Hard Times' 30 Underrated '80s Slashers
by bdarx | created - 2 months ago | updated - 2 months ago | Publicsubtitle: Instead of Becoming Employable also, one is a cheat
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1. Hell Night (1981)
R | 101 min | Horror, Thriller
Four college pledges are forced to spend the night in a deserted old mansion, where they are stalked by the monstrous survivor of a family massacre years earlier.
Director: Tom DeSimone | Stars: Linda Blair, Vincent Van Patten, Peter Barton, Kevin Brophy
Votes: 8,765
2. The Mutilator (1984)
TV-MA | 86 min | Horror, Thriller
A college student, who accidentally killed his mother as a child, decides to take his friends to his father's fishing cabin during fall break, not knowing that his crazed father is stalking the place.
Directors: Buddy Cooper, John Douglass | Stars: Matt Mitler, Ruth Martinez, Bill Hitchcock, Connie Rogers
Votes: 6,203
3. Offerings (1989)
R | 95 min | Horror
Ten years after he was pushed down a well, a young man kills off the neighborhood bullies who tormented him and leaves their body parts as presents for the one girl who was kind to him.
Director: Christopher Reynolds | Stars: Loretta Leigh Bowman, Elizabeth Greene, G. Michael Smith, Jerry Brewer
Votes: 1,107
4. Moonstalker (1989)
Not Rated | 92 min | Horror
During the winter season, a family camping in the woods, and a group of camp counselors training in the same forest both find themselves being killed one by one by an unhinged psycho.
Director: Michael S. O'Rourke | Stars: Blake Gibbons, Ingrid Vold, John Marzilli, Tom Hamil
Votes: 664
5. Slaughter High (1986)
R | 90 min | Horror, Thriller
Eight people are invited to their alma mater for their 10-year reunion, where a fellow former student, disfigured from a prank gone wrong, is out to seek revenge.
Directors: George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, Peter Mackenzie Litten | Stars: Caroline Munro, Simon Scuddamore, Carmine Iannaccone, Donna Yeager
Votes: 7,005
6. Death Spa (1988)
R | 88 min | Horror
Gruesome deaths begin to occur at a hip Los Angeles health club.
Director: Michael Fischa | Stars: William Bumiller, Brenda Bakke, Merritt Butrick, Robert Lipton
Votes: 3,477
7. Just Before Dawn (1981)
R | 90 min | Horror, Thriller
Five young people venture into the backwoods of Oregon to claim a property, and find themselves being stalked by a hulking, machete-wielding psychopath.
Director: Jeff Lieberman | Stars: George Kennedy, Mike Kellin, Chris Lemmon, Gregg Henry
Votes: 7,136
8. The Final Terror (1983)
R | 84 min | Horror
A group of rangers go camping on unfamiliar forest grounds. All's well until the group members start getting killed by a cunning killer in the woods.
Director: Andrew Davis | Stars: John Friedrich, Adrian Zmed, Ernest Harden Jr., Lewis Smith
Votes: 3,741
9. Curtains (1983)
R | 89 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Six young actresses auditioning for a movie role at a remote mansion are targeted by a mysterious masked murderer.
Director: Richard Ciupka | Stars: John Vernon, Samantha Eggar, Linda Thorson, Anne Ditchburn
Votes: 5,728
10. Nightmare Beach (1989)
R | 90 min | Horror
After the execution of a motorcycle gang leader convicted of murder, a helmeted biker goes on a killing spree during spring break in Florida.
Directors: James Justice, Umberto Lenzi | Stars: Nicolas De Toth, Sarah Buxton, Rawley Valverde, Lance LeGault
Votes: 2,962
11. The House on Sorority Row (1982)
R | 91 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
After a seemingly innocent prank goes horribly wrong, a group of sorority sisters are stalked and murdered one by one in their sorority house while throwing a party to celebrate their graduation.
Director: Mark Rosman | Stars: Kate McNeil, Eileen Davidson, Janis Ward, Robin Meloy
Votes: 9,968 | Gross: $1.29M
12. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
R | 92 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Still haunted by his past, Tommy Jarvis, who, as a child, killed Jason Voorhees, is sent to a secluded halfway house in the countryside, where the killing of a young man triggers a brutal series of murders in the area.
Director: Danny Steinmann | Stars: Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd, Anthony Barrile, Suzanne Bateman
Votes: 43,895 | Gross: $21.93M
13. The Initiation (1984)
R | 97 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An amnesiac sorority member who has been plagued by a recurring nightmare is stalked alongside other coeds by a killer in a deserted department store where they are completing a hazing ritual.
Directors: Larry Stewart, Peter Crane | Stars: Vera Miles, Clu Gulager, Daphne Zuniga, James Read
Votes: 4,482
14. April Fool's Day (1986)
R | 89 min | Horror, Mystery
Nine college students staying at a friend's remote island mansion begin to fall victim to an unseen murderer over the April Fool's Day weekend, but nothing is as it seems.
Director: Fred Walton | Stars: Deborah Foreman, Griffin O'Neal, Clayton Rohner, Jay Baker
Votes: 18,370 | Gross: $12.95M
15. The Burning (1981)
R | 91 min | Horror
A former summer camp caretaker, horribly burned from a prank gone wrong, lurks around an upstate New York summer camp bent on killing the teenagers responsible for his disfigurement.
Director: Tony Maylam | Stars: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua
Votes: 22,272
16. Edge of the Axe (1988)
Not Rated | 91 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An axe murderer terrorizes a small Northern California mountain community, while two young computer-obsessed adults attempt to solve the killings.
Director: José Ramón Larraz | Stars: Barton Faulks, Christina Marie Lane, Page Mosely, Fred Holliday
Votes: 2,932
17. Pin (1988)
R | 103 min | Horror, Thriller
Isolated by his strange parents, Leon finds solace in an imaginary friend, which happens to be an anatomy doll from his father's doctor office. Unfortunately, the doll begins to take over Leon's life, and his sister's life as well.
Director: Sandor Stern | Stars: David Hewlett, Cynthia Preston, Terry O'Quinn, Bronwen Mantel
Votes: 5,282
18. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
Unrated | 101 min | Comedy, Horror
A radio host is victimized by the cannibal family as a former Texas marshal hunts them.
Director: Tobe Hooper | Stars: Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow, Bill Moseley
Votes: 37,961 | Gross: $8.03M
19. Pieces (1982)
Not Rated | 85 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
The co-eds of a Boston college campus are targeted by a mysterious killer who is creating a human jigsaw puzzle from their body parts.
Director: Juan Piquer Simón | Stars: Christopher George, Lynda Day George, Frank Braña, Edmund Purdom
Votes: 12,816 | Gross: $2.03M
20. Alone in the Dark (1982)
R | 92 min | Horror, Thriller
A few dangerous and delusional mental patients break out of a mental asylum during a power blackout, and lay siege to their new doctor's house, who, they believe, killed their previous doctor.
Director: Jack Sholder | Stars: Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, Martin Landau, Dwight Schultz
Votes: 6,992
21. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994)
R | 87 min | Comedy, Horror, Thriller
A group of teenagers get into a car crash in the Texas woods on prom night, and then wander into an old farmhouse that is home to Leatherface (Robert Jacks) and his insane family of cannibalistic psychopaths.
Director: Kim Henkel | Stars: Renée Zellweger, Matthew McConaughey, Robert Jacks, Tonie Perensky
Votes: 26,021 | Gross: $0.14M
22. Madman (1981)
R | 88 min | Horror, Thriller
A legendary psychopathic murderer stalks a summer camp.
Director: Joe Giannone | Stars: Gaylen Ross, Tony Nunziata, Harriet Bass, Seth Jones
Votes: 6,732
23. Motel Hell (1980)
R | 101 min | Comedy, Horror, Thriller
A seemingly friendly farmer and his sister kidnap unsuspecting travelers and bury them alive, using them to create the "special meat" they are famous for.
Director: Kevin Connor | Stars: Rory Calhoun, Paul Linke, Nancy Parsons, Nina Axelrod
Votes: 13,607 | Gross: $6.34M
24. Clownhouse (1989)
R | 81 min | Horror
Just before Halloween, three young brothers alone in a big house are menaced by three escaped mental patients who have murdered some traveling circus clowns and taken their identities.
Director: Victor Salva | Stars: Nathan Forrest Winters, Brian McHugh, Sam Rockwell, Michael Jerome West
Votes: 5,119
25. The Prowler (1981)
R | 89 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An unknown killer, clad in World War II U.S. Army fatigues, stalks a small California town, bent on reliving a 35 year-old double murder by focusing on a group of college kids holding an annual graduation dance.
Director: Joseph Zito | Stars: Vicky Dawson, Christopher Goutman, Lawrence Tierney, Farley Granger
Votes: 12,997
26. StageFright (1987)
Unrated | 90 min | Horror, Thriller
A group of stage actors lock themselves in the theater for a rehearsal of their upcoming musical production, unaware that an escaped psychopath has sneaked into the theater with them.
Director: Michele Soavi | Stars: David Brandon, Richard Barkeley, Barbara Cupisti, Domenico Fiore
Votes: 9,286
27. Phenomena (1985)
R | 116 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
A young girl who has an amazing ability to communicate with insects is transferred to an exclusive Swiss boarding school, where her unusual capability might help solve a string of murders.
Director: Dario Argento | Stars: Jennifer Connelly, Donald Pleasence, Daria Nicolodi, Dalila Di Lazzaro
Votes: 30,034
28. Blood Rage (1987)
R | 82 min | Horror
A boy kills a man and accuses his twin brother of the murder, and the innocent brother ends up institutionalized, while his psychotic twin goes free. 10 years later, the innocent twin escapes, which triggers his brother into killing again.
Director: John Grissmer | Stars: Louise Lasser, Mark Soper, Julie Gordon, Jayne Bentzen
Votes: 5,739
29. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
R | 77 min | Horror
A female high school student's slumber party turns into a bloodbath, as a newly escaped psychotic serial killer wielding a power drill prowls her neighborhood.
Director: Amy Holden Jones | Stars: Michele Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villella, Debra De Liso
Votes: 17,892
30. Intruder (1989)
R | 83 min | Horror, Thriller
The overnight stock crew of a local supermarket find themselves being stalked and slashed by a mysterious maniac.
Director: Scott Spiegel | Stars: Liz Kern, Renée Estevez, Dan Hicks, David Byrnes
Votes: 11,146
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