80's Campy Horror Movies
Why they're awesome and some you should watch
Horror is one of my favorite genres of film that I like to watch. There’s something about this genre that can create some wildly entertaining films. I think about watching Hereditary for the first time and sitting in a pitch black room after and not being able to sleep. I also think of all the types of scary movies that I used to watch as kid and being scared shitless of them. Horror is scary, but I love being scared. Horror is a genre that you can pretty much make anything out of a story even with something completely obscured. However I think while you can do anything with it, it hard to actually get right and I think a lot of movies miss the mark in reaching an idea’s full potential. With that said, when a horror movie has a completely dumb idea, they can still make the movie fun even if it’s not scary. As long as I can stay entertained with it, I will fully accept whatever direction that the movie decides to go. When I do think of these type of horror movies, I think of the wonderful campy movies that so much of the 80’s decided to release.
I think that 80s horror can be considered one of the best and worst times of the horror genre. The 80’s would be the decade of introducing us to the world of slashers and we would get introduced to legendary icons like Jason Vorrhees, Freddy Kruger, Chucky, Pinhead, and many others. We also got some classic hits from this time and that are still looked upon highly with The Shining, The Thing, Possession, Poltergeist, The Evil Dead franchise, and many others. With that said though, we would also be presented with the amount of garbage that was released at the time. Everyone wanted to make a slasher movie and the genre would be filled with a bunch of copycat movies that wanted the same success that the icons had reached at this point. A ton of sequels would be made for these icons as well which would really run down the quality due to how fast they rushed these things out. This is where the campy horror movies would come in and despite there absurd ideas, they would be filled with bad acting, cheesy effects, and way too much nudity. This is what would make some of them iconic. Even if some of these movies wouldn’t do too great at the box office, they would get another chance in life being rented at video stores since this was the era when videos stores would rise and these films wouldn’t be forgotten. These campy horror movies can be so great because you don’t know what you’re going to expect from them. While they can be great, one glaring problem does affect a ton of them.
The problem with these campy horror movies is they can be boring with what they try to do. While they have their clever idea on what to make their film about, the problem comes in with how they actually need to execute it. So what we get with a lot of these movies is a lot of filler in-between the exciting bits of the movie and it makes everything else drag in quality. This is a problem that you can find in a lot of these movies and something that has potential to be really great and funny, doesn’t live to be it’s full potential. However, their are times that the film will pull off all the stops and create something that is unforgettable. These are some of my favorites that you should watch so you can get a nice laugh from it.
Sleepaway Camp (1983):
This is one of this films that falls into the category of being kinda boring throughout as it acts as a basic slasher film, however at the end of the movie, it goes completely 180 and is probably one of the most unexpected endings I’ve ever seen from a horror movie. It has been a source of conversation more than 40 years after releasing due to to the controversial matter of it and I think that’s enough of a reason to watch this movie. It’s also is a prime example of being a cliche horror movie in the 80’s taking place in a camp setting and having a killer murder everyone. But the ending itself makes this thing worth watching.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988):
I love when I read the title of a movie and get exactly what I want out of it. You get a bunch of clowns terrorizing a town which makes this thing super cheesy, but exciting at the same time What makes this work for me is the extremely fun character and set designs that this movie has. You really would’t expect a movie like this to have that here, but it does and makes the movie so much more fun to watch. I have nothing else to say other than you should go watch this cult classic.
Chopping Mall (1986):
I imagine the people that wanted to make this wanted to make a cool sci fi movie with robots going rogue in a mall setting. The problem is they realized they had only 5 bucks and had no idea what the hell they should do. The movie is about killer robots running rampage in a mall and killing these group of young adults that have to stop the robots before they meet their fate. This movie is so fucking bad and absurd that it makes me love it so much. It’s such a dumb idea that I kinda love they manage to make it work. It gets straight to the point of being chaotic which I wish more of these films would take note of. It’s very short in length also so it’s easy to get through. This is one I recommend watching with some friends because it’s hilarious to see the reactions of others that watch it.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986):
It’s not out of the norm for a horror franchise that started scary to really lose its edge on what made it work in the first place. I think of Halloween, Friday the 13th and just about any other horror franchise from that time that has a dozen sequels. However with Texas Chainsaw, this one goes completely out of tone from the last movie and turns into a straight up comedy. There is nothing scary about this movie and for that reason it shouldn’t even work. However somehow, they manage to make it work even with how absurd it is. The over the top nature of the characters translates well here and we do get to see an iconic performance from Dennis Hopper. It’s such a step away from the original that it makes me love that it was able to do something unique and not just be a really bad copy of the first one. If you’re going to watch a sequel based off a iconic face of horror, this is easily one of the best ones that you could watch.
The Slumber Party Massacre (1982):
This is probably the pinnacle of having a campy horror movie that takes advantage of what it’s doing. It has everything that you would expect this type of film to have from its kills, cheesy acting, eating pizza off a corpse, a killer with a drill, and the nudity which is honestly uncomfortable to watch at times. But despite that, you get something that is pretty short in length and takes advantage of the concept that it has in hand. It’s also helped with director and writer Amy Holden Jones in hand and she really does help make this concept that could easily be slapped together super entertaining. This is exactly what I’m looking for when I want to watch a campy horror movie from the 80’s.
As much as I really love watching a great horror movie that gets me scared, I do love at times putting on a campy horror movie just for the laughs. Especially having some friends can make it super fun to watch as they witness the how terrible the movie is while you’re laughing your ass off as you know you’ll probably get choosing a movie privileges taken away. They are really fun to watch and are part of what makes horror unique. Even though it might be hard to get right, I still find it fascinating seeing the ideas that people come up with and how bizarre and batshit some ideas can be. At the end of the day, they are part of this horror history and should be watched even if they are complete shit.