Top 10 1980s Slasher Movies

Though it was a landmark movie, "Halloween" was a 1970s slasher and really started the craze in earnest for the 80s.
(*Descriptions courtesy of IMDB - the place for movie info)

A Nightmare on Elm Street

This Wes Craven movie unsettled more teens than just about any other movie - ever! We thought we were over our fear of sleep when we were kids, but it resurfaced big time with the concept of a serial killer entering our dreams to kill us!

Several people are hunted by a cruel serial killer who kills his victims in their dreams. When the survivors are trying to find the reason for being chosen, the murderer won't lose any chance to kill them as soon as they fall asleep.

Prom Night

This movie just squeaks into the 1980s, being released in 1980. "Prom Night" proved to be a teenaged dream of disco versus deadly. It brought the retribution theme and the killer among us theme into the spotlight for many more movies to come. It also stars our established favorite scream queen, Jamie Lee Curtis.

A masked killer stalks four teenagers, responsible for the accidental death of a little girl six years earlier, at their high school's senior prom.

Friday the 13th

This movie blazed a trail that was highly competitive with "Halloween." In fact, the two movies were so pitted together, we had to see a movie where Michael Myers fought Jason Voorhees. A camp on a lake, a tragedy, a vengeful mother, an undead son....

A group of camp counselors is stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp which, years before, was the site of a child's drowning.

Terror Train

Jamie was busy as hell in 1980 when "The Fog," "Prom Night" and "Terror Train" were released. This movie produced the "teens trapped and being killed off" theme while this party train rambled down the tracks with a vengeful killer from the past on board.

A masked killer targets six college kids responsible for a prank gone wrong three years earlier and who are currently throwing a large New Year's Eve costume party aboard a moving train.

Sleepaway Camp

This 1983 movie threw us for a loop. We thought we knew the killer, possibly, and we thought we knew the motives, maybe, but then this camp showed us that we can't assume anything in slasher movies.

Angela Baker, a traumatized and very shy young girl, is sent to summer camp with her cousin. Shortly after her arrival, anyone with sinister or less than honorable intentions gets their comeuppance.

He Knows You're Alone

Lots of future stars cut their teeth on 1980s slasher movies, Tom Hanks is no exception. In this movie, we took a joyous event and tainted it with killings and unknown motives. Definitely a killer-is-stalker theme.

A young bride-to-be is being stalked upon by a serial killer. She gets help from a former lover, but will they manage to escape?

Chopping Mall

This classic mid 80s slasher movie took on a new kind of killer - high tech (the rage of the 80s) and combined it with the 80s love of malls!

Eight teenagers are trapped after hours in a high tech shopping mall and pursued by three murderous security robots out of control.

Night of the Demons

Teens with too much time on their hands, decide to check out a local legend at a funeral parlor, only to be faced with real evil.

On the night of Halloween, 10 teens decide to go to a party at an abandoned funeral parlor. "Hull House", rumored to be built on an evil patch of land & underground stream, is the place. While starting the party, the teens gather around a big mirror to perform a seance...BIG MISTAKE. They awaken some evil force and find themselves trapped and taken over one by one. Now it's a battle for who can survive and cross over the stream before going to hell....

Hell Night

It's the 1980s and college kids are ready for a hazing in the form of an abandoned mansion, a local legend and being locked in. It was the perfect formula for an actually pretty creepy slasher.

Four college pledges are forced to spend the night in a deserted old mansion where they get killed off one by one by the monstrous surviving members of a family massacre years earlier for trespassing on their living grounds.

The Slumber Party Massacre

Bringing up the titillation score, this movie gave viewers the scantily clad girls having a sleepover combined with the necessary slashing to make it a true hallmark of the 80s genre.

The Basketball team is having a slumber party, but people soon start turning up dead.

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