October 24, 2024 • 53 mins
A Nightmare on Elm Street, Gremlins, Firestarter, Children of the Corn, CHUD…was 1984 the greatest year in the history of horror films? Heat up some popcorn and join Jason and Rosie on the couch as they explore these movies (and more) and whether or not 1984 was even the best year of horror in the 80’s! They each give their favorite horror movies of 1984, and then they share their personal favorite year of the 80’s for horror movies.
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Movies Discussed This Episode Include:
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Gremlins
Children of the Corn
The Company of Wolves
Dreamscape
Firestarter
CHUD
Angel Heart
Hellraiser
The Lost Boys
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Evil Dead 2
Prince of Darkness
Monster Squad
Dolls
Street Trash
Bad Taste
Near Dark
Day of the Dead
Fright Night
Underground
The Stuff
The Reanimator
Lifeforce
Silver Bullet
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
Vampire Hunter D
Return to Oz
Legend
The Black Cauldron
Clue
Night of the Comet
Little Shop of Horrors
The Fog
Possession
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
The Howling
Cat’s Eye
Videodrome
Creepshow
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning. Today's episode contains spoilers for a bevy of classic
horror films of the nineteen eighties, mainly movies from the
year nineteen eighty four, but several others, so be warned,
you warn. Hello, it is.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Jason Concepcion and on Mersday Night and welcome back the
x ray vision of the podcast where we dived you
video favorite shows, movies, colleagues at pop Culture covering you
from a iHeart podcast. We're bringing you three episodes a week,
every Tuesday Thursday, and an extra episode on Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Ooh, aren't you lucky? In today's episode, in the previously on,
we are going to be talking about why people think
nineteen eighty four is the best year for horrors, What
movies came out, then why do people think this? And
then in the airlock, we are gonna be arguing what
year we think is the best year for horror And
believe us, we spent all weekend just watching eighties horror movies,
(01:11):
so we are ready. We are ready to make this
argument and it's the perfect argument for spooky season. Get
ready to get scored.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
First up previously on nineteen eighty four. Okay, Rosie, Okay,
nineteen eighty four, tell us about it.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Okay, So this year in horror is very much seen
as if you guys remember a few years ago. Now,
me and Jason did an episode about nineteen eighty two
and was it the greatest year for like NERD movies,
nineteen eighty four has essentially become that same year for horror.
We had Children of the Corn March nineteenth, nineteen eighty four.
(01:50):
We had Friday the thirteenth, The Final Chapter April thirteenth,
nineteen eighty four. We had the Drew Barrymore classic Stephen
King adaptation Firestarter eleven, nineteen eighty four, Gremlins one of
my favorite movies. June eighth, nineteen eighty four. Ghostbusters a seminole,
rosy childhood classic June eighth, nineteen eighty four. Company of
(02:10):
Wolves underrated, underrated gothic fantasy horror classic, very underrated movie.
This one I think Edges nineteen eighty four up because
it is so strange and it's like a sexy, erotic
horror fantasy red riding hood situation. Also, Jason, I know
this is a seminal movie in your life. Cannibal Humanoid
(02:33):
underground Dwellers aka Chud by Douglas Cheek.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
And let me just say about Chud quickly. Let's talk
about Chud, A wonderful film about cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers
that are haunting the city. They live in the sewers.
They're devouring unhoused people as well as many others. A
documentary reporter and a unhoused people's advocate go on the
war path to try and figure out what's going on.
(02:57):
They discover a cover up by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Course,
but let me just say great actual acting performances by
John Hurd, Daniel Stern and Chris Curry and John Goodman,
really really strong dramatic acting in a wild horror movie.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
An incredible practical affair and incredible practical effects, and really
one of the underrated classics in.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
My eyes of the eighties. I continue, please continue about
nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Okay, Terminator, Yeah, October twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four. Now,
I would say this is horror adjacent in my mind,
but I do believe sci fi to me that at
the time, yeah, I could see it being more in
that horror vean. Okay, Now, I do think that this
next one is a large reason that people think of
this and this is stuff. A Nightmare on Elm Street
November ninth, nineteen eighty four, Wes Craven classic, John Saxon,
(03:49):
my favor, Robert England, obviously Heathe Langenkamp, Nancy, one of
the legendary Final Girls. I do love this movie.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I love this franchise. This is actually a very scary movie.
It's before Robert England's really like hamming it up, so
it's a little bit more spooky him later on. I
don't know how it was for you guys, but like,
so when I was a kid, I was in primary
school as we call it, so kind of like baby
school you're like eight or nine. There was a spate
(04:18):
of sleepovers where their parents allowed the kids to watch
Nightmare on Elm Street, and then they would have to
do assemblies at schools being like, do not let your
kids watch this because then all these like eight and
nine year old kids are running around London like have.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
You heard of Freddy Krueger.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
He's gonna kill you in your sleep, and then nobody
was sleeping. So that was a very influential movie on
my childhood. And also I just I still love it.
One of the best and most imaginative slashes.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, this was an influential one for me as well,
as I've spoken about on the show here. I was
given a membership to a local video rental place because
I was home alone a lot, so I watched a
lot of horror movies that I shouldn't watch. Among them
was A Nightmare on Elm Street. And it was one
of the first movies where I can remember talking with
(05:07):
my friends about Easter eggs, Like when when at the
end when the roof of the car flips up and
it's Freddy's, Oh my god, sweater colors. I was like,
did you guys notice that it was like Freddy's sweater colors?
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Like that was your like fuss Easter egg movie I.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Was getting used to. Truly a pioneering film and still
has the power to scare it. I mean the scene
in which I forget the name of the characters, but
the one friend of Nancy's is hurled like they're having
the sleepover, and she's hurled up onto the walls and
across the ceiling and is like getting stabbed like through
(05:42):
the guts, like as her boyfriend watches is still terrified.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Also the scene where Johnny Depp's character gets sucked into
the bed and they spray all the blood up into
the ceiling also as well. I will say an underrated
moment in this movie, but I do think has become
like a very iconic scene is when Nancy sees her
dead friend and she's in the body bag in the
school hall way. I think about that a lot. But yeah,
(06:09):
from a very serious movie to a very un serious movie,
which I will say, if you live in LA or
another metropolitan area, or just somewhere with a great rep cinema,
you will probably be able to see this movie in
the next coming months at the cinema, and I highly
recommend it. It is Silent Night, Deadly Night, November ninth,
nineteen eighty four. This is an absolutely deranged movie. And
(06:31):
in England, I have to say this definitely has a
bit more of like a exploitation, kind of not serious,
but it's definitely seen as more of like a It
was quite shocking when it came out, and it was
very controversial because it has a killer in a Santa suit.
But I will tell you if you go and watch
this movie in an American repfit. I went to see
it last year at the New BEV comboed with Black Christmas,
(06:54):
one of the best Christmas movies of all time.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Black Christmas is truly one of the great great horror movies.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Of Trailblazing slow and then that was first and everyone,
but then this movie.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, this movie is whack.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Comes afterwards and it is like you're in riff tracks
when you're watching the movie in the cinema, and I
have to say ten out of ten would recommend was
absolutely just fantastic to watch with the crowd.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I remember hearing about the controversy as a child and
you know, like understanding that there had been this tremendous
controversy around this film, and then renting it as a
young person when I got my membership card and being
a little let down, like I thought it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Was going to be it feels like a TV movie.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, like I thought that the controversy, you know, not
really understanding the full controversy. But my perception of it
was this movie is so fucking violent that it's yeah,
we had to pull it. It's too much. And then
I saw it and it was like, Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
The actual reason it was one of those perception controversies. Yes,
the post that very famously has a guy in a
Santa suit with an axe arm and I's coming out
of the chimney and it's kind of like how even
now into any four, the new Damian Leone movie Terrifier
three came out where the art the clown is in
a Santa costume, and there was actually protests outside the cinemas,
(08:09):
I think in Kansas City, where they were like, we
say no to this satanic Santa. So I don't know,
somehow there's like a Christianity connection to Santa. I am
unsure how, but that was really what it was about.
I will say though, just honestly, great time watching this
movie in a cinema with a crowd or if you're
just interested in weird oddities. This is more of like
a made for TV drama about the nature of abuse
(08:33):
and like this weird Gray vite about trauma, and there
is like violence, there's guns, and but it's not really
a horror movie in a traditional sense.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Let's talk about these are surely the headliners.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Those are the headliners.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
What are your favorite nineteen eighty four horror movies? Top three?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
I would definitely say a Nightmare on Elm Street has
to be up there for me. Okay, you go, let's
do one for one. Okay, there's just so many good ones. Okay,
so mine's not right Elm Street. Yeah, I agree, Okay, Okay.
So then I would say I love Friday the Thirteenth
as a franchise, but that would not be one of
my favorites.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
That was I mean, the Final Chapter is the movie
in which you can feel director Zito, amongst many other people,
really really trying not just to kill Jason, but to
kill this franchise. No one wanted to make this anymore.
And so the death of Jason at the end of
spoil the death of Jason at the end of this
movie feels very definitive and it's very funny that it's not.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, it does. And also as well, this is before
you just start getting into like the really good weird shit.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
But you know, I will say about Friday thirteenth, the
Final Chapter, I do enjoy Corey Faubman's performance in this movie.
I do think it's very good.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, And he becomes like the foil in the series,
which is very funny.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
And then there's an interesting kind of who is Tommy
Jarvis how does that go on? But probably I would
say Gremlins, even though again I would say that is
more of a horror adjacent movie. But I really do
love that movie, and I watch you every year at Christmas,
so there's actually a big yif of Christmas horror with
Gremlins and Silent Night Deadly Night.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
My second one, and this is very difficult. This really
is a great year. But my next two are what
I think of as the X Men influence in horror movies. Ooh,
and so my second pick is the underrated in my
eyes Dreamscape, Yes, from nineteen eighty four, starring Dennis Quaid,
(10:33):
Max Foncido, Christopher Plummer, Kate Capshaw soon to be the
wife of Steven Spielberg, and it's about it's basically inception.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
It's about a guy who has psychic powers, Alex Gardner
played by Dennis Quaid, who gets caught up in a
scheme to assassinate the president using dream inception. And it's
got some wonderful horror trope in there, and some nice
(11:02):
callbacks to some nightmares we see earlier in the film.
And it's a movie that I think people have forgotten about.
But I still love Dream Skip nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
That's a good one. I would also say that I
just I'm going to do like a kind of broader
shout out to Like there is a lot of underrated
horror weird like Slashes that came out this year, The
Initiation that's a really good weird movie, Splatter University, and
blood Bath, blood Birth at the House of Death. And
I will say something that you said, Jason, as we're
(11:32):
getting ready to prepare this. So many of these movies
are available on cheubee. Guys, if you don't to if
you have a smart TV, go to chubee and you
can watch so many incredible movies that honestly have been
lost for a long time because of streaming. But if
I was gonna have to pick, and I would say,
I think I'm going to go for properly. A movie
that I truly think is very underrated is a Company
(11:55):
of Wolves.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yeah, And I do just think it's like really great
and it was I watched that a lot when I
was a teenager, very formative for me.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Neil Jordan, Yeah, who's truly a quality filmmaker. His work
here is fantastic. It's got that dreamy, kind of gauzy,
too much vacoline on the lens.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, drastically, Neil Jordan look definitely for me. Like I
grew up reading, I had this. I still have this book. Actually,
it's one of the few things I still have from
when I was a kid. I had this copy of
Grim's fairy Tales that was a hardcover that I got
at like a bookshop where my mum worked, and it
had all the real German Grimm's fairy Tales where like
Cinderella's stepsisters are like chopping off their heels to fit
(12:35):
it in the boot, and then they're making Cinderella's stepmom
dance to death in iron shoes and this kind of
the horrors of what the real moral fables were. And
I feel like Company of understood that and was like, Okay,
so what do we How do we make this into
like an actual horror movie, but that still has this
interesting coming of age growing into womanhood and how scary.
(12:56):
That is just a really cool movie.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Okay. And then this, Gosh, I think it's up for
debate whether this is truly a horror movie, but I'm
gonna pick it anyway. Firestarter, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Was gonna say, if you're doing X Men, Yeah, so that's.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
My X Men again. The X Men influence in horror movies.
Firestarter about a secret government program to create psychic telepathic warriors.
It goes sideways and two of the former Chess subjects
have a kid named Charlie. She is played by Drew Barrymore,
who is wonderful in this film, like truly like baby,
(13:30):
an incredible performance by a very very young actor. And
she has the ability not to just move things around
with her mind, but she has this exponentially dangerous ability
to start fires and the whole while there is this
secretive government program that's trying to control her, they call
the Shop. You get like a wonderful scene of a
(13:52):
confrontation between these government agents and Charlie, like in front
of a farmhouse that calls back to Magneto versus the
Cops and the first X Men movie. It's a great one.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
And it's very like, you know, WEAPONEX yees, very WEAPONEX tybes.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And that's part of why I really
love it. Incredible performances, most notably by David Keith as
Charlie's father, like tons of pathos from him. George C.
Scott as like this super warmonger, manipulative guy who gets
Charlie to believe in him. It's really great, and they
(14:28):
remade it some years ago, I think twenty twenty two,
a film that's really not that good, but this is
really good.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah, and that movie has Zac Efron it. Yeah. I
would also like to say I don't know how recently
anybody watched Children of the Corn, but I did do
a rewatch of the entire franchise recently thanks to the
blessings of Antenna TV.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And I have to say that first Children of the
Corn movie completely wild. Absolutely, you would never believe it
if somebody told you what the movie was about. But
it does have Linda Hamilton in it, yes, and it
is actually like very enjoyable. Though I will say as
a kid, I always got it confused with the John
Carpenter remake of The Midwich Cuckoos that had Christopher Reeve
(15:08):
in it, and I have to say I am still
more of a Village of the Damned fan the Children
of the Corn. Yeah, but Linda Hamilton is really good
and I actually think the First Children of the Corn
is a good movie, and I do want i think
that one is another reason this gets edged up. But
we got to step out of the airlock and into
our debate about which year in the eighties was actually
the best for horror movies because there are just so many.
(15:29):
I don't I think this nineteen eighty four one. I
feel like it's a random pick because right now I'm like,
we can make the argument for.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
More to your point, it feels overrated, specifically because of
mister Freddy Krueger.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Mister fred Old Krugel.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So let's go onto our debate right back after this. Okay, Rosie,
we've talked about nineteen eighty four. Now let's talk about
(16:05):
what our personal favorite year for horror in the eighties is.
Would you like to start who?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
This is so complex and it's fun, it's fun. There
is I would just want to say, festival. What a
blessing to have the eighties, because the eighties is just
such an unreal decade for horror. Every year there is
at least one or two bangers, and I think sometimes
depending on the flavor of what you're feeling, you could argue,
(16:37):
for example, nineteen eighty two you had cat People very good,
but obviously that's not going to be that's not going
to be swinging anyone's vote.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
The original Cat People actually scarier, Yeah, actually scary. Fifties
cat People actually scared.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
But then Poltergeist and The Thing, which I think arguably
you could make an argument that that's the best year
in horror just for those two. But I am going
to propose nineteen eighty seven. Now, I will say this
is not this is not like a banner. You're not
gonna get that list like we just gave you for
(17:12):
nineteen eighty four. But for me, I'm gonna start with
the horror adjacent release that for me, as a kid
growing up, I was obsessed with, which is Angel Heart
starring Mickey raw Oh my god. It's such a good movie.
It's like a neo noir in the eighties, and it's
a mystery and it's about a guy who's hunting someone down.
(17:33):
Don't look it up. Yeah, just go watch it.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
If you have not seen Angel Heart, don't read anything
about it, and go watch it because the twists in
this film are fantastic.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Some of the best twists that you've ever Currently streaming
on Paramount Plus if you are that way subscribed. Okay,
that for me, I watched it a lot as a kid.
I loved it. I would tell people about it. It
felt like one of those movies i'd discovered. But the
two big ones here that I think as adults I
watch every year more than once. I will go and
see in the movie theater whenever they are on. Clive
(18:06):
Barker's Hell Raiser one of the best horror movies ever made,
and Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys, that's great, in my opinion,
one of the best vampire movies ever made. For me.
That is a fantastic mix of Hell Raiser is this
vibrantly gory, strange movie about a girl who lives with
(18:28):
her dad and her stepmom and she kind of discovers
that her uncle who shows up, Uncle Frank, had some
weird occult dealings with a magical puzzle box. That's a
very terrifying movie, unbelievable practical effects, the cenobites, Doug Bradley
as pin Head, who had gone to become this iconic
horror character. Very queer movie, very queer movie, very queer franchise,
(18:53):
and that's kind of the nature of Clive Barker's work.
I just love this movie. It's still really scary. There's
still people who don't want to watch it because it
kind of has this BDSM horror aesthetic that can be
very unsettling. It also was originally supposed to be a
horror movie with a woman in her mid forties and
the lead. The stepmom was originally going to be the lead,
(19:14):
which I think is really cool and I love that,
and they managed to keep her in there. But then
you have Lost Boys, which is queer in a totally
different way and just totally cool every time I go
and see Lost Boys. I went to see it recently
with Nick and my wonderful friend cartoonist be Like Unis,
and when we were there, I was just like, oh
(19:34):
my god, I want to be a cool vampire living
in Santa Cruz the fairground. I want to be young,
far fast. And also like, how can you not love
a movie where there's just a random saxophone solo. No
one knows why he's in it, sax guy, but he's
(19:54):
in there.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
I lived in Santa Cruz for a while, and wow,
that vibe. The kind of beautif full picturesque beach town
with a dark side really feels like the real place.
You know. It's a very strange place. It's a place
where multiple serial killers were plying their deadly craft, specifically
during the seventies. Edmund Kemper was you know, killed his
(20:16):
mom killed a bunch of co Ed's was you know
like he lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and so
lost Boys feels it manages to capture that contrast between
beautiful beach lightness and weirdness and old hippies and something
dangerous going on in the woods.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah. And also I will say as well, I know
this is both mine and your favorite nightmare and elm
Street movie. Dream Warriors incredible, fantastic movie, unbelievable, young costs,
some of the best deaths, very quippy, very.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Cool, very quippy cool, like, the effects are amazing. It's
got a fun song by the hair metal band docn
as the theme, you.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Don't want a Dream Noble. Also, Patricia Arquette, you have
some legends in this movie. Also this year also had
Evil Dead two, which I do believe many people believe
is the superior Evil Dead movie. Another one that is
streaming for free on Pluto TV right now. Obviously love
Sam Raimi. Also underrated. One that I love from this
(21:20):
year is John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, starring Donald Pleasance
and Victim Want. I really like this movie, but that
I am a John Carpenter superstan so I've seen every
John Carpenter movie. I will make the argument even for
you know, Ghosts of Mars, which is at least he
was still using some cool miniatures. Guys, come on, but
(21:41):
this one is like a science versus religion combo where
there's a mysterious green liquid and these academics arrive and
kind of decipher whether or not, like, will this be
able to bring Jesus back? Was Jesus an alien? Is Satan?
It's all this signiens religion, horror, really interesting, smorgas bored.
(22:05):
It's a spiritual follow up to the thing because it's
part of the Apocalypse trilogy that ends within the Mouth
of Madness. Now, the underrated John corp in a movie.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Super super weird fucking movie that I'm still not sure
what happened. Yeah exactly, but the vibes, but the vibes
are incredible. I actually rewatched it recently and still don't
know what's happening. But very very crazy movie in the
Mouth of Madness.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah, also horror adjacent in eighty seven Monster Squad.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Oh, I love Monster Squad.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I have to say I actually was not lucky enough
to discover this as a kid, because I would have
loved it so good. But I watch it every year
as an adult. It's on Pluto, it's free, it's so charming,
it's so fun.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Here's Monster Squad ready. Did you like the Goonies a
gang of kids who go and do an adventure? This
is like the Goonies, a gang of kids that band
together to do an adventure, but they do an adventure
teamed up with Frankenstein, Wolfman and like vampires and stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Exactly very cool fun. Also, Blood Dina came out this year,
which was directed by Jackie Kong, so it's like a
rare female horror movie in this era. I think this
is an underrated year. And also there's like sequels Galow
Return to Salem's Law. There's also some really weird movies
that I've only discovered from watching Antenna TV. Here, like Dolls,
(23:25):
where our family has to just stay in this house
and it's just full of creepy dolls.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Rosie. I think this was gonna be my pick as well.
And I think he's but it's okay because there's plenty
other years to pick from. Great, And I will say
I think we've missed out on what I think for me,
for my money, best horror movie of the entire eighties,
nineteen eighty seven's Near Dark. Oh my god, what ifaring
the entire cast of aliens in a film by Catherine Bigelow,
(23:53):
the hurt Locker, Blue Steel, Zero Dark, thirty incredible director.
Near Dark is basically neo western about this gang of
vampires that rides around in our love this movie, cutting
people's throats and drinking them. It's an incredible film.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah. Also, I feel like people maybe don't take this
question seriously if this is not the answer, because if
you're even looking at those like horror adjacent Predator came
out this year. Yep, also a movie. I will say, Look,
I'm not gonna recommend that you go and watch this
movie because it has aged very badly. It's very fucked up.
Lots of language, et cetera that we would not use nowadays.
(24:32):
But when I first saw it on a VHS in
like a squat many moons ago. There's a movie called
Street Trash and it came out this year. It is
on Cheuwby right now. I will say it was what
was known as a melt movie, and the idea was
it was gonna be this like new version of Troma,
and basically everyone the effects is like every time somebody
drinks this kind of a cherry wine that they just
(24:54):
melt and the effects are very cool. The movie itself
very corny, badly age movie, but I will say I
did just learn that somebody just remade this, and I
believe it's gonna be on Chewby. Also very important movie
here historically because Peter Jackson's Bad Taste came out in
nineteen eighty seven, and obviously that was like kind of
one of his breakthrough If you've seen Lord of the
(25:16):
Rings and you're like, what was this man doing before
Lord of the Rings, go and watch Bad Taste, because
this man was a splatter gore fiend. He really was,
and he was making some praise stuff. Also both Slumberpaty
Massa two and Silent Night Deadly Night Part two. So
I just think like eighty seven is a great year
when it comes to the explosion of horror and also thrillers. Why, oh,
(25:36):
you know what we should mention before we move on sure,
Wicked City the anime, because that is very seminar horror
anime came out in eighty seven. But yeah, I think
this is such a good year.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Okay, I agree with you, But now, for the sake
of argument, I'm going to pick my other favorite eighties
year for horror and going with nineteen eighty five. Oh,
I think top line maybe not as strong as eighty seven,
but still some incredible bangers that I think are very underrated.
Let's start with a continuation of a classic series, George
(26:08):
Romeiro's Day of the Dead. Oh, following up Dawn, Yeah,
which listen, Dawn not just the best, in my opinion
of the George Romero zombie movies, but actually a great film.
Opening twenty minutes of Dawn of the Dead is as
good as anything that you can think of.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Great anti capitalist movie.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah, but Day of the Dead also very good. So
we've got Day of the Dead, and here's my If
it's not the best horror movie of eighty five, I
think it's my favorite. Fright Night.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Fright Night. This is a joyous watch.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
A joyous movie that's kind of self referential, understands the
horror genre. You've got this young teenage kid who is
a big fan of horror, specifically of this like late
night horror TV program that's hosted by this guy who's
like a washed up old hammer television star named Peter Vincent.
(27:04):
And over time, Charlie begins to suspect that his neighbor.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
His cool hot neighbor, his cool.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Hot neighbor, is up to something weird. Turns out, guess what,
his neighbor is a vampire, and you get this big
showdown between Charlie with the help of Peter and his
girlfriend trying to save his girlfriend really from the clutches
of this vampire, trying to take this vampire down. It's
a fantastic movie with some wonderful horror tropes. It's referential
in the way that Scream would be referential in the nineties,
(27:34):
and it's just really fun. They did remake it with
Colin Ferrell. I think Anton Yakovic, Anton Yaalkin, it's pretty good,
pretty fun, it's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
You could do a little double bell. Yeah, you know, Jason,
I think you picked a very strong year here. This
is another year kind of like eighty seven, where there
are some big headliners reanime legendary movie that I think
is still just being rediscovered. I'm always seeing kids sharing
stuff on ticked. You know. It's kind of barely based
(28:02):
on an HP Lovecraft Boo story, but it does something
so much. It's directed by Stuart Gordon, who was, you know,
a B movie master, and stars Jeffrey Combs, who you
have probably seen in a million other horror movies simply
because he was in this movie. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Basically a retelling of the Doctor Frankenstein's monster kind of
myth in which this mad scientist starts putting together dead
bodies and reanimating them. Another film that is highly referential
and understands like the genre it is in and is
a super super weird movie. Here's a film you mentioned, Barker.
(28:42):
I'm a big listen. I love the Pinhead stuff, but
I think some of his non pin Head stuff is
also amazing. Let's talk about Underground. Oh, I'm Markers Underground
from nineteen eighty five, in which there's a hidden and
mysterious group of sub human mind anster species created by
a mad scientist. They're living under London.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Great, very very fun.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Early Clive Barker also known as Transmutations and Underworld. There
are many different names for this, but yes, I love
this one definitely one of those first ones that I
kind of saw and didn't know what it was. Also
just want to bring up I will talk about this
more extensively on other episodes this holiday season. This is
when Returned to Oz came out. One of the scariest
(29:25):
movies I ever saw as a kid, a Disney sequel
to Wizard of Oz that stars Freeze a Bulk and
starts with Dorothy getting electric shock treatment before she goes
to Oz and discovers that everyone's been turned to stone
and there's a new evil queen who chops off people's
heads and wears them. This is like a masterful kid's
(29:45):
horror movie, and I still love it so deeply, and
it was impossible to find anywhere other than very expensive
DVDs for a long time, but now you can watch
it on Disney Plus.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Next up, nineteen eighty five's Thus Duff by Larry Cohen.
This is a film that is like environmental and regulatory
horror was kind of big in the eighties. Chud talked
about like the misdoings of the you know national They
dealt with all the nuclear stuff. Nuclear Regulatory Commission excuse me.
(30:18):
Chud is basically like a failure of oversight of food. Basically,
this is so creepy, it's so crazy. This company creates
this extremely sweet yogurt ice cream kind of substance which
people eat and then become crazy addicted to, and it
has all sorts of insane effects. Wonderful performances by Michael
(30:43):
Moriarty and Garrett Morris who and Paul Cervino. Garrett Moose
apparently hated dealing with Larry Cohne, but he's wonderful in
this film. Super super underrated movie that people don't talk about.
It is just a fantastic, weird kind of satirical but
also very scared film with notes of body horror. The
(31:03):
stuff check it out, extremely viby, very vibey. And also
I am.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Always surprised when I realized this movie came out in
the eighties, because it's got like a seventies vibe to it.
It's just it's very strange. I'm gonna go for like
another incredible kid's horror here that was like really important
to me, which is like more of a fantasy, but
I think it is horror a jacent which is legend.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Oh my God Legend.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Came out this year with Tim Curry in one of
the scariest practical effects of all time, wearing this giant
devil costume with these huge horns.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Truly awesome fantasy film.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Just fantastic movie. Ye, Ridley Scott, what were you thinking?
I don't know, but I'm glad because I love this movie.
Tom Cruise, such a delightful and important movie in my
life and also with some really scary moments. So this
is such a good year. There's just so many.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
There's so many. Next up for me, here's a film
that blends sci fi and horror, nineteen eighty five's Life
Force by Toby Hooper. I love that is one that
again is a film that I think people don't talk about.
Screenplay by Dan O'Bannon, who gave us Alien, who gave
us so many other horror films, And it's basically what
(32:12):
if aliens or vampires?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
And it's from this really fun era of post alien
movies where everyone wanted to do aliens. So it's like
these walking cloths. Yeah, people, and they're like, well if
aliens were vampires?
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Young Patrick Stewart.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Oh baby, yeah, this is that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
And then this is a movie that I it's not
technically good, but I really liked it as a kid.
And that is the adaptation of yet another Stephen King novella,
Stephen King was ruling the eighties, not just you know,
on the bookshelf, but also on the screen. And this
is Silver Bullet.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Oh, I love I actually love this one. I have
this on DVD.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
This is a wonderful film about a small town dealing
with a werewolf that is killing off various citizenry and
how a young disabled man takes on this werewolf with
a wonderful performance by Corey ham Excuse me as that
(33:16):
young man and Corey ham is. I think people who
know about Corey Hame they think of the Lost Boys
and Lucas, then they think of the troubles he had
later on in his life. But he was a fantastically
talented actor able to really conjure some like deep emotion.
(33:36):
And that's true in Silver Bullet, which is a very
low budget film with some great scares and the chemistry
between Corey and Gary Busey as his kind of like scamp,
hard drinking uncle who's lets him have toys that he
shouldn't have.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
I mean who doesn't love to watch Gary Busey in
a B movie. Yeah, he's always living it up.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
And then lastly, again it's not my favorite of the Freddy's,
but oh, Nightmare and Elm Street two legendary is an
important film for the evolution of Freddy because it's really
the point in time in which my senses, Robert England
didn't think he'd be doing these continuously.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Remember this man was a thespian beforehand. After Nightmare on
Elm Street one, I once chatted to Robert England at
an event and I interviewed him about nightmaron Elm Street.
And after the first movie, he was reviled in the country.
He was hated in the USA. People felt like he
was corrupting children, he was not having a good time.
So I think you were onto something.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
So when he was asked back for the sequel to
Nightmare and Elk Street, which became a Nightmare on Elk
Street two, Freddie's Revenge Man, Robert England is putting a
lot of spice on these Freddy Yes.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
And also this is a very It was a very
controversial movie directed by Shoulder and it stars Mark Patten,
who in the very fantastic. I cannot recommend it enough.
Documentary Scream Queen talks about his struggle as a closeted
gay kid being cast in this movie that is extremely
(35:16):
queer and extremely queer coded. I mean there's literally a
scene where the kid who is possessed by Freddie goes
to the BDSM club where his teacher is and there's
like somebody's getting killed by being like butt whipped with
like a towel in a shower scene, like it's very gay,
and he was constantly being told no, it's not gay,
don't worry about it, and then the movie came out
(35:37):
and it was like he was really gas lit. It
has since become like a true queer classic.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
It's truly a queer classic, and now.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Mark Patten feels more comfortable to accept it. But yeah,
watch Scream Queen. It's such a good documentary about this
movie and the strange trajectory that it took and the
way it impacted the characters and the actors within it.
I will also say something I think is really cool
about this year that I kind of hadn't really realized
till we were talking about it. This is an interesting
(36:06):
year where there's a lot of horror, and there's a
lot of horror that is directed to a more family
audience because of the success of stuff like Night ron
elm Street, Black Cauldron Good. That's a great one of
the most terrifying Disney movies of all time. I love
that movie. It's probably my favorite Disney movie. Really terrifying stuff.
And you have a lot more horror comedies. You have
(36:26):
things like Ghoulies, you have Legend returned to us, re Animator, reanime.
You have these movies where they're like, oh, horror is
actually this can make money for us on a very
low budget. So I think so far we've picked two
very powerful years.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Here's my last movie, go for it. Last movie to
mention from nineteen eighty five before we move on and
pick our very favorite horror movies of the eighties. I
did not appreciate this film until recently, but you have
to mention nineteen eighty five's Vampire Hunter.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
D Oh my gosh, yes, yes, yes, thank you for
bringing that one.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Our classic anime of a involving were wolf hunter and vampires,
and it is just you want to talk about.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Viby, Oh my god, it's and it's like one of
the most seminal anime of all time.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Unreal viby. So that is my pick, love that, that
is your pick. Nineteen eighty seven for you, nineteen eighty
five for me. I think there's honestly can't go wrong
with either year.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
You've even sold me on eighty five. I'm like, I
think these are equal, because that is a great year.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Now let's close it out by listing our top hot
this is really hard, our top five favorite or scariest
or whatever horror movies of the eighties right back after this. Yeah, okay, Rosie.
(37:53):
We talked about eighty four, we talked about eighty seven,
we talked about eighty five. Let's talk about the entire decade,
and are top five favorite horror movies of the eighties
do you want to go first?
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Wow, guys, this is like extremely hard. You know, this
is gonna start big conversations in the discord. I'm sure
if we've missed anything, that's just all subjective. Man. Yeah,
there's so many movies we haven't even talked about. Movies
like They Live. I love that movie, Child's Play. We
didn't even bring up Chucky. But I'm gonna go for faves. Okay,
I'm not gonna mention anyones that I've already mentioned because
(38:25):
those are my favors, and I think I'm gonna get
out of not filling my stuff up, So I'm gonna
start with one of my favorite movies from this era.
It is a B movie Night of the comment.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Oh agreed.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
This is one of my all time favorite movies from
nineteen eighty four, going back to the original. It stars
Catherine Mary Stewart as Regina Belmont and Kelly Mourinias Samantha Belmont,
a pair of sisters, one of whom works in the cinema,
which I thought was the coolest job you could ever have.
And one night she's staying overnight hanging out at the
cinema with her boyfriend who's the projectist, waiting to lender
(39:01):
real to someone, and she misses meeteor shower or the
arrival of a comet that basically turns everyone into kind
of raving zombies. And then her and her sister, who
also missed it because she was, you know, doing some
kind of Valley Girl esque thing, have to team up
to survive this apocalypse with Robert Beltran from Star Trek,
(39:24):
and they have to kind of team up to survive,
not only the first half of the movie, which is
more of your general zombie apocalypse s kind of sci
fi movie, but then the very interesting and I would
say slightly slower, but I still love this movie second
half where they kind of have to survive the government. Yeah,
and What America. It's kind of like a mashup of
(39:45):
the tropes from the whole Night of the Living Dead series,
And I just love this movie. I watch it all
the time. Very underrated, So I'm going to go for
underrated faves and B movies that you can stream now.
And I just watched this the other day. So this
is on Pluto for free, Roku channel for free, sling
for free. You can go and enjoy this right now. Baby,
(40:05):
what about you, Jason?
Speaker 1 (40:07):
First of all, I'm going to do my top five
horror movies of the eighties that I haven't mentioned yet,
because my favorites are honestly movies we've before. You talked
about The Lost Boys, Nightmare, Elm Street, Dream Warriors, Fright Night.
But let's start with the ones that I haven't talked
about yet. And first up, so I watch I have
seen a lot of horror movies. I don't get scared.
(40:27):
I watched, as I told Rosy and Aaron before we
started the bike, I watched Hereditary at one am and
went right to sleep. It didn't bother me at all.
Like I can watch any horror movie now and it
doesn't scare me. But the one movie that really bothered
me and continues to really creep me out is Henry
Portrait of a serial Killer from nineteen eighty six Legendary.
(40:51):
Here's how shaken I am by this film. I honestly
struggle to recommend it. It is harrowing. It's ostensibly a
dramatization of the serial killing career of Henry Lee Lucas,
who was an active serial killer who I think, who
clearly inflated his crimes, yes yes, and told a lot
(41:12):
of lies about the things he did, but also clearly
did murder people. And so that gives this film an
ominous tone. And there are some scenes in this film
that I that I would not watch this movie again.
Put it that way. Yeah, the performances are extremely strong.
There is a scene, there are several murder scenes, but
there's one of a home invasion that is really scary,
(41:36):
and so that is I think the scariest film that
I've ever seen nineteen eighty six is Henry Portrait of
a serial.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Killer, only eighty three minutes long and streaming on pretty
much every free to B Peacock, Pluto. It is really terrifying. Though,
this is not one to watch with your kid now.
This is a truth. It has been a very interesting
precursor to kind of the obsession with true crime that
we have now. Yes, and these kind of celebrity you know, Dharma,
(42:03):
et cetera. But it's way more unsettling and subtle and creepy.
That's a great pick.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
It really is like a watch it with the lights
on and again, very unsettling.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Your next pick, I'm going to go for something really
fun and light after that, which is Little Shop of Horrors.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Oh great.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
This is one of my all time favorite movies.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
See Moore, miss Seymour.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
I love it. The original is great. I used to
have the original on VHS, but this remake is so fantastic.
I adore it. It is Rick moranis in the lead.
It is a fantastic musical. It has an unbelievable amount
of star power. The songs are brilliant, the deaths are great.
(42:48):
You are essentially cheering for a serial killer who is
feeding people to a alien plant. And I think it's
a perfect spooky season watch. And I think it's so
beautifully made. I think we need more movies like this
now and A Yeah, I think this is definitely one
of the best movies of the AES.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
My next one is creepy. It is scary, it is
wonderful practical effects, it is mysterious, it's kind of sexy.
It is nineteen eighty one's The Howling. Oh great choice,
directed by Joe Dante, who had gone to do much
lighter stuff, but also I believe he did Gremlins right.
(43:26):
And it involves a television journalist from la who goes
up to the Pacific Northwest to follow up on an
investigation that had kind of touched her career. That is,
the investigation into this serial killer named Eddie Quist who
had attacked her in the course of her trying to
(43:48):
like uncover his crimes to learn more about him. She
goes up to this weird kind of hippie retreat up
into the Pacific Northwest and finds a colony of were wolves.
I think the thing that stands out to me about
this movie is the melancholy ending. It has a very
sad ending, which is kind of unheard of I think
(44:09):
for American movies, even horror movies of the time. Definitely,
and a wonderful performance by Dee Wallace. Great movie, The Howling.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Love that really good pick. I'm gonna go for another
John Carpenter movie. As I said, I do love him.
This is controversially one maybe my favorite John Carpenter movie.
I don't know. The vibes are just so good. The
Fog Ooh from nineteen eighty co written by John Carpenter
and Deborah Hill, the legendary producer, also stars AJM Bobo,
(44:43):
Jamie Lee, Curs, Tom Atkins, Janet Lee. It's such a
great movie and it's basically about a radio DJ in NorCal.
I'm still trying to work out how I can become
a late night radio DJ.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
And you're listening to Rosie Knight at night. The cold
fogs are rolling in, but I'm here to keep you
warm with these lounge jazz classics.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
And Adrian Barbo plays the radio DJ and she's in
a small narcout town. They're about to celebrate their centennial year.
But when a weird glowing fog appears, people start to
get murdered, and you eventually learn that these kind of
ghostly pirates are coming out of the fog and killing people.
It's so weird, it's so good, so many great practical effects,
(45:30):
extremely vibe next up.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Didn't mention it in my rundown out of eighty five,
so I have to mention it here. I'm not a
fan of anthologies. Usually I find anthology movies to be
usually uneven at best and very boring at worst. But
there are two great horror anthologies of the eighties, and
I'm going to talk about one of them right now.
Katsi from nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
Great pick, what a deep cut.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
I love Katsai. This is all based on Stephen King's stuff. Again,
Stephen king adaptations were ruling the eighties. There's a through
line here of this cat that is roaming through all
the stories and appears in all the stories, and every
story is in its own way notable and awesome. You
have Quitters Incorporated, in which a man hires a company
(46:17):
to quit smoking and the company turns out to be best.
Not spoil it, but it's great. You have the Ledge,
which is just like a psycho thriller about a insane
physical trial that this person has to go through and
then the general which ties it all together with the
cat versus this mystical goblin creature. Drew Barrymore again with
(46:40):
another wonderful performance. James Woods, who has since gone insane
but is wonderful in this film, appears Katsig in nineteen
eighty five. It's great.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
Okay, now, guys, I will warn you if you've been
watching the rest of my picks, you might be like, yeah,
these are my little cozy b movie hardpicks. My next
one is not I have to bring up because we
haven't talked about it, and I do think it is
a very important movie from this decade, and that is Possession.
This is a wild movie. I love this movie, deeply
(47:11):
important movie to me. It stars Samuel who You also
are like, wow, that guy's never in weird movies. No,
this is a very strange movie. He is an international
spy who returns to Berlin where his wife played by
Isabelle Ajohnny, one of my favorite actresses. Yeah, this is Pikajanni.
She is asking for a divorce and throughout the movie
(47:35):
there becomes this strange push and pull between them about
why she wants to leave, and it becomes this kind
of psychosis of romance and betrayal and a strange tent
called Preachers. It is an incredibly unsettling movie. It's an
incredibly fucking cool movie, and also right now it is
(47:56):
maybe the most influential horror movie on twenty twenty four
because movies like The First Omen and Immacula, there are sequences,
especially in the First Omen, that are directly taken from
this very famous scene with Isabella Johnny in a tunnel
during Possession. So if you want to see something weird,
if you're like you guys aren't recommending scary stuff, Henry
(48:18):
of Portrait, Henry Portrait of a serial Killer and Possession
would be like a absolutely day ruining double bill. So
if you want that kind of thing, we can deliver
that too.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
My next up is nineteen eighty three's classic from David Cronenberg, Videodrome.
Speaker 3 (48:36):
Oh oh my god, what a pick.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
If you're familiar with Cronenberg and his body horror stylings,
this is a film. This is a film that you
might be familiar with because of the many, many scenes
which have later become memes. Yeah, and gifts that appear
on social media, that appeared on The Daily Show, that
appeared in various other forums. Guys heads exploding things coming
out of their guts. And it's basically what if TV
(49:02):
was bringing stuff from another dimension to inside of you.
It's fantastic. Another wonderful, brilliant performances by James Woods Debbie
Harry in an acting term.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
She's so a.
Speaker 1 (49:15):
Gross, thought provoking horror classic by David Cronenberg video drum.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
Oh man, what a great pick. I've already got what
more space? Oh my gosh, guys, this is so hard.
I could literally just talk about this all day. I
am going to go for Oh my god. Okay, okay,
I'm gonna go for one. I have to include this
because it is like a very big part of my personality.
So even though there are many seminal movies we have
(49:42):
not touched on yet, movies like The Thing or The Hitcher,
go and watch that. It's so fucking scary. It's so scary.
I'm gonna pick in the line of my movies and
I haven't talked about yet. There are b movies that
you can stream now. Nineteen eighty eight. A. Yeah, we
didn't talk about but another great explosion year for horror
Killer Clowns from out of Space.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
Oh, Killer Clowns Around.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
I love this movie.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
Another movie filmed in Santa Cruz, The Santa.
Speaker 3 (50:09):
Deeply important movie for me. I love this movie as
a kid, made by the Chiodo brothers. I actually have
a Killer Clown's fan comic that I made with my
brilliantly talented artist friend Daniel Rude Massa that I basically
am always carrying around in my back pocket, like hege,
you want to make a Kill a Clown's graphic novel?
I love this movie. It's so much fun, and it's
(50:32):
basically about aliens who come from space to Earth and
they their ships look like giant circuses, and they look
like scary clowns, and they have these fantastic practical suits
in case people in cotton candy. I just love this movie.
It's so silly, it's so weird, and I think it
(50:53):
has stood the test of time as like an incredibly
inventive B movie. And they recently made a Killer Clowns
from out Space video game that was very well received.
I am just generally a big fan of Killer Clowns,
so I had to include that one in my list.
That's a totally fun movie. If you haven't seen it, guys,
go watch it now.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Here's my last one. All your B movie vibes, all
your pulp comic book vibes, all your horror comic vibes.
This is the other great horror anthology of the eighties,
again adapting Stephen King's works. It is nineteen eighty two's
creep Show.
Speaker 3 (51:29):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
It is funny, it is gross, it is pulpy. There's
your comic book stuff in there. Each wonderful vignette has
a great moral like, yeah, very like a moral message.
It is a very moral movie.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
Also directed by George A. Ramera, written by Stephen King,
like what can you do? And it's like very easy homage.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Yes, very easy. Stephen King appears in it in what
I actually think is a quite surprise risingly good performance
acting wise from Stephen King's very over the top, but
I think it works. Nineteen eighty twos creep Show, yea,
and that is the eighties for horror. I feel like
you could just keep doing.
Speaker 3 (52:11):
This because this could be its whole own sub show
for shoal. But this was so good. I'm very excited
to hopefully do more of these debates about best horror
in the decades, because this is really fun.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
On the next couple of episodes of X ray Vision,
we've got episode six of The Penguin. Tuesday, we're diving
into episode seven of Agatha Along and then in extras
on Wednesday, Aaron and Oboo are back with another recap
of episode six and seven of season one of Arcane.
That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening, Bye. X
(52:46):
ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kenspsion and Rosie Knight
and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers
are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer is
a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and Mia Taylor.
Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Laude, Kenny Goodman
and Heidi our discord moderator.
Warning. Today's episode contains spoilers for a bevy of classic
horror films of the nineteen eighties, mainly movies from the
year nineteen eighty four, but several others, so be warned,
you warn. Hello, it is.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Jason Concepcion and on Mersday Night and welcome back the
x ray vision of the podcast where we dived you
video favorite shows, movies, colleagues at pop Culture covering you
from a iHeart podcast. We're bringing you three episodes a week,
every Tuesday Thursday, and an extra episode on Wednesday.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Ooh, aren't you lucky? In today's episode, in the previously on,
we are going to be talking about why people think
nineteen eighty four is the best year for horrors, What
movies came out, then why do people think this? And
then in the airlock, we are gonna be arguing what
year we think is the best year for horror And
believe us, we spent all weekend just watching eighties horror movies,
(01:11):
so we are ready. We are ready to make this
argument and it's the perfect argument for spooky season. Get
ready to get scored.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
First up previously on nineteen eighty four. Okay, Rosie, Okay,
nineteen eighty four, tell us about it.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Okay, So this year in horror is very much seen
as if you guys remember a few years ago. Now,
me and Jason did an episode about nineteen eighty two
and was it the greatest year for like NERD movies,
nineteen eighty four has essentially become that same year for horror.
We had Children of the Corn March nineteenth, nineteen eighty four.
(01:50):
We had Friday the thirteenth, The Final Chapter April thirteenth,
nineteen eighty four. We had the Drew Barrymore classic Stephen
King adaptation Firestarter eleven, nineteen eighty four, Gremlins one of
my favorite movies. June eighth, nineteen eighty four. Ghostbusters a seminole,
rosy childhood classic June eighth, nineteen eighty four. Company of
(02:10):
Wolves underrated, underrated gothic fantasy horror classic, very underrated movie.
This one I think Edges nineteen eighty four up because
it is so strange and it's like a sexy, erotic
horror fantasy red riding hood situation. Also, Jason, I know
this is a seminal movie in your life. Cannibal Humanoid
(02:33):
underground Dwellers aka Chud by Douglas Cheek.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
And let me just say about Chud quickly. Let's talk
about Chud, A wonderful film about cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers
that are haunting the city. They live in the sewers.
They're devouring unhoused people as well as many others. A
documentary reporter and a unhoused people's advocate go on the
war path to try and figure out what's going on.
(02:57):
They discover a cover up by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Course,
but let me just say great actual acting performances by
John Hurd, Daniel Stern and Chris Curry and John Goodman,
really really strong dramatic acting in a wild horror movie.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
An incredible practical affair and incredible practical effects, and really
one of the underrated classics in.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
My eyes of the eighties. I continue, please continue about
nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Okay, Terminator, Yeah, October twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four. Now,
I would say this is horror adjacent in my mind,
but I do believe sci fi to me that at
the time, yeah, I could see it being more in
that horror vean. Okay, Now, I do think that this
next one is a large reason that people think of
this and this is stuff. A Nightmare on Elm Street
November ninth, nineteen eighty four, Wes Craven classic, John Saxon,
(03:49):
my favor, Robert England, obviously Heathe Langenkamp, Nancy, one of
the legendary Final Girls. I do love this movie.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I love this franchise. This is actually a very scary movie.
It's before Robert England's really like hamming it up, so
it's a little bit more spooky him later on. I
don't know how it was for you guys, but like,
so when I was a kid, I was in primary
school as we call it, so kind of like baby
school you're like eight or nine. There was a spate
(04:18):
of sleepovers where their parents allowed the kids to watch
Nightmare on Elm Street, and then they would have to
do assemblies at schools being like, do not let your
kids watch this because then all these like eight and
nine year old kids are running around London like have.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
You heard of Freddy Krueger.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
He's gonna kill you in your sleep, and then nobody
was sleeping. So that was a very influential movie on
my childhood. And also I just I still love it.
One of the best and most imaginative slashes.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, this was an influential one for me as well,
as I've spoken about on the show here. I was
given a membership to a local video rental place because
I was home alone a lot, so I watched a
lot of horror movies that I shouldn't watch. Among them
was A Nightmare on Elm Street. And it was one
of the first movies where I can remember talking with
(05:07):
my friends about Easter eggs, Like when when at the
end when the roof of the car flips up and
it's Freddy's, Oh my god, sweater colors. I was like,
did you guys notice that it was like Freddy's sweater colors?
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Like that was your like fuss Easter egg movie I.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Was getting used to. Truly a pioneering film and still
has the power to scare it. I mean the scene
in which I forget the name of the characters, but
the one friend of Nancy's is hurled like they're having
the sleepover, and she's hurled up onto the walls and
across the ceiling and is like getting stabbed like through
(05:42):
the guts, like as her boyfriend watches is still terrified.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Also the scene where Johnny Depp's character gets sucked into
the bed and they spray all the blood up into
the ceiling also as well. I will say an underrated
moment in this movie, but I do think has become
like a very iconic scene is when Nancy sees her
dead friend and she's in the body bag in the
school hall way. I think about that a lot. But yeah,
(06:09):
from a very serious movie to a very un serious movie,
which I will say, if you live in LA or
another metropolitan area, or just somewhere with a great rep cinema,
you will probably be able to see this movie in
the next coming months at the cinema, and I highly
recommend it. It is Silent Night, Deadly Night, November ninth,
nineteen eighty four. This is an absolutely deranged movie. And
(06:31):
in England, I have to say this definitely has a
bit more of like a exploitation, kind of not serious,
but it's definitely seen as more of like a It
was quite shocking when it came out, and it was
very controversial because it has a killer in a Santa suit.
But I will tell you if you go and watch
this movie in an American repfit. I went to see
it last year at the New BEV comboed with Black Christmas,
(06:54):
one of the best Christmas movies of all time.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Black Christmas is truly one of the great great horror movies.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Of Trailblazing slow and then that was first and everyone,
but then this movie.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, this movie is whack.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Comes afterwards and it is like you're in riff tracks
when you're watching the movie in the cinema, and I
have to say ten out of ten would recommend was
absolutely just fantastic to watch with the crowd.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I remember hearing about the controversy as a child and
you know, like understanding that there had been this tremendous
controversy around this film, and then renting it as a
young person when I got my membership card and being
a little let down, like I thought it.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Was going to be it feels like a TV movie.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, like I thought that the controversy, you know, not
really understanding the full controversy. But my perception of it
was this movie is so fucking violent that it's yeah,
we had to pull it. It's too much. And then
I saw it and it was like, Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
The actual reason it was one of those perception controversies. Yes,
the post that very famously has a guy in a
Santa suit with an axe arm and I's coming out
of the chimney and it's kind of like how even
now into any four, the new Damian Leone movie Terrifier
three came out where the art the clown is in
a Santa costume, and there was actually protests outside the cinemas,
(08:09):
I think in Kansas City, where they were like, we
say no to this satanic Santa. So I don't know,
somehow there's like a Christianity connection to Santa. I am
unsure how, but that was really what it was about.
I will say though, just honestly, great time watching this
movie in a cinema with a crowd or if you're
just interested in weird oddities. This is more of like
a made for TV drama about the nature of abuse
(08:33):
and like this weird Gray vite about trauma, and there
is like violence, there's guns, and but it's not really
a horror movie in a traditional sense.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Let's talk about these are surely the headliners.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Those are the headliners.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
What are your favorite nineteen eighty four horror movies? Top three?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
I would definitely say a Nightmare on Elm Street has
to be up there for me. Okay, you go, let's
do one for one. Okay, there's just so many good ones. Okay,
so mine's not right Elm Street. Yeah, I agree, Okay, Okay.
So then I would say I love Friday the Thirteenth
as a franchise, but that would not be one of
my favorites.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
That was I mean, the Final Chapter is the movie
in which you can feel director Zito, amongst many other people,
really really trying not just to kill Jason, but to
kill this franchise. No one wanted to make this anymore.
And so the death of Jason at the end of
spoil the death of Jason at the end of this
movie feels very definitive and it's very funny that it's not.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, it does. And also as well, this is before
you just start getting into like the really good weird shit.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
But you know, I will say about Friday thirteenth, the
Final Chapter, I do enjoy Corey Faubman's performance in this movie.
I do think it's very good.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, And he becomes like the foil in the series,
which is very funny.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
And then there's an interesting kind of who is Tommy
Jarvis how does that go on? But probably I would
say Gremlins, even though again I would say that is
more of a horror adjacent movie. But I really do
love that movie, and I watch you every year at Christmas,
so there's actually a big yif of Christmas horror with
Gremlins and Silent Night Deadly Night.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
My second one, and this is very difficult. This really
is a great year. But my next two are what
I think of as the X Men influence in horror movies. Ooh,
and so my second pick is the underrated in my
eyes Dreamscape, Yes, from nineteen eighty four, starring Dennis Quaid,
(10:33):
Max Foncido, Christopher Plummer, Kate Capshaw soon to be the
wife of Steven Spielberg, and it's about it's basically inception.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
It's about a guy who has psychic powers, Alex Gardner
played by Dennis Quaid, who gets caught up in a
scheme to assassinate the president using dream inception. And it's
got some wonderful horror trope in there, and some nice
(11:02):
callbacks to some nightmares we see earlier in the film.
And it's a movie that I think people have forgotten about.
But I still love Dream Skip nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
That's a good one. I would also say that I
just I'm going to do like a kind of broader
shout out to Like there is a lot of underrated
horror weird like Slashes that came out this year, The
Initiation that's a really good weird movie, Splatter University, and
blood Bath, blood Birth at the House of Death. And
I will say something that you said, Jason, as we're
(11:32):
getting ready to prepare this. So many of these movies
are available on cheubee. Guys, if you don't to if
you have a smart TV, go to chubee and you
can watch so many incredible movies that honestly have been
lost for a long time because of streaming. But if
I was gonna have to pick, and I would say,
I think I'm going to go for properly. A movie
that I truly think is very underrated is a Company
(11:55):
of Wolves.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yeah, And I do just think it's like really great
and it was I watched that a lot when I
was a teenager, very formative for me.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Neil Jordan, Yeah, who's truly a quality filmmaker. His work
here is fantastic. It's got that dreamy, kind of gauzy,
too much vacoline on the lens.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Yeah, drastically, Neil Jordan look definitely for me. Like I
grew up reading, I had this. I still have this book. Actually,
it's one of the few things I still have from
when I was a kid. I had this copy of
Grim's fairy Tales that was a hardcover that I got
at like a bookshop where my mum worked, and it
had all the real German Grimm's fairy Tales where like
Cinderella's stepsisters are like chopping off their heels to fit
(12:35):
it in the boot, and then they're making Cinderella's stepmom
dance to death in iron shoes and this kind of
the horrors of what the real moral fables were. And
I feel like Company of understood that and was like, Okay,
so what do we How do we make this into
like an actual horror movie, but that still has this
interesting coming of age growing into womanhood and how scary.
(12:56):
That is just a really cool movie.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Okay. And then this, Gosh, I think it's up for
debate whether this is truly a horror movie, but I'm
gonna pick it anyway. Firestarter, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Was gonna say, if you're doing X Men, Yeah, so that's.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
My X Men again. The X Men influence in horror movies.
Firestarter about a secret government program to create psychic telepathic warriors.
It goes sideways and two of the former Chess subjects
have a kid named Charlie. She is played by Drew Barrymore,
who is wonderful in this film, like truly like baby,
(13:30):
an incredible performance by a very very young actor. And
she has the ability not to just move things around
with her mind, but she has this exponentially dangerous ability
to start fires and the whole while there is this
secretive government program that's trying to control her, they call
the Shop. You get like a wonderful scene of a
(13:52):
confrontation between these government agents and Charlie, like in front
of a farmhouse that calls back to Magneto versus the
Cops and the first X Men movie. It's a great one.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
And it's very like, you know, WEAPONEX yees, very WEAPONEX tybes.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And that's part of why I really
love it. Incredible performances, most notably by David Keith as
Charlie's father, like tons of pathos from him. George C.
Scott as like this super warmonger, manipulative guy who gets
Charlie to believe in him. It's really great, and they
(14:28):
remade it some years ago, I think twenty twenty two,
a film that's really not that good, but this is
really good.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah, and that movie has Zac Efron it. Yeah. I
would also like to say I don't know how recently
anybody watched Children of the Corn, but I did do
a rewatch of the entire franchise recently thanks to the
blessings of Antenna TV.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And I have to say that first Children of the
Corn movie completely wild. Absolutely, you would never believe it
if somebody told you what the movie was about. But
it does have Linda Hamilton in it, yes, and it
is actually like very enjoyable. Though I will say as
a kid, I always got it confused with the John
Carpenter remake of The Midwich Cuckoos that had Christopher Reeve
(15:08):
in it, and I have to say I am still
more of a Village of the Damned fan the Children
of the Corn. Yeah, but Linda Hamilton is really good
and I actually think the First Children of the Corn
is a good movie, and I do want i think
that one is another reason this gets edged up. But
we got to step out of the airlock and into
our debate about which year in the eighties was actually
the best for horror movies because there are just so many.
(15:29):
I don't I think this nineteen eighty four one. I
feel like it's a random pick because right now I'm like,
we can make the argument for.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
More to your point, it feels overrated, specifically because of
mister Freddy Krueger.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Mister fred Old Krugel.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
So let's go onto our debate right back after this. Okay, Rosie,
we've talked about nineteen eighty four. Now let's talk about
(16:05):
what our personal favorite year for horror in the eighties is.
Would you like to start who?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
This is so complex and it's fun, it's fun. There
is I would just want to say, festival. What a
blessing to have the eighties, because the eighties is just
such an unreal decade for horror. Every year there is
at least one or two bangers, and I think sometimes
depending on the flavor of what you're feeling, you could argue,
(16:37):
for example, nineteen eighty two you had cat People very good,
but obviously that's not going to be that's not going
to be swinging anyone's vote.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
The original Cat People actually scarier, Yeah, actually scary. Fifties
cat People actually scared.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
But then Poltergeist and The Thing, which I think arguably
you could make an argument that that's the best year
in horror just for those two. But I am going
to propose nineteen eighty seven. Now, I will say this
is not this is not like a banner. You're not
gonna get that list like we just gave you for
(17:12):
nineteen eighty four. But for me, I'm gonna start with
the horror adjacent release that for me, as a kid
growing up, I was obsessed with, which is Angel Heart
starring Mickey raw Oh my god. It's such a good movie.
It's like a neo noir in the eighties, and it's
a mystery and it's about a guy who's hunting someone down.
(17:33):
Don't look it up. Yeah, just go watch it.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
If you have not seen Angel Heart, don't read anything
about it, and go watch it because the twists in
this film are fantastic.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Some of the best twists that you've ever Currently streaming
on Paramount Plus if you are that way subscribed. Okay,
that for me, I watched it a lot as a kid.
I loved it. I would tell people about it. It
felt like one of those movies i'd discovered. But the
two big ones here that I think as adults I
watch every year more than once. I will go and
see in the movie theater whenever they are on. Clive
(18:06):
Barker's Hell Raiser one of the best horror movies ever made,
and Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys, that's great, in my opinion,
one of the best vampire movies ever made. For me.
That is a fantastic mix of Hell Raiser is this
vibrantly gory, strange movie about a girl who lives with
(18:28):
her dad and her stepmom and she kind of discovers
that her uncle who shows up, Uncle Frank, had some
weird occult dealings with a magical puzzle box. That's a
very terrifying movie, unbelievable practical effects, the cenobites, Doug Bradley
as pin Head, who had gone to become this iconic
horror character. Very queer movie, very queer movie, very queer franchise,
(18:53):
and that's kind of the nature of Clive Barker's work.
I just love this movie. It's still really scary. There's
still people who don't want to watch it because it
kind of has this BDSM horror aesthetic that can be
very unsettling. It also was originally supposed to be a
horror movie with a woman in her mid forties and
the lead. The stepmom was originally going to be the lead,
(19:14):
which I think is really cool and I love that,
and they managed to keep her in there. But then
you have Lost Boys, which is queer in a totally
different way and just totally cool every time I go
and see Lost Boys. I went to see it recently
with Nick and my wonderful friend cartoonist be Like Unis,
and when we were there, I was just like, oh
(19:34):
my god, I want to be a cool vampire living
in Santa Cruz the fairground. I want to be young,
far fast. And also like, how can you not love
a movie where there's just a random saxophone solo. No
one knows why he's in it, sax guy, but he's
(19:54):
in there.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
I lived in Santa Cruz for a while, and wow,
that vibe. The kind of beautif full picturesque beach town
with a dark side really feels like the real place.
You know. It's a very strange place. It's a place
where multiple serial killers were plying their deadly craft, specifically
during the seventies. Edmund Kemper was you know, killed his
(20:16):
mom killed a bunch of co Ed's was you know
like he lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and so
lost Boys feels it manages to capture that contrast between
beautiful beach lightness and weirdness and old hippies and something
dangerous going on in the woods.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah. And also I will say as well, I know
this is both mine and your favorite nightmare and elm
Street movie. Dream Warriors incredible, fantastic movie, unbelievable, young costs,
some of the best deaths, very quippy, very.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Cool, very quippy cool, like, the effects are amazing. It's
got a fun song by the hair metal band docn
as the theme, you.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Don't want a Dream Noble. Also, Patricia Arquette, you have
some legends in this movie. Also this year also had
Evil Dead two, which I do believe many people believe
is the superior Evil Dead movie. Another one that is
streaming for free on Pluto TV right now. Obviously love
Sam Raimi. Also underrated. One that I love from this
(21:20):
year is John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, starring Donald Pleasance
and Victim Want. I really like this movie, but that
I am a John Carpenter superstan so I've seen every
John Carpenter movie. I will make the argument even for
you know, Ghosts of Mars, which is at least he
was still using some cool miniatures. Guys, come on, but
(21:41):
this one is like a science versus religion combo where
there's a mysterious green liquid and these academics arrive and
kind of decipher whether or not, like, will this be
able to bring Jesus back? Was Jesus an alien? Is Satan?
It's all this signiens religion, horror, really interesting, smorgas bored.
(22:05):
It's a spiritual follow up to the thing because it's
part of the Apocalypse trilogy that ends within the Mouth
of Madness. Now, the underrated John corp in a movie.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Super super weird fucking movie that I'm still not sure
what happened. Yeah exactly, but the vibes, but the vibes
are incredible. I actually rewatched it recently and still don't
know what's happening. But very very crazy movie in the
Mouth of Madness.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah, also horror adjacent in eighty seven Monster Squad.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Oh, I love Monster Squad.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I have to say I actually was not lucky enough
to discover this as a kid, because I would have
loved it so good. But I watch it every year
as an adult. It's on Pluto, it's free, it's so charming,
it's so fun.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Here's Monster Squad ready. Did you like the Goonies a
gang of kids who go and do an adventure? This
is like the Goonies, a gang of kids that band
together to do an adventure, but they do an adventure
teamed up with Frankenstein, Wolfman and like vampires and stuff.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Exactly very cool fun. Also, Blood Dina came out this year,
which was directed by Jackie Kong, so it's like a
rare female horror movie in this era. I think this
is an underrated year. And also there's like sequels Galow
Return to Salem's Law. There's also some really weird movies
that I've only discovered from watching Antenna TV. Here, like Dolls,
(23:25):
where our family has to just stay in this house
and it's just full of creepy dolls.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Rosie. I think this was gonna be my pick as well.
And I think he's but it's okay because there's plenty
other years to pick from. Great, And I will say
I think we've missed out on what I think for me,
for my money, best horror movie of the entire eighties,
nineteen eighty seven's Near Dark. Oh my god, what ifaring
the entire cast of aliens in a film by Catherine Bigelow,
(23:53):
the hurt Locker, Blue Steel, Zero Dark, thirty incredible director.
Near Dark is basically neo western about this gang of
vampires that rides around in our love this movie, cutting
people's throats and drinking them. It's an incredible film.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
Yeah. Also, I feel like people maybe don't take this
question seriously if this is not the answer, because if
you're even looking at those like horror adjacent Predator came
out this year. Yep, also a movie. I will say, Look,
I'm not gonna recommend that you go and watch this
movie because it has aged very badly. It's very fucked up.
Lots of language, et cetera that we would not use nowadays.
(24:32):
But when I first saw it on a VHS in
like a squat many moons ago. There's a movie called
Street Trash and it came out this year. It is
on Cheuwby right now. I will say it was what
was known as a melt movie, and the idea was
it was gonna be this like new version of Troma,
and basically everyone the effects is like every time somebody
drinks this kind of a cherry wine that they just
(24:54):
melt and the effects are very cool. The movie itself
very corny, badly age movie, but I will say I
did just learn that somebody just remade this, and I
believe it's gonna be on Chewby. Also very important movie
here historically because Peter Jackson's Bad Taste came out in
nineteen eighty seven, and obviously that was like kind of
one of his breakthrough If you've seen Lord of the
(25:16):
Rings and you're like, what was this man doing before
Lord of the Rings, go and watch Bad Taste, because
this man was a splatter gore fiend. He really was,
and he was making some praise stuff. Also both Slumberpaty
Massa two and Silent Night Deadly Night Part two. So
I just think like eighty seven is a great year
when it comes to the explosion of horror and also thrillers. Why, oh,
(25:36):
you know what we should mention before we move on sure,
Wicked City the anime, because that is very seminar horror
anime came out in eighty seven. But yeah, I think
this is such a good year.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Okay, I agree with you, But now, for the sake
of argument, I'm going to pick my other favorite eighties
year for horror and going with nineteen eighty five. Oh,
I think top line maybe not as strong as eighty seven,
but still some incredible bangers that I think are very underrated.
Let's start with a continuation of a classic series, George
(26:08):
Romeiro's Day of the Dead. Oh, following up Dawn, Yeah,
which listen, Dawn not just the best, in my opinion
of the George Romero zombie movies, but actually a great film.
Opening twenty minutes of Dawn of the Dead is as
good as anything that you can think of.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Great anti capitalist movie.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Yeah, but Day of the Dead also very good. So
we've got Day of the Dead, and here's my If
it's not the best horror movie of eighty five, I
think it's my favorite. Fright Night.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Fright Night. This is a joyous watch.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
A joyous movie that's kind of self referential, understands the
horror genre. You've got this young teenage kid who is
a big fan of horror, specifically of this like late
night horror TV program that's hosted by this guy who's
like a washed up old hammer television star named Peter Vincent.
(27:04):
And over time, Charlie begins to suspect that his neighbor.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
His cool hot neighbor, his cool.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Hot neighbor, is up to something weird. Turns out, guess what,
his neighbor is a vampire, and you get this big
showdown between Charlie with the help of Peter and his
girlfriend trying to save his girlfriend really from the clutches
of this vampire, trying to take this vampire down. It's
a fantastic movie with some wonderful horror tropes. It's referential
in the way that Scream would be referential in the nineties,
(27:34):
and it's just really fun. They did remake it with
Colin Ferrell. I think Anton Yakovic, Anton Yaalkin, it's pretty good,
pretty fun, it's pretty good.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
You could do a little double bell. Yeah, you know, Jason,
I think you picked a very strong year here. This
is another year kind of like eighty seven, where there
are some big headliners reanime legendary movie that I think
is still just being rediscovered. I'm always seeing kids sharing
stuff on ticked. You know. It's kind of barely based
(28:02):
on an HP Lovecraft Boo story, but it does something
so much. It's directed by Stuart Gordon, who was, you know,
a B movie master, and stars Jeffrey Combs, who you
have probably seen in a million other horror movies simply
because he was in this movie. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Basically a retelling of the Doctor Frankenstein's monster kind of
myth in which this mad scientist starts putting together dead
bodies and reanimating them. Another film that is highly referential
and understands like the genre it is in and is
a super super weird movie. Here's a film you mentioned, Barker.
(28:42):
I'm a big listen. I love the Pinhead stuff, but
I think some of his non pin Head stuff is
also amazing. Let's talk about Underground. Oh, I'm Markers Underground
from nineteen eighty five, in which there's a hidden and
mysterious group of sub human mind anster species created by
a mad scientist. They're living under London.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Great, very very fun.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Early Clive Barker also known as Transmutations and Underworld. There
are many different names for this, but yes, I love
this one definitely one of those first ones that I
kind of saw and didn't know what it was. Also
just want to bring up I will talk about this
more extensively on other episodes this holiday season. This is
when Returned to Oz came out. One of the scariest
(29:25):
movies I ever saw as a kid, a Disney sequel
to Wizard of Oz that stars Freeze a Bulk and
starts with Dorothy getting electric shock treatment before she goes
to Oz and discovers that everyone's been turned to stone
and there's a new evil queen who chops off people's
heads and wears them. This is like a masterful kid's
(29:45):
horror movie, and I still love it so deeply, and
it was impossible to find anywhere other than very expensive
DVDs for a long time, but now you can watch
it on Disney Plus.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
Next up, nineteen eighty five's Thus Duff by Larry Cohen.
This is a film that is like environmental and regulatory
horror was kind of big in the eighties. Chud talked
about like the misdoings of the you know national They
dealt with all the nuclear stuff. Nuclear Regulatory Commission excuse me.
(30:18):
Chud is basically like a failure of oversight of food. Basically,
this is so creepy, it's so crazy. This company creates
this extremely sweet yogurt ice cream kind of substance which
people eat and then become crazy addicted to, and it
has all sorts of insane effects. Wonderful performances by Michael
(30:43):
Moriarty and Garrett Morris who and Paul Cervino. Garrett Moose
apparently hated dealing with Larry Cohne, but he's wonderful in
this film. Super super underrated movie that people don't talk about.
It is just a fantastic, weird kind of satirical but
also very scared film with notes of body horror. The
(31:03):
stuff check it out, extremely viby, very vibey. And also
I am.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Always surprised when I realized this movie came out in
the eighties, because it's got like a seventies vibe to it.
It's just it's very strange. I'm gonna go for like
another incredible kid's horror here that was like really important
to me, which is like more of a fantasy, but
I think it is horror a jacent which is legend.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Oh my God Legend.
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Came out this year with Tim Curry in one of
the scariest practical effects of all time, wearing this giant
devil costume with these huge horns.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Truly awesome fantasy film.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Just fantastic movie. Ye, Ridley Scott, what were you thinking?
I don't know, but I'm glad because I love this movie.
Tom Cruise, such a delightful and important movie in my
life and also with some really scary moments. So this
is such a good year. There's just so many.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
There's so many. Next up for me, here's a film
that blends sci fi and horror, nineteen eighty five's Life
Force by Toby Hooper. I love that is one that
again is a film that I think people don't talk about.
Screenplay by Dan O'Bannon, who gave us Alien, who gave
us so many other horror films, And it's basically what
(32:12):
if aliens or vampires?
Speaker 3 (32:15):
And it's from this really fun era of post alien
movies where everyone wanted to do aliens. So it's like
these walking cloths. Yeah, people, and they're like, well if
aliens were vampires?
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Young Patrick Stewart.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
Oh baby, yeah, this is that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
And then this is a movie that I it's not
technically good, but I really liked it as a kid.
And that is the adaptation of yet another Stephen King novella,
Stephen King was ruling the eighties, not just you know,
on the bookshelf, but also on the screen. And this
is Silver Bullet.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Oh, I love I actually love this one. I have
this on DVD.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
This is a wonderful film about a small town dealing
with a werewolf that is killing off various citizenry and
how a young disabled man takes on this werewolf with
a wonderful performance by Corey ham Excuse me as that
(33:16):
young man and Corey ham is. I think people who
know about Corey Hame they think of the Lost Boys
and Lucas, then they think of the troubles he had
later on in his life. But he was a fantastically
talented actor able to really conjure some like deep emotion.
(33:36):
And that's true in Silver Bullet, which is a very
low budget film with some great scares and the chemistry
between Corey and Gary Busey as his kind of like scamp,
hard drinking uncle who's lets him have toys that he
shouldn't have.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
I mean who doesn't love to watch Gary Busey in
a B movie. Yeah, he's always living it up.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
And then lastly, again it's not my favorite of the Freddy's,
but oh, Nightmare and Elm Street two legendary is an
important film for the evolution of Freddy because it's really
the point in time in which my senses, Robert England
didn't think he'd be doing these continuously.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Remember this man was a thespian beforehand. After Nightmare on
Elm Street one, I once chatted to Robert England at
an event and I interviewed him about nightmaron Elm Street.
And after the first movie, he was reviled in the country.
He was hated in the USA. People felt like he
was corrupting children, he was not having a good time.
So I think you were onto something.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
So when he was asked back for the sequel to
Nightmare and Elk Street, which became a Nightmare on Elk
Street two, Freddie's Revenge Man, Robert England is putting a
lot of spice on these Freddy Yes.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
And also this is a very It was a very
controversial movie directed by Shoulder and it stars Mark Patten,
who in the very fantastic. I cannot recommend it enough.
Documentary Scream Queen talks about his struggle as a closeted
gay kid being cast in this movie that is extremely
(35:16):
queer and extremely queer coded. I mean there's literally a
scene where the kid who is possessed by Freddie goes
to the BDSM club where his teacher is and there's
like somebody's getting killed by being like butt whipped with
like a towel in a shower scene, like it's very gay,
and he was constantly being told no, it's not gay,
don't worry about it, and then the movie came out
(35:37):
and it was like he was really gas lit. It
has since become like a true queer classic.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
It's truly a queer classic, and now.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Mark Patten feels more comfortable to accept it. But yeah,
watch Scream Queen. It's such a good documentary about this
movie and the strange trajectory that it took and the
way it impacted the characters and the actors within it.
I will also say something I think is really cool
about this year that I kind of hadn't really realized
till we were talking about it. This is an interesting
(36:06):
year where there's a lot of horror, and there's a
lot of horror that is directed to a more family
audience because of the success of stuff like Night ron
elm Street, Black Cauldron Good. That's a great one of
the most terrifying Disney movies of all time. I love
that movie. It's probably my favorite Disney movie. Really terrifying stuff.
And you have a lot more horror comedies. You have
(36:26):
things like Ghoulies, you have Legend returned to us, re Animator, reanime.
You have these movies where they're like, oh, horror is
actually this can make money for us on a very
low budget. So I think so far we've picked two
very powerful years.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Here's my last movie, go for it. Last movie to
mention from nineteen eighty five before we move on and
pick our very favorite horror movies of the eighties. I
did not appreciate this film until recently, but you have
to mention nineteen eighty five's Vampire Hunter.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
D Oh my gosh, yes, yes, yes, thank you for
bringing that one.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Our classic anime of a involving were wolf hunter and vampires,
and it is just you want to talk about.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
Viby, Oh my god, it's and it's like one of
the most seminal anime of all time.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Unreal viby. So that is my pick, love that, that
is your pick. Nineteen eighty seven for you, nineteen eighty
five for me. I think there's honestly can't go wrong
with either year.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
You've even sold me on eighty five. I'm like, I
think these are equal, because that is a great year.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Now let's close it out by listing our top hot
this is really hard, our top five favorite or scariest
or whatever horror movies of the eighties right back after this. Yeah, okay, Rosie.
(37:53):
We talked about eighty four, we talked about eighty seven,
we talked about eighty five. Let's talk about the entire decade,
and are top five favorite horror movies of the eighties
do you want to go first?
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Wow, guys, this is like extremely hard. You know, this
is gonna start big conversations in the discord. I'm sure
if we've missed anything, that's just all subjective. Man. Yeah,
there's so many movies we haven't even talked about. Movies
like They Live. I love that movie, Child's Play. We
didn't even bring up Chucky. But I'm gonna go for faves. Okay,
I'm not gonna mention anyones that I've already mentioned because
(38:25):
those are my favors, and I think I'm gonna get
out of not filling my stuff up, So I'm gonna
start with one of my favorite movies from this era.
It is a B movie Night of the comment.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Oh agreed.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
This is one of my all time favorite movies from
nineteen eighty four, going back to the original. It stars
Catherine Mary Stewart as Regina Belmont and Kelly Mourinias Samantha Belmont,
a pair of sisters, one of whom works in the cinema,
which I thought was the coolest job you could ever have.
And one night she's staying overnight hanging out at the
cinema with her boyfriend who's the projectist, waiting to lender
(39:01):
real to someone, and she misses meeteor shower or the
arrival of a comet that basically turns everyone into kind
of raving zombies. And then her and her sister, who
also missed it because she was, you know, doing some
kind of Valley Girl esque thing, have to team up
to survive this apocalypse with Robert Beltran from Star Trek,
(39:24):
and they have to kind of team up to survive,
not only the first half of the movie, which is
more of your general zombie apocalypse s kind of sci
fi movie, but then the very interesting and I would
say slightly slower, but I still love this movie second
half where they kind of have to survive the government. Yeah,
and What America. It's kind of like a mashup of
(39:45):
the tropes from the whole Night of the Living Dead series,
And I just love this movie. I watch it all
the time. Very underrated, So I'm going to go for
underrated faves and B movies that you can stream now.
And I just watched this the other day. So this
is on Pluto for free, Roku channel for free, sling
for free. You can go and enjoy this right now. Baby,
(40:05):
what about you, Jason?
Speaker 1 (40:07):
First of all, I'm going to do my top five
horror movies of the eighties that I haven't mentioned yet,
because my favorites are honestly movies we've before. You talked
about The Lost Boys, Nightmare, Elm Street, Dream Warriors, Fright Night.
But let's start with the ones that I haven't talked
about yet. And first up, so I watch I have
seen a lot of horror movies. I don't get scared.
(40:27):
I watched, as I told Rosy and Aaron before we
started the bike, I watched Hereditary at one am and
went right to sleep. It didn't bother me at all.
Like I can watch any horror movie now and it
doesn't scare me. But the one movie that really bothered
me and continues to really creep me out is Henry
Portrait of a serial Killer from nineteen eighty six Legendary.
(40:51):
Here's how shaken I am by this film. I honestly
struggle to recommend it. It is harrowing. It's ostensibly a
dramatization of the serial killing career of Henry Lee Lucas,
who was an active serial killer who I think, who
clearly inflated his crimes, yes yes, and told a lot
(41:12):
of lies about the things he did, but also clearly
did murder people. And so that gives this film an
ominous tone. And there are some scenes in this film
that I that I would not watch this movie again.
Put it that way. Yeah, the performances are extremely strong.
There is a scene, there are several murder scenes, but
there's one of a home invasion that is really scary,
(41:36):
and so that is I think the scariest film that
I've ever seen nineteen eighty six is Henry Portrait of
a serial.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Killer, only eighty three minutes long and streaming on pretty
much every free to B Peacock, Pluto. It is really terrifying. Though,
this is not one to watch with your kid now.
This is a truth. It has been a very interesting
precursor to kind of the obsession with true crime that
we have now. Yes, and these kind of celebrity you know, Dharma,
(42:03):
et cetera. But it's way more unsettling and subtle and creepy.
That's a great pick.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
It really is like a watch it with the lights
on and again, very unsettling.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Your next pick, I'm going to go for something really
fun and light after that, which is Little Shop of Horrors.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Oh great.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
This is one of my all time favorite movies.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
See Moore, miss Seymour.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
I love it. The original is great. I used to
have the original on VHS, but this remake is so fantastic.
I adore it. It is Rick moranis in the lead.
It is a fantastic musical. It has an unbelievable amount
of star power. The songs are brilliant, the deaths are great.
(42:48):
You are essentially cheering for a serial killer who is
feeding people to a alien plant. And I think it's
a perfect spooky season watch. And I think it's so
beautifully made. I think we need more movies like this
now and A Yeah, I think this is definitely one
of the best movies of the AES.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
My next one is creepy. It is scary, it is
wonderful practical effects, it is mysterious, it's kind of sexy.
It is nineteen eighty one's The Howling. Oh great choice,
directed by Joe Dante, who had gone to do much
lighter stuff, but also I believe he did Gremlins right.
(43:26):
And it involves a television journalist from la who goes
up to the Pacific Northwest to follow up on an
investigation that had kind of touched her career. That is,
the investigation into this serial killer named Eddie Quist who
had attacked her in the course of her trying to
(43:48):
like uncover his crimes to learn more about him. She
goes up to this weird kind of hippie retreat up
into the Pacific Northwest and finds a colony of were wolves.
I think the thing that stands out to me about
this movie is the melancholy ending. It has a very
sad ending, which is kind of unheard of I think
(44:09):
for American movies, even horror movies of the time. Definitely,
and a wonderful performance by Dee Wallace. Great movie, The Howling.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Love that really good pick. I'm gonna go for another
John Carpenter movie. As I said, I do love him.
This is controversially one maybe my favorite John Carpenter movie.
I don't know. The vibes are just so good. The
Fog Ooh from nineteen eighty co written by John Carpenter
and Deborah Hill, the legendary producer, also stars AJM Bobo,
(44:43):
Jamie Lee, Curs, Tom Atkins, Janet Lee. It's such a
great movie and it's basically about a radio DJ in NorCal.
I'm still trying to work out how I can become
a late night radio DJ.
Speaker 4 (44:56):
And you're listening to Rosie Knight at night. The cold
fogs are rolling in, but I'm here to keep you
warm with these lounge jazz classics.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
And Adrian Barbo plays the radio DJ and she's in
a small narcout town. They're about to celebrate their centennial year.
But when a weird glowing fog appears, people start to
get murdered, and you eventually learn that these kind of
ghostly pirates are coming out of the fog and killing people.
It's so weird, it's so good, so many great practical effects,
(45:30):
extremely vibe next up.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Didn't mention it in my rundown out of eighty five,
so I have to mention it here. I'm not a
fan of anthologies. Usually I find anthology movies to be
usually uneven at best and very boring at worst. But
there are two great horror anthologies of the eighties, and
I'm going to talk about one of them right now.
Katsi from nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
Great pick, what a deep cut.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
I love Katsai. This is all based on Stephen King's stuff. Again,
Stephen king adaptations were ruling the eighties. There's a through
line here of this cat that is roaming through all
the stories and appears in all the stories, and every
story is in its own way notable and awesome. You
have Quitters Incorporated, in which a man hires a company
(46:17):
to quit smoking and the company turns out to be best.
Not spoil it, but it's great. You have the Ledge,
which is just like a psycho thriller about a insane
physical trial that this person has to go through and
then the general which ties it all together with the
cat versus this mystical goblin creature. Drew Barrymore again with
(46:40):
another wonderful performance. James Woods, who has since gone insane
but is wonderful in this film, appears Katsig in nineteen
eighty five. It's great.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
Okay, now, guys, I will warn you if you've been
watching the rest of my picks, you might be like, yeah,
these are my little cozy b movie hardpicks. My next
one is not I have to bring up because we
haven't talked about it, and I do think it is
a very important movie from this decade, and that is Possession.
This is a wild movie. I love this movie, deeply
(47:11):
important movie to me. It stars Samuel who You also
are like, wow, that guy's never in weird movies. No,
this is a very strange movie. He is an international
spy who returns to Berlin where his wife played by
Isabelle Ajohnny, one of my favorite actresses. Yeah, this is Pikajanni.
She is asking for a divorce and throughout the movie
(47:35):
there becomes this strange push and pull between them about
why she wants to leave, and it becomes this kind
of psychosis of romance and betrayal and a strange tent
called Preachers. It is an incredibly unsettling movie. It's an
incredibly fucking cool movie, and also right now it is
(47:56):
maybe the most influential horror movie on twenty twenty four
because movies like The First Omen and Immacula, there are sequences,
especially in the First Omen, that are directly taken from
this very famous scene with Isabella Johnny in a tunnel
during Possession. So if you want to see something weird,
if you're like you guys aren't recommending scary stuff, Henry
(48:18):
of Portrait, Henry Portrait of a serial Killer and Possession
would be like a absolutely day ruining double bill. So
if you want that kind of thing, we can deliver
that too.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
My next up is nineteen eighty three's classic from David Cronenberg, Videodrome.
Speaker 3 (48:36):
Oh oh my god, what a pick.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
If you're familiar with Cronenberg and his body horror stylings,
this is a film. This is a film that you
might be familiar with because of the many, many scenes
which have later become memes. Yeah, and gifts that appear
on social media, that appeared on The Daily Show, that
appeared in various other forums. Guys heads exploding things coming
out of their guts. And it's basically what if TV
(49:02):
was bringing stuff from another dimension to inside of you.
It's fantastic. Another wonderful, brilliant performances by James Woods Debbie
Harry in an acting term.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
She's so a.
Speaker 1 (49:15):
Gross, thought provoking horror classic by David Cronenberg video drum.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
Oh man, what a great pick. I've already got what
more space? Oh my gosh, guys, this is so hard.
I could literally just talk about this all day. I
am going to go for Oh my god. Okay, okay,
I'm gonna go for one. I have to include this
because it is like a very big part of my personality.
So even though there are many seminal movies we have
(49:42):
not touched on yet, movies like The Thing or The Hitcher,
go and watch that. It's so fucking scary. It's so scary.
I'm gonna pick in the line of my movies and
I haven't talked about yet. There are b movies that
you can stream now. Nineteen eighty eight. A. Yeah, we
didn't talk about but another great explosion year for horror
Killer Clowns from out of Space.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
Oh, Killer Clowns Around.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
I love this movie.
Speaker 1 (50:06):
Another movie filmed in Santa Cruz, The Santa.
Speaker 3 (50:09):
Deeply important movie for me. I love this movie as
a kid, made by the Chiodo brothers. I actually have
a Killer Clown's fan comic that I made with my
brilliantly talented artist friend Daniel Rude Massa that I basically
am always carrying around in my back pocket, like hege,
you want to make a Kill a Clown's graphic novel?
I love this movie. It's so much fun, and it's
(50:32):
basically about aliens who come from space to Earth and
they their ships look like giant circuses, and they look
like scary clowns, and they have these fantastic practical suits
in case people in cotton candy. I just love this movie.
It's so silly, it's so weird, and I think it
(50:53):
has stood the test of time as like an incredibly
inventive B movie. And they recently made a Killer Clowns
from out Space video game that was very well received.
I am just generally a big fan of Killer Clowns,
so I had to include that one in my list.
That's a totally fun movie. If you haven't seen it, guys,
go watch it now.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Here's my last one. All your B movie vibes, all
your pulp comic book vibes, all your horror comic vibes.
This is the other great horror anthology of the eighties,
again adapting Stephen King's works. It is nineteen eighty two's
creep Show.
Speaker 3 (51:29):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
It is funny, it is gross, it is pulpy. There's
your comic book stuff in there. Each wonderful vignette has
a great moral like, yeah, very like a moral message.
It is a very moral movie.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
Also directed by George A. Ramera, written by Stephen King,
like what can you do? And it's like very easy homage.
Speaker 1 (51:53):
Yes, very easy. Stephen King appears in it in what
I actually think is a quite surprise risingly good performance
acting wise from Stephen King's very over the top, but
I think it works. Nineteen eighty twos creep Show, yea,
and that is the eighties for horror. I feel like
you could just keep doing.
Speaker 3 (52:11):
This because this could be its whole own sub show
for shoal. But this was so good. I'm very excited
to hopefully do more of these debates about best horror
in the decades, because this is really fun.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
On the next couple of episodes of X ray Vision,
we've got episode six of The Penguin. Tuesday, we're diving
into episode seven of Agatha Along and then in extras
on Wednesday, Aaron and Oboo are back with another recap
of episode six and seven of season one of Arcane.
That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening, Bye. X
(52:46):
ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kenspsion and Rosie Knight
and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers
are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer is
a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and Mia Taylor.
Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Laude, Kenny Goodman
and Heidi our discord moderator.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Concepcion
Rosie Knight
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