like they were starting to follow a formula. I mean, Friday the 13th is an admitted Haloween ripoff.
Click to expand...

Which both were extremely influenced by Italian movies of the 70s. Friday The 13th's story is basically A Bay Of Blood rip off.

Once I started watching Italian horror a year or two back, it is pretty crazy how much ground work they laid for the greats of the 80s.
 
F

Fancy Clown

Member
Imagine if The Thing and ET swapped box office results in 82 and Carpenter was given actual studio budgets for all his future gifts to mankind. IMAGINE THAT FUTURE.
 
S

Slayven

Member
Data West said:
If you really want to talk up the 1980s.

HK action movies pretty much embarrassed everyone else and still do to this day..
Click to expand...
Martial Art movies in general. Remember Don Wilson and Cythia Rothrock?
PhoncipleBone said:
Fair enough. :)



Man, I forgot about Beastmaster. I haven't seen that since the 80s. I loved it as a kid, and I wonder how I would feel about it now. Krull surprised me by how much I loved it after about thirty years separated from it, so maybe Beastmaster will be as kind.

Besides, Beastmaster has Marc Singer, AKA Mike Donovan from V. Even if the movie is bad I will love it deep down because of him.
Click to expand...
I am probably the only one that watched the Beastmaster tv series from start to finish.
 
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